Your Teams Aren’t Broken - Your Communication Infrastructure Is

Think your team's struggles are personal or skill-based? Think again. The real culprit is often poor communication systems, not the people. Misaligned messages, organisational silos, and unclear goals create chaos, not collaboration.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Common Issues: Jargon, remote work miscommunication, rapid changes, and silos.
• Impact: Low morale, wasted time, and reduced team efficiency.
• Fixes:
  • Simplify communication tools.
  • Create clear message guidelines.
  • Use stories to align and inspire teams.

Key takeaway: Solving communication problems isn't about changing people - it's about fixing the systems that support them.

How to Fix Communication Failures Before They Break Your ...

Warning Signs of Poor Communication Systems

As mentioned earlier, challenges in communication often stem from structural issues within an organisation, not the inadequacy of its teams. Spotting these problems early can help avoid larger performance setbacks.

What Poor Communication Looks Like

Ineffective communication often shows up as vague or unclear messages from leadership. When instructions lack clarity, employees may feel frustrated or disengaged, which can lead to delayed responses and confusion about priorities. This ripple effect disrupts collaboration and hampers overall organisational efficiency.

How Poor Communication Impacts Work

When communication systems break down, the consequences can be severe for both productivity and morale.

Workplace behaviour expert Gleb Tsipursky, referred to by The New York Times as the "Office Whisperer" and a "Hybrid Expert", has studied these effects extensively. His findings highlight how communication failures, especially in hybrid work settings, can damage key areas:

1. Leadership Effectiveness
   Confusing messages from leaders can blur team objectives, weakening their ability to guide and inspire.
2. Operational Efficiency
   Teams often waste valuable time clarifying unclear instructions. This not only delays decisions but also increases errors, reduces output, and drives up costs.
3. Team Cohesion
   Miscommunication can lead to misunderstandings and fractures within teams, especially in hybrid environments. This stress and confusion can lower morale, hinder collaboration, and even push employees to leave.

Recognising these warning signs is crucial to improving your organisation's communication framework.

Finding and Fixing Communication Problems

Check Your Current Message Flow

Understanding how information moves within your organisation is key to identifying where communication breaks down.

"If people don't know what the organization is doing and where it is going, it is hard to make sense of any other communication messages. Getting clarity and understanding here is critical to all the rest of your communication efforts."

To map out how messages flow, focus on these areas:

This type of review can uncover clear bottlenecks. For instance, one organisation resolved conflicting communication by introducing fortnightly one-to-one meetings between managers. This helped align priorities and provided clearer guidance for employees working across multiple teams.

Where to Make Changes First

Start by addressing core communication systems that directly impact daily operations:

• System Consolidation: Reduce confusion by limiting the number of tools used for the same purpose. One organisation improved efficiency by cutting down from 65 internal IT systems to just a few.
• Visibility Improvement: Use a single tool to track work. This ensures accountability, makes progress easy to monitor, and helps spot bottlenecks quickly.
• Strengthen Relationships: Poor connections between teams, departments, and leadership can lead to confusion and lower trust. Focus on building stronger ties to improve engagement.

When rolling out changes, keep the language simple and use visuals to explain updates. Regular check-ins and tracking progress will ensure the communication system continues to improve.

Making Messages Clear and Teams Aligned

Set Clear Message Rules

Creating clear communication guidelines helps streamline verbal and written exchanges while promoting a safe and open environment for team interactions.

"Communication guidelines aim to enable effective communication across functions, levels of experience, age, hierarchy, and more. They help your team gain a common understanding of the do's and don'ts of effective communication and can foster constructive, safe conflict resolution."
– Antonia Landi, Author

Here’s how you can structure these guidelines to improve communication across departments:

Once these guidelines are in place, the next step is adopting tools that align with and support these standards.

Pick the Right Communication Tools

Clear communication rules are only part of the equation. The tools you choose play a big role in building a productive and connected team.

Platforms like Slack and Miro can significantly enhance both text-based and visual collaboration. For example, Slack users report a 47% boost in productivity and save 97 minutes weekly thanks to its AI features. Meanwhile, Miro, trusted by over 250,000 companies, improves visual collaboration and keeps teams aligned.

Here’s what these tools can offer:

• Visual Alignment: Use visual canvases to map processes, track ideas, and monitor progress.
• System Integration: With over 160 integrations, these tools connect seamlessly with project management, task tracking, and data visualisation systems.
• Real-time Collaboration: Enable simultaneous work on shared canvases, which is especially useful for remote or hybrid teams.

To make the most of these tools:

• Centralise updates and workflows within the chosen platform.
• Offer comprehensive onboarding for new team members to ensure smooth adoption.
• Regularly review and adjust tool configurations based on team feedback.
• Define clear rules for how and when to use each tool for communication.

Using Stories to Build Better Teams

When clear systems are combined with impactful stories, teams not only understand organisational goals but also feel genuinely connected to them.

Stories Make Messages Stick

Stories engage both logic and emotion, making them an effective tool for aligning teams. Research shows that storytelling activates both the logical and emotional areas of the brain, helping messages resonate more deeply.

"Facts in context told with feeling." - Shawn Callahan, Anecdote International

Daniel Kahneman explains this further: "you will never speak to the logic of the neo-cortex unless you placate the 'emotional gatekeepers' of the limbic system". This highlights why storytelling is a key component of effective communication.

Here’s how different types of stories can address specific communication needs:

Incorporating these storytelling approaches into leadership communication can strengthen team alignment and engagement.

Add Stories to Your Leadership

Using stories effectively in leadership requires thoughtful planning. According to Team Duarte, sharing the right story at the right moment can create stronger connections and inspire better performance.

Take this example: An executive wanted to motivate her struggling sales team by sharing her personal success story. However, she realised this might feel out of touch with their current challenges. Instead, she highlighted a story about a team member who had improved performance through specific actions like better client research and targeted account planning. This approach worked because it demonstrated empathy and provided actionable steps.

To make storytelling a key part of your leadership:

• Match stories to your team's current mood
  Choose stories that reflect your team’s state of mind. For instance, share confidence-boosting stories during uncertain times or challenge stories when complacency arises.
• Make your team the heroes
  Put team members at the centre of your stories. As Team Duarte notes, "If your struggling team members can see or feel themselves in the stories you tell, they'll relate more to you as a mentor – and be more motivated to apply the learning from your story".
• Provide actionable lessons
  Every story should offer clear takeaways that teams can apply immediately.

These storytelling techniques help bridge the gap between systems and human connection, creating a more engaging and effective communication approach.

Conclusion: Better Systems Make Better Teams

When teams face challenges, it’s easy to point fingers at interpersonal issues or individual weaknesses. But more often than not, the real problem lies in flawed communication systems, not flawed people.

To fix this, the focus should shift to building better communication structures. Start with a communication audit to identify gaps. From there, prioritise setting up clear channels, simplifying language, and ensuring documentation is easy to access for everyone - whether they’re in the office or working remotely.

Here’s how you can improve communication systems effectively:

Improving communication isn’t just a leadership responsibility - it’s a core strategy that drives team success. By investing in better systems, you create an environment where collaboration and alignment happen naturally. Teams don’t need to change; the right infrastructure empowers them to thrive.

The next challenge? Maintaining and building on these improvements. When communication flows seamlessly, teams perform better - not because they’ve changed, but because the systems now enable their success.

FAQs

How can organisations determine if poor communication systems are causing inefficiencies within their teams?

To identify if communication systems are behind team inefficiencies, organisations can start by conducting a communication audit. This involves setting clear objectives, reviewing communication channels, collecting feedback through surveys or interviews, and analysing patterns to uncover gaps or bottlenecks.

Pay attention to how effectively tools and processes support collaboration, clarity, and alignment. If miscommunication frequently disrupts projects or team dynamics, it’s a strong indicator that the communication infrastructure needs improvement. Addressing these gaps can significantly enhance productivity and connection across teams.

How can we improve communication in a hybrid work environment?

Improving communication in a hybrid work environment requires clear expectations, accessible information, and open collaboration. Start by setting clear guidelines for communication tools and platforms to minimise confusion. Create a centralised hub where team members can easily find project goals, responsibilities, deadlines, and key updates.

Ensure all decisions, meeting notes, and project statuses are stored in an accessible digital location with clear organisation. Regularly schedule debriefs to confirm understanding of announcements and address any questions. Finally, foster a culture of open feedback, where team members feel comfortable sharing challenges and collaboratively finding solutions.

How can storytelling help improve team alignment, and what practical steps can leaders take to use it effectively?

Storytelling is a powerful way to improve team alignment because it creates a shared narrative that brings people together, even when they have different viewpoints. A well-crafted story helps teams understand their purpose and role within the bigger picture, fostering a sense of unity and direction.

Leaders can use storytelling effectively by creating narratives that position team members as active contributors or heroes in the organisation's journey. To make this work, focus on clear and consistent communication, set expectations early, and ensure information is easily accessible. Regular check-ins and debriefs can also help teams stay aligned and engaged while reinforcing the shared story.

Related posts

• When Team Communication Breaks Down
• What stops communication in organisations (And how can leaders avoid pitfalls)
• The Hidden Cost of Being Misunderstood as a Leader
• Why You Feel Misunderstood Even When You’re Speaking Clearly