Submitted by Spoelker on
in
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I am a middle manager in department of about 150 IT employees. The perception is that internal communication is dismal - top managers don't talk to each other, there is no interaction between sections on common problems, and a definite lack of top down communication. The effect of this lack of communication is telling - super low morale, departures, etc.
My role in the department is administrative (I count beans and process papers) so I'm perceived as an outsider to the IT department. Everyone seems to be content with the current environment or is waiting for someone else to provide a miracle cure to our communications problems.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to jumpstart/revive internal communications to at least the cordial stage.
Thanx in advance
How to improve departmental communication
Hi
Have you listened to http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/11/jump-starting-internal-customer-rel... yet? It may be that it isn't directly applicable if you are administration staff, but I usually find enough inspiration in Mark's cast to help me even if it's not directly applicable!
I hope that helps, Wendii
How to improve departmental communication
Do you mean internal within IT itself?
We suffered with this in a department of just 11! It took some doing (as I'm not a manager with authority, I have to negotiate and influence my way to making change) but we now have a full team meeting every fortnight to provide a forum for communication. Personally I'd like it to be slightly shorter and each week as sometimes there is still a lot of 'overhearing' something that has an impact on what you are doing only noone thought to say directly.
Do the IT team leaders have their own meetings and pass things down to their own team meetings?
Do you have an IT only intranet forum/noticeboard that people use?
As your role is admin, why not take the initiative and talk to various people about what progress they are making in projects, what they have achieved the previous week - then publish a weekly newsletter via e-mail highlighting what is going on for everyone? It doesn't have to be long. After awhile, people will start coming to you with the news instead of you having to drag it out of people.
Good luck :)