In the business world, communication has it’s own currency. The fact that what someone says carries weight means that a lot of trust is involved. And that actually makes perfect sense when you think about how much money is floating around. That could be increased or lost at the drop of a hat if employees and companies are not communicating with each other properly.

However communication problems within a company are a different kettle of fish when compared to across industries. A business that does not have a practice or a culture that supports employees of all backgrounds and talents to talk to each other, will surely fail in the end.  

This used to be somewhat the norm in the 80s and 90s as it was corporate culture for employees from different departments to keep chatter to a minimum. Now we realize that actually, ideas can be swapped and improved when people from their different but respective departments engage in debate with each other.

Don’t be afraid of dissent

What gets people talking is knowing that their opinions will be valued. In your business, you should have a weekly or a fortnightly meeting in which different employees from their departments can engage in debate. This doesn’t have to be a long meeting that takes up too much time in the morning but definitely held during the week. Don’t be afraid of their dissent with an idea or a strategy that you’re implementing now because they’re not trying to destroy it but improve it.

Come up with a topic that you believe should be talked about such as the type of software you use to get work done. Some employees will have knowledge of programs they think are better and others will make the case for the current system. This gets people thinking into what kind of features about the software they use they really like, therefore this debate may actually help you decide how best to implement their skills in the future.

Sharing in real-time

Different departments sharing work is nothing new, but in the modern world different departments have to share work in order to get it done. Once upon a time departments simply worked in stages, where one would complete stage 3 and the other stage 4 of a project. There was little communication and back and forth as it was simply a waiting game for the fellow colleagues to finish their job. Now, with facilities such as  4d-dc.com available to businesses, employees are able to access data in real-time, without having to wait for a colleague to finish a task.

However now with cloud storage system such as those on www.xbase.com, you can share work in real-time. If you have a clothing design that requires a graphic then the design department can put it on while the marketing department come up with pitches to sell it. Because of the cloud storage system, a marketing team can be sat in a room discussing strategies and have new products given to them to discuss in real-time.

Keeping employees on the same page keeps everyone informed and trying to achieve the same goals. Using modern technology such as cloud systems, departments can literally update each other in a matter of seconds and keep the ball rolling throughout the day.