Career: Closed Loop Communication

Closed loop communication

In the last few months we have talked about the value of good communication and how we have to practice a consistent, closed loop communication to make sure that our communication has the desired effect. I have personally talked about different forms of communication and how to improve upon communication.

A note before we start, good communication is like a good habit, once you get used to it, it becomes second nature. So go on and give some of these a shot.

1. The target: Remember when you are communicating with anyone please make sure that depending on the audience, the content and the style of communication changes. But the basic premise and structure remains the same. The usual people that we talk to at VA are: Customers, Individual, Management, Team (CIMT).

2. Purpose: What is the purpose of your communication? What do you hope to achieve?

3. Closed loop communication: This is a process where you respond to every communication in a way that will make the person that initiates the communication to acknowledge in a yes or a no.

4. Process: If someone sends a request on email/task/phone for a certain job to be done to you. Please make sure that you send me a response back saying that I have read it and will respond back to it today (or whenever you are going to do it). If it is something that you are promising to do everyday or every week, please make sure that you send a response out when you were not able to do it, telling the other person that you were not able to make it and you will take care of it at a certain other time. Ask if this is okay. You should again hear back a 'yes' or a 'no' as a response. This acknowledgement is critical.

Example: The first time I encountered closed loop communication was when I had an email exchange with a friend on some help that I wanted from him.

   1.  I sent this request over an email.

2. Within three minutes of sending the email I got an email telling me that he will take a look at the email and get back to me.
3. Within the next 24 hours I got an email on when he will complete the task.
4. The next day I got an email from him saying that he was going to be delayed by a day since something urgent and important had come up that would push this task out by a day. He asked me if I was fine with it. I responded that I was fine with it.
5. On the second day he kept me updated on the progress with a one line email saying "Things looking good, I am on the job. Right now I have finished the first half of it".
6. Then at 3:00PM on the third day (On the day when he had agreed to finish the job for me) he sent me an email telling me how he had completed the request and a full transcript of the proof of when he had closed this out.

I felt so great about this entire experience, that many years later when I was looking for a partner for the company I started I knew that I would request him to work with me. As you can tell this was one of the reasons for me looking out to work with him was the great experience that I had with his communication style.

There are many other areas where closed loop communication can be followed: I am looking for the management team to complete these sections below in the days to come.

1.       Action items:

2.       Follow up:

3.       Consistency and discipline:

4.       Brevity:

5.       Active vs. passive listening

6.       Passive aggression:

7.       Well left:

8.       Seek first to understand: Then to be understood

9.       Silence is stupid:

10.   Interrupting is disrespectful:

11.   High context vs. Low context communication:

12.   Smile: Even when you are on the phone. You can feel if a person is smiling. It is very important.

The modes of communication:

1.       1-1:

2.       Phone:

3.       Emails:

4.       Team (Huddle):

5.       Team (Presentation):

6.       Management (Reports): When generating: Make sure that everything is actionable. Make sure that they all report into the company KRA or metrics.

Reach them before they reach you:

Beyond what we have talked about there is one fundamental truth about communication that is true everywhere in the world, across regions, and languages. “If someone follows up with you for the status of any work that you are doing, you are NEVER going to have a good response”. On the other hand if you reach out and tell them proactively you can literally get away with anything! You don’t agree or believe me? Just look at the example listed below:

Conventional conversation:

John “Sam, I want you to please take project ‘X’ and complete it by Jan/15/2012”

Sam “ok. Will do”

Five days into the project Sam runs into heavy weather and knows the project is going to be delayed. But he is afraid that John is going to go ballistic and does not tell John hoping that things will get in the next two days. Then by the 7^th day he is trouble. He pushes out reaching out John for another day. By then John is concerned and follows up with Sam to find out how things are going. Sam says “Sorry for not keeping you posted. We are going to be delayed.”

To this John says, “Do you have a back-up plan? How many more days is it going to take? What am I supposed to tell my customers?”

Sam does not know the answers to this and says “I am not sure we will have to wait and see”.

This is John blows up and Sam starts to believe that John is a very bad person and John believes that Sam is a bad manager.

Eventually Sam does some magic and pulls the team together and with great effort gets the job done on time. But by then there is a lot of bad blood between the two people.

Reach out conversation:

John “Sam, I want you to please take project ‘X’ and complete it by Jan/15/2012”

Sam “ok. Will do”

Every-day at 6:00PM Sam updates his dashboard and reports to John what is happening with a link to the dashboard. On the third day he get a note back from John that says, “Don’t bother sending the email. I will review the dashboard”

On the fifth day Sam runs into heavy weather and knows the project is going to be delayed. Instead of hiding the information he updates the dashboard stating “Run into heavy weather. I have a plan to pull the project back on track in three days. No action required as yet from your end. Will keep you posted”.

Sam keeps John posted every day. By the 7^th days since he is still in trouble turns the project to Red on the dashboard and before John can check it calls him on the phone to let him know that he is having some issues and wants some help from John in managing expectations with the customer. John is concerned but understand and does his bit. Sam as in the previous case pushes does his magic and pulls the team together and with great effort gets the job done on time. All along he keeps John posted on the efforts and the progress.

End of the project John sends a letter to Sam’s manager that reads something like this “I cannot thank Sam and your team for going above and beyond their call of duty and taking care of the project in a timely manner even through there things beyond your control. We really like the way you work and want to award you the next phase of the project with time factored for such anomalies. Thanks again. Appreciate all the hard work.”

What was the difference in the two scenarios? Nothing at all!!!! It is just that Sam communicated better in the second case. He reached out before the checked back on the progress. This is the critical differentiator. 

About the Author

As the founder of Vantage Agora (VA), Harsha has been instrumental in the growth of the company since its inception. Harsha has over 20+ years of experience in consulting, Enterprise Social Networking, Business Intelligence,  and Process improvement. His work with companies such as Fidelity, American Airlines, I2 Technologies, etc, has made him an Expert in Business intelligence and Process improvement. 

Harsha has developed a patent pending 'Enterprise Social Network – VA Club', Harsha also has 4 process improvement patents.

Harsha graduated MBA from southern Methodist University (SMU) Dallas, a masters in Computer Science from Louisiana State University (LSU) Baton Rouge, and a Bachelors in Engineering from Bangalore University (BU).

About Vantage Agora

Vantage Agora (VA) is a global provider of back-office solutions, custom IT services and consulting services for companies in the insurance, finance, and healthcare sectors. As a SSAE 16 Type II audited company, Vantage Agora utilizes advanced data processing and quality control systems on a secured network to ensure efficient, comprehensive management of back-office functions such as insurance, accounting, financial and administrative tasks. Founded in 2004, Vantage Agora has offices in Cleveland and Dallas.

Know more about Harsha and Vantage Agora.