Page 182 - The Voice of Authority

that she call their parent company—the brokerage com-
pany (the people she first called). Back to square one.
Lack of cross-functional communication within organ-
izations is eventually exposed to the outside world: to cus-
tomers, to suppliers, and to strategic partners. And it
drives them nuts––if not out of business. Companies also
lose employees because people don’t talk to each other. Pe-
riod. It’s that simple. And that complex.
So what’s circular communication? Communication
going in all directions. Up the chain. Down the chain.
Across departmental lines. From the day shift to the night
shift. Feedback from the boss to the staff and vice versa.
Conversation with customers. Feedback from customers.
Customers talking to other customers.
For the most part, such communication doesn’t just
happen. At least, not routinely.
I still remember this nightmare from 20 years ago. In
fact, I was so perturbed I wrote an Op-Ed piece (excerpted
portion below) published in the Houston Chronicle at the
height of the oil crunch, rising inflation, and 18 percent
mortgage rates. It served as my explanation about why or-
ganizations lose money and customers. It’s as true today
as it was two decades ago.

. . . We buy the house of our dreams and pull out the
home-furnishings catalogs. Custom window cover-
ings arrive from Department Store X. The master
bedroom woven-wood is two inches too short and
two inches too narrow. Someone didn’t measure or
record the dimensions correctly. Excuse offered: “I
guess they didn’t communicate the fact that they
should come to the bottom of the windowsill.” We
send them back to the factory and reorder.

170 The Voice of Authority