Communication

IT’S WHY YOUR DAY RUNS FLAWLESS AND IT’S WHY YOUR DAY CAN BE A DISASTER

The sharing of information passed from one person to another would appear to be easy.
And yet more times than not something is going to get misconstrued and we wonder why. There are a variety of reasons why this happens. If it occurs more than you’d like it to then let’s see if we can figure out which one of these puzzling concepts sound familiar.
Communication comes in a few varieties and I’ll use the food and beverage industry as examples but this content goes across the board to all industries.

Lack of communication is when information is not completely provided or worse yet, when the information isn’t provided at all. It either can have an effect that’s irritating or it can have a serious life or death consequence.
​Either way it’s preventable when proper two-way communication is exercised.
Example – Sally takes an order for ten people and eight of them ordered their favorite
sweet potato fries. The kitchen never told anyone they were out of them.
Sally not only needs to go back and rectify that order but a few of the people are disappointed.
Reordering needs to happen fast and Sally has three other tables waiting for her to take their order.
Can we guess how the remainder of Sally’s shift may go?

Miscommunication is when the information is delivered incorrectly or received incorrectly. Bits of information expressed sometimes slip between the cracks. And sometimes that sender is accurate but the receiver fails to get it correct. The clarity of the message sent is just as important as making sure the receiver is actively listening.
Example – A member orders a vodka on the rocks with a splash of soda. The server didn’t repeat back the order, heard incorrectly and brought vodka on the rocks and a separate glass of soda water. Yep, another trip to a very busy bar to correct the order. As usual, other tables are patiently waiting to order.

Too Much Communication – is when the vital information gets lost in the sea of too much talking, too many unnecessary words (a sure case of logorrhea, my word of the day).
Instead of the receiver asking for clarity he/she must invent what makes sense of it all.
This is never a good thing and can have damaging results.
Example – A server is attempting to deliver an order for another server and asks where it needs to go. The directions are so vague and masked by an enormous amount of words that not only was much time wasted but the order was delivered to the wrong table; cold food and a return to the kitchen.

Non-Verbal Communication – is my most favorite type of communication and it’s the largest percentage of communication! Wouldn’t you think we’d pay better attention to this one?
Case in point, how does a manager expect employees to be effective, happy workers
when they see their manager has a slumped posture, doesn’t show up for work on time,
has zero eye contact, chews gum like a cow with cud and consistently
wears facial expressions of contempt or distress?
Another example – A bartender is being trained and the trainer (who has seniority) has an appalling attitude, speeds through the side work inadequately, talks down to the servers and hangs on the bar
​with feet on the rail. We all know that one coworker with seniority filled with entitlements
(that’s a loaded subject all by itself!!).
We need to be careful who’s conducting our training and what monsters we create.
Communication is the key ingredient in every relationship and in everything we do.