Further Resources

How to Improve Communication Techniques for Better Conversations

The photocopier broke down again yesterday, and I'm standing there with Janet from accounts, watching smoke pour out of the thing like it's auditioning for a disaster movie. "Well," she says, deadpan as anything, "at least we know it's not the communication that's broken around here."

She was being sarcastic, obviously. Because the communication in our office is absolutely stuffed.

I've been training people in workplace communication for seventeen years now, and I'll tell you something that might surprise you: most communication problems aren't actually about communication at all. They're about people being too bloody polite to say what they really mean. We've created this corporate culture where everyone talks like they're walking on eggshells, and then we wonder why nothing gets done properly.

The Politeness Trap That's Killing Your Workplace

Here's what I mean. Someone sends an email that says "I was wondering if you might possibly consider perhaps looking into the feasibility of maybe getting those reports to me when you have a moment?" What they actually mean is "I need those reports by Thursday or the client presentation is screwed."

But we can't say that, can we? Because someone, somewhere, decided that direct communication is rude.

Bollocks to that.

The best communicators I know – and I'm talking about people who get results, who build teams, who actually make things happen – they're direct. Not rude. Direct. There's a massive difference, and if you can't tell the difference, you need to work on your listening skills before you worry about your talking skills.

I was working with a construction company in Perth last year, and the site foreman there was brilliant at this. Bloke called Tony. When something wasn't right, he'd say "That's not up to standard, mate. Here's what we need to fix it." No dancing around. No passive-aggressive nonsense. Just clear, respectful communication that got things sorted.

Why Your Open-Door Policy Isn't Working

Everyone bangs on about having an "open-door policy" these days. Most of them are kidding themselves.

You can't just leave your door open and expect good communication to magically happen. It's like leaving your front door open and expecting good neighbours to move in. The door is just the door – what matters is what happens when people walk through it.

I've seen managers who think listening means waiting for their turn to talk. That's not listening, that's just strategic silence. Real listening means you might actually change your mind about something. It means you might discover you were wrong. And for a lot of managers, that's terrifying.

Here's a controversial opinion: your team probably knows more about what's actually happening in your business than you do. They're the ones dealing with customers all day. They're the ones who see where the processes break down. But we've built these hierarchical communication structures that filter everything through three layers of management until the original message is about as recognisable as a game of Chinese whispers.

The Meeting Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About

Meetings. Christ, don't get me started on meetings. Actually, do get me started, because this is where communication goes to die.

Eighty-seven percent of meetings could be emails. I know that sounds high, but I've been keeping track, and I stand by it. Most meetings exist because someone thinks that gathering eight people in a room makes their email seem more important. It doesn't. It just wastes seven other people's time.

The meetings that actually work are the ones where someone has prepared an agenda, sent it out beforehand, and has the backbone to keep people on track. Effective communication training should cover this, but most places focus on the soft skills and ignore the practical stuff.

I worked with a logistics company in Melbourne where they were having daily catch-up meetings that went for ninety minutes. Ninety minutes! Every day! I timed one of them – they could have covered everything important in twelve minutes. The rest was just people talking because they felt like they had to fill the time.

Now they have a fifteen-minute stand-up meeting three times a week, and guess what? Communication improved. Because when you limit the time, people actually think about what they want to say before they say it.

The Email Epidemic

Email is simultaneously the best and worst thing that's happened to workplace communication. Best because you can get a clear message to someone instantly. Worst because we've forgotten how to have actual conversations.

I get emails that are longer than this article, explaining things that could be sorted with a two-minute phone call. And then I get emails that say "See attached" with no context, no explanation, just an expectation that I'll figure out what they want me to do with whatever they've sent.

Here's another unpopular opinion: if your email is more than three paragraphs long, it should probably be a phone call or a meeting. Email is for information sharing, not for complex discussions or relationship building.

The other thing about email is that people have completely lost the ability to read tone. I send someone a short, clear email with bullet points because I respect their time, and they think I'm angry. Someone else sends me a novel with fifteen exclamation marks and three emoji, and they think they're being friendly.

But you know what's really friendly? Being clear about what you need and when you need it. That's respect.

Body Language: The Stuff They Don't Teach You

Everyone knows about body language basics. Arms crossed means defensive. Eye contact shows engagement. Nodding means agreement. That's kindergarten stuff.

What they don't teach you is that your body language starts before you even enter the room. How you walk down the corridor. How you sit at your desk. Whether you look up when someone approaches. All of this is communication.

I once watched a team leader completely change the dynamics of his department just by changing where he positioned his desk. Instead of facing his computer with his back to the office, he turned it sideways so he could see people coming and going. Suddenly, people started approaching him with questions instead of just suffering in silence.

The thing about body language is that it's not just about what you're communicating to others – it's about what you're communicating to yourself. Stand like you're confident, and you'll start feeling more confident. It's not positive thinking mumbo-jumbo, it's basic psychology.

Feedback: The Conversation Everyone Avoids

Performance reviews happen once a year, and then we wonder why people don't improve their communication skills. That's like going to the gym once a year and expecting to get fit.

Feedback should be constant, immediate, and specific. Not "great job on that presentation," but "the way you handled that difficult question about pricing showed real expertise, and it helped the client feel confident about moving forward."

See the difference? One makes someone feel good for five seconds. The other actually teaches them something they can repeat.

But here's where it gets tricky. Most people are terrible at receiving feedback, even when it's delivered well. They get defensive, or they argue, or they explain why the feedback is wrong. And then managers think "well, that went badly" and stop giving feedback altogether.

This is where communication training for teams becomes crucial. You can't just train managers to give feedback – you need to train everyone to receive it.

The Technology Trap

Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, email, phone calls, video calls, text messages. We've got more ways to communicate than ever before, and somehow we're worse at it than we were when all we had was a phone and a fax machine.

The problem isn't the technology. The problem is that we're trying to use every channel for everything, instead of understanding what each one is actually good for.

Slack is great for quick questions and team updates. Email is good for formal communications and anything you need to reference later. Phone calls are best for complex discussions or when tone matters. Video calls work when you need visual cues or screen sharing.

But people use Slack for complex project planning, email for urgent requests, and video calls for things that could be handled with a quick message. No wonder everyone's confused.

I had a client who was getting stressed because she was getting twenty Slack notifications a day. Turns out, her team was using Slack to share documents, have strategy discussions, and plan social events. Of course it was overwhelming. We reorganised their communication channels, and her stress levels dropped immediately.

The Australian Communication Advantage

Here's something I'm probably biased about, but I think Australians have a natural advantage when it comes to workplace communication. We're generally pretty direct, we don't take ourselves too seriously, and we're comfortable with a bit of informal chat that builds relationships.

The challenge is that as our workplaces become more international, some of that natural directness gets interpreted as rudeness. I've had to help Australian managers adjust their communication style for multinational teams, and honestly, I think something's lost in translation.

But there's a middle ground. You can be respectful and direct at the same time. You can be professional and still sound human. The key is understanding your audience and adjusting your approach accordingly.

A mining company I worked with in Brisbane had teams across five different countries. The Australian supervisors were frustrated because they felt like they had to water down their communication to avoid offending anyone. The international team members were confused because they couldn't tell what the Australians actually wanted them to do.

We solved it by creating communication guidelines that played to everyone's strengths. Australians could be direct, but they had to be specific. International team members could ask for clarification without feeling like they were being difficult. Everyone won.

Where Most Communication Training Goes Wrong

Most communication training focuses on techniques and tips. "Make eye contact." "Use active listening." "Mirror their body language." All useful stuff, but it misses the point.

Good communication isn't about techniques. It's about genuinely caring whether the other person understands what you're trying to tell them. Everything else is just tactics.

I've seen people who knew every communication trick in the book, but they were still terrible to work with because they didn't actually care about connecting with people. And I've seen people with no formal training who were brilliant communicators because they approached every conversation with genuine interest and respect.

That doesn't mean training is useless. It just means that training needs to focus on the right things. Understanding different communication styles. Practising difficult conversations in a safe environment. Learning to separate the message from the emotion.

The Real Secret to Better Workplace Communication

Ready for this? Here's the secret that most communication experts won't tell you because it's not sexy enough to build a consulting business around:

Most communication problems are actually systems problems.

You can train your team to communicate better, but if your systems reward bad communication, that's what you'll get. If people get in trouble for bringing up problems, they'll stop bringing up problems. If meetings always run overtime, people will stop preparing for them properly. If feedback is only given during formal reviews, people won't trust it when they get it.

Fix the systems first. Then worry about the skills.

I learned this the hard way with a retail chain that hired me to improve communication between head office and their stores. Spent weeks training managers on better listening skills and clear messaging. Nothing changed.

Turned out the real problem was that head office made decisions on Monday and expected them implemented by Wednesday, but the communication chain meant stores didn't find out until Friday. No amount of active listening was going to fix that.

We changed the decision-making timeline and the communication process. Suddenly, everyone was communicating better. Not because they'd learned new skills, but because the system finally made sense.

Making It Work in Your Workplace

So how do you actually improve communication in your workplace? Start with one simple question: what's the most annoying communication problem you're dealing with right now?

Not the biggest problem. The most annoying one. The thing that makes you want to throw your phone across the room or hide in the supply cupboard.

Fix that first. Because it's probably annoying everyone else too, and it's probably easier to solve than you think.

Maybe it's the person who replies to your urgent email three days later with "Sorry, just saw this." Set up read receipts and response time expectations.

Maybe it's the meetings that never start on time because people are still joining. Start without them and send a summary later.

Maybe it's the colleague who explains everything three times because they don't trust that you understood the first time. Have a conversation about communication preferences.

Small fixes create momentum for bigger changes. And once people see that communication problems can actually be solved, they'll start bringing you the bigger issues.

The truth is, most people want to communicate better. They're just not sure how, or they're working within systems that make it harder than it needs to be. Give them the tools and the permission to try something different, and you'll be surprised how quickly things improve.

Communication isn't rocket science. It's just harder than it looks, and easier than most people make it.