Good Communication is “For Here”

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw

This sentiment is, for me, at the heart of what plagues most coffee shops and holds us back from being as excellent as we can be in the retail space. In the latest Shift Break we discussed the idea of communication before the performance review as being the key to having a great review. Most of the time we are holding back our communication and the reason tends to be convenience.

We do spend a good deal of time upfront communicating a message to new hires about policies, procedures, information about the company history, the menu etc. But, if we are honest, we do it with the idea lurking somewhere in the back of our head that, if done right, we only need to do it once.

In some ways we engineer our communication more like a to-go cup than a ceramic. The former is designed to be used once and thrown away. The later is designed to be trusted and used again and again.

If we default to random and infrequent communications born from desperation, fire fighting, or special occasions we will tend to also convince ourselves that it is sufficient and we ignore the myriad of opportunities we have on a daily basis to communicate with our staff our feedback, direction, affirmation, vision, and information.

In the Shift Break episode I discussed how nothing in the performance review should be a surprise. You should have been having robust discussions and frequent, substantive talks with your staff all along the way. This gives a sense of stability to you and especially to them. If your culture is built on this, people will begin to extend the same kind of  trust to you and the company that they do in a ceramic mug vs a to-go cup. Ceramic is engineered to be permanent, trusted, dependable, and substantial. A paper  to-go cup only really lasts for 1-2 drinks. It is a convenience product that creates waste and has in-built obsolescence. I can think of no better way to describe how many shops treat communication than that…A waste, lacking substance, built to throw away, and ultimately damaging to sustainability.

My encouragement to you is to take a look at how you currently communicate. Take inventory of the what, when, where, when, and who. If you are like most busy business owners, it may look pretty random and rough. That’s ok. The first step is to look at it in the clear light or reality. The next step is to create a dependable, substantive, and regular system for your communication that in turn creates a culture built on clear expectations and trust.

Good communication should always be “For here”.

-Chris

Listen to the latest Shift Break and related episodes on communication:

If you want the truly level-up your batch brew then you absolutely need to check out the Ground Control Cyclops Brewer ! Please visit our friends over at: www.vogacoffee.com for more information

You can contact me at : Chris@keystotheshop.com