Creating a Common Language

Changing the corporate culture begins with changing the communication.“It’s the conversations we’re not having that breaks down the teams,” Tamara McCulloch, director of business development for APLS Group located in Raleigh, North Carolina stated during our discussion on developing a common language among your team.

Establishing a common language among your team in an environment where there is a constant change of dynamics can prove difficult. Personality and job fit assessments are valuable tools that can help position your team for success in creating a common language.  McCulloch recommends starting this process by considering the following questions:

• What are you seeing happening within your team and organization?
• What areas do you want to develop?

It is important to consider these questions and identify your company’s needs prior to selecting an assessment, reason being the different types of assessments are based upon needs.

Personality and job fit assessments can assist in identifying if you truly have a diverse, well-rounded team. For example you may come to find out your team doesn’t include the natural project manager, the data analyst or the influencer. Establish a goal to “balance out your team and then continue to support them,” commented McCulloch.

McCulloch explained how several of these personality and job fit assessments can help develop a common language among your team.

• Everything DiSC® identifies individual strengths and points of frustrations (P.S. it’s okay to be frustrated). It can also help with better communication, empathy, and identifying the right role within the role. For example, is the individual tempered? Should they be in customer service?

• WorkFORCE® is used to understand priorities within an environment when there is a constant change of dynamics. It measures six behavioral competencies associated with critical factors of workplace success.

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) identifies ways in which individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.

The next step in creating a common language is concentrating on:

• Respect building
• Trust building
• Identifying that one way is not necessarily better than another
• Priorities
• Responding to various situations

“The goal is to build a level of trust and respect. Trust established before you have to talk about something uncomfortable,” added McCulloch.

The time is now to begin dialogue in creating a common language among your organization. And if you’re not a communication guru, consider bringing in an outside expert. After all, we are talking about the success of your company.

 

About APLS Group

APLS Group is a training and consulting firm that specializes in facilitating individuals, groups, and organizations toward better solutions for increased effectiveness. Through corporate training opportunities, leadership development, and team building, their team of business coaching consultants is committed to providing strategies for development that are relevant, engaging, and productive.

Let’s meet and plan a corporate day of communication building at WinMock.