Talking their language By Jocelyn Ryder-Smith Introduction Good communication is crucial for effective team working. A failure to understand and value personal differences in style and approach often blocks good communication and leads to unnecessary team conflict. The article recognises we all use all the ways of working but have preferences among them. Understanding and working with these differences enables better communication and better decisions.
Effective teams are good at communicating with each other.
A common cause of this kind of breakdown is that we don't properly understand where and how we differ, and then difference becomes a stumbling block. Things improve significantly when we understand and value difference. There are well-tried and tested ways to help us do this, and teams benefit enormously from development work which explains difference and shows how we can use it for better conversations and better outcomes. This article offers a basic guide to understanding some aspects of personality differences in a constructive way. People have different and recognised ways they prefer to take in information and make decisions.