Five steps to excellent communication on the job.

How can paper companies develop a more effective "soft skills" training program? The first step is to examine internal communications.

Communication is vital to the forest products industry--and not just because people still write (or at least print) on paper. To convince the best of the best graduates to join this industry instead of the newer, higher-tech, "sexier" fields, recruitment people must know how to explain and inspire and answer questions. To sell one company's paper over that of another firm, sales representatives must know how to present, persuade, respond, and bring about closure. To supervise a team of older, experienced operators, a young engineer must know how to manage, listen, instruct, and explain, all with respect. And the list goes on and on. A paper company that ignores the skill of effective communication does so at its peril in today's world.

COMMUNICATION ON THE JOB IS TOUGH

The principles of effective communication are fairly clear and straightforward. Most participants do well in their writing and speaking courses. Learning these principles is not the problem, but practicing them under pressure on the job is a different matter altogether.

For example, a participant in a writing class learns to establish the purpose of writing, perform a reader needs analysis, and plan the structure of the piece. This he or she does very well in class. It's a different matter when the same person is late, overburdened, angry, and tempted just to dash off an irritated e-mail!

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Similarly, the student in a class on effective meeting skills learns and accepts certain foundations of running a good meeting. These include preparing an agenda, sending it around before the meeting, keeping people to the assigned time limits, demanding that everyone maintain a tone of respect, and ensuring that the meeting conclude with clear action items. It is not so easy to practice these principles at work, when one is under time pressure, overburdened with responsibilities, and facing a group of unwilling, uncooperative, uninterested, and perhaps downright hostile people.

Effective communication on the job is extraordinarily difficult. How can paper companies ensure that it happens?

TRAINING ALONE WON'T DO THE JOB

No matter how great the program, how charismatic or inspiring the teacher--it will not be enough. I have been teaching courses to corporations, associations, and government departments for more than 20 years. I can assure you that without a companywide commitment to excellence in communication, simply bringing in a consultant to train your people in soft skills--writing, presentation skills, on-the-job communication, negotiation, supervisory skills, time management, meeting skills, teamwork, and so on--is a waste of the company's money and the participants' time.

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Think about it for a minute. I come into your company to give you a day or a week of training in communication skills. If I am there for a week, I may cover writing, presentation skills, and some on-the-job communication. Probably I will teach you to do something different from your current practices. For effective writing, I will suggest that you follow a three-step method instead of the unstructured approach you use now. For presentations, I will tell you to undertake a fairly rigorous audience analysis before you begin making your notes. For difficult conversations with hostile people, I will give you a template to plan your side of the discourse.

All this requires work on your part! You will have to change your habits every day, not just in the classroom, because you write and speak every day. Do you know how much effort that demands? You will have to perform these daily routines differently, in addition to all the other pressures of work, schedules, and sudden crises.

You are a human being, not a computer. This means you get tired! When exhaustion sets in, which task will you set aside? Your work, the unscheduled meeting with your boss or your client, the fire you have to put out--or developing your new writing and speaking skills? Three guesses; the first two don't count.

Training works only if participants in the training program significantly and permanently improve those skills in real life on the job--not just in the classroom. But changing habits and attitudes and working hard to develop a skill require steady, daily effort and time. People will not take on this extra work unless they are convinced that doing so will help them thrive in that organization. It is that simple.

This is what is missing in corporations today. People who are trained in "the soft skills" are not really rewarded for their improvements. Effective communication is not a clear part of everyone's job requirements. Members of top management regularly call for higher profits, steady ROI, and ever-increasing productivity. Yet they don't always reflect on the fact that most members of their professional staff spend the greatest part of their workdays engaged in soft-skills activities--writing memos and e-mails, chairing or attending meetings, working out problems with clients and suppliers, dealing with interpersonal conflicts and "turf wars," supervising groups, working on teams, organizing tasks and schedules, and giving informal or formal presentations. If this is how most employees spend the bulk of their time, energy, and productive ability, surely they should learn how to do these things well. They will--but only if management rewards them for doing so.

To develop an effective soft-skills training program, paper companies must make a commitment to a five-step process. Here it is.

FIVE STEPS TO EFFECTIVE SOFT-SKILLS TRAINING

1. Commit: Establish and live by a culture of excellence in communication.

People devote time and effort first to the necessary and only later, if at all, to discretionary activities. Therefore, management must convince employees that soft skills matter and that to thrive in that company, employees must excel in communication on the job.

To do this, management must commit to a stated and practiced policy of excellent communication. In other words, managers must not only demand that others communicate well; they must accept accountability for doing so themselves. Indeed, they should agree to set the tone for the type of communication they want to see practiced in the company.

Without this stated commitment to excellence in communication by management, sporadic courses in writing and speaking skills are simply a waste of time and money, because effective communication is not a one-time job. On the contrary, course participants must work on maintaining and improving their communication skills long after the trainer has left or the program is over. They will do this only if they see this effort as necessary, not discretionary.

2. Quantify: Make the policy of excellence meaningful, workable, and specific.

Once management has defined excellence in communication as a priority in the company, it must clarify what this means. A vague statement of commitment to excellence will receive nods, yawns, and inattention, whereas overly detailed guidelines will produce fear and resentment at more micro-management. To make this an acceptable company-wide policy, let it grow out of company concerns. Tell all employees that they will help develop a company policy on communication by submitting their ideas, anonymously. One simple way is to ask them to answer two questions:

a. What do you see as the greatest problem(s) in communication at work?

b. In which areas of communication would you like to get extra training or coaching? (A list of communication areas follows.)

One company developed this policy statement:

We are committed to excellence in communication in all areas of our work. Specifically, as a company, we have agreed on the following goals.

1. We will always treat each other with respect, whether or not we agree with each other.

2. We will listen at least as much as we talk.

3. Our written and oral communications will be clear, focused, and correct.

4. Our meetings will be short, structured, and courteous.

Other goals may be added, if we find them useful or necessary.

3. Train: Before agreeing to any training program, management should sit down with the trainer to establish specific, long-term goals, based on the statement of excellence. Together, they should then arrange for several types of training:

1. Training in the areas highlighted by the company survey.

2. Train-the-trainer programs in these areas, so that the company can continue in-house follow-up.

3. Remedial training in English grammar, if necessary.

4. One-on-one coaching, if necessary.

Managers must attend the initial training sessions--as participants, not observers. Only in this way will they transmit the message that the company or group is committed to excellence in communication and that everyone is determined to improve.

4. Follow up: The principles of effective communication are not hard to understand. They are hard to practice! They require thought, impulse control, selflessness, planning, structure, and a reining in of the ego--and more. People who have performed well in class can very easily slip back into impulsive, destructive, egocentric, panic-driven behavior once they are back on the job.

Hence, for any program in communication to work, long-term follow-up is essential. You can arrange for the trainers to come back for a refresher course every six months, or you can do one in-house, using the people trained in the train-the-trainer sessions. Good courses in writing and presentation skills incorporate individual follow-up programs as part of the proposal. The point is, one way or another, you must revisit the principles of effective communication with your people at least every six months.

5. Reward: Effective communication is hard work. It's harder than most of the "hard skills" your people learn! To solve an intricate computational or scheduling problem, you rarely have to deal with ego, self-worth, insecurity, anger, resentment, confusion, and terror all at once. Yet those are exactly the forces that we fight in trying to communicate well with one another. With all this going on, people must feel it's worth taking on the fight.

Reward good communication. Make it clear that performance reviews will powerfully reflect good teamwork, one-on-one communication, supervision, meeting skills, and writing and presentations. Encourage people to spread the word about each other's successes in communication--and let them know that doing so will reflect well on them, too.

CONCLUSION

An effective program of training in the soft skills demands commitment--not just from the participants in the program but also from the management team. Management must espouse communication as an essential component of good business.

Members of top management must agree to abide by the principles of excellent communication that they have enunciated to the staff--and to be called to account if they fail to do so. Only then will the paper industry reap the benefits of an enthusiastic, hard-working, inspired workforce that is enjoying working together for the common good.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Cheryl Reimold has been teaching communication skills to engineers, scientists, and businesspeople for more than 20 years. Her latest book, The Short Road to Great Presentations (Wiley, 2003), is available in bookstores and from Amazon.com. Her consulting firm, PERC Communications (telephone [phone], e-mail [e-mail]), offers businesses consulting and writing services, as well as customized in-house courses on writing, presentation skills, and on-the-job communication skills. Visit her website at www.allaboutcommunication.com.

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CHERYL REIMOLD, SOLUTIONS! MAGAZINE EDITORIAL BOARD

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

* Why communications is vital to the forest products industry.

* Why training alone will not do the job.

* The five steps to effective soft skills training.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

* "The Shift B Newsletter," by Cheryl Reimold, Solutions!, October 2005. To access this article, type in the following product code in the search field on www.tappi.org: 05OCTSO35 Or call TAPPI Member Connection at 1 800 332-8686 (US); 1 800 446-9431 (Canada); [phone] (International).

* "To communicate, be the actor behind the role," Cheryl Reimold and Peter Reimold, TAPPI JOURNAL, November 1998. Product Code: 98NOV276.