We Reveal The #1 Secret To Great Communication In Isolation

Welcome again back to Naked Insider. Today we've got Peter Nattra again.

Hello.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Today's video is we're going to reveal the number one secret to great communication in isolation. That's the key.

That's the key.

But before we do that, we're going to find out what is communication all about.

Communication is the ability to transmit and receive information that allows people to coordinate, to get on the same page, to innovate and to move forward, essentially.

Great. Yeah. So what are the different types of communications? Because we tend to think communication is just talk.

Correct. And there is a huge focus nowadays on the talking side of things. But communication is extremely subtle. When two human beings get together, there's more communication goes on. Actually, the statistics are saying that 60% of your communication is non verbal, which is pretty huge. So while you can say what you mean, what is amplified and what is expanded on is things like hand gestures, the way that your eyebrows move, the inflection, the tone, those sorts of things. And a lot of times that is now missed out, say for instance, when you're on the phone. So there's. Yeah, it's very interesting.

Yeah. So what is the purpose of communication?

The purpose of communication is to move a concept or an idea forward and to share ideas, to be able to say, hey, I've got an idea or hey, we've got a situation here. How do we go about it? So there's a lot of collaboration inside of, inside of a communication. Excellent.

So now coming to the crux of it, so what are the challenges that we are facing as communicators?

Most people find that they're, when they're actually talking with an organized or talking with their counterpart. Most people are too busy formulating in their heads what they're about to say rather than to actually absorb the information that's coming towards them. Now that can be mitigated when you're actually talking with somebody. You have eye contact, you have peripheral vision going on. So all of these things tend to funnel you into the receiving side of things. But most people actually are in their heads trying to figure out what they're going to say in response to a point. That was five seconds ago.

Correct. We talked about the water cooler effect of communication. Sometimes you can get your best ideas just by meeting face to face. But given that with what's happening and we are stuck at home.

Yes. Spontaneity.

That spontaneity has disappeared.

Yes.

And it's not just person to person. It could be also as an organization, I mean Team meetings that are conducted by zooms. But there's that, you know, when someone is talking, you sometimes want to measure the face expressions or see what other people are thinking. You can't do that.

No, you can't. And the difference between your zoom and your. And your water cooler is that there's a whole different. There's a whole different internal setup. So you're a lot more formal inside of your zoom meeting. It'd be like sitting, okay, we're going to get the team together and we're all going to talk formally about such and such. Where is it at the water cooler? Or you bump into somebody in the hallway, you're a lot more relaxed, you're a lot more open. What that allows to do is that your imagination, that your creativity, that your problem solving abilities actually become heightened. The more relaxed you are, the more formal a situation, the more you become boxed into the parameters.

That meeting is all about correct now. So I want to touch a subject about disengagement. Well, communication is a key part of disengagement. Disengagement can be referred to, and it's just a view that we've taken on, which is really about how the person or the employee feels that they are connected E being supported by the management or executive, connected with their peers, or maybe even their job being meaningful. So how does disengagement, and by the way, we're talking about really bad numbers of around 87% in the Western world have that level of disengagement. So the question is, how does lack of communication now, given that we're working remotely, impairs that even more?

There's a lot of things at play. So for instance, let's say you're on a large chat or a large meeting. You have a sea of faces in front of you. What that picture is already saying to you is you're one of. Count the number of pictures. But not only that, all of a sudden, you're now in a completely different environment that is no longer your work environment. It could be in a cafe, it could be in your living room, it could be goodness knows where. The reality is that you're now not so much in the business side of things. You're now actually in a completely different environment. The experience of the garbage truck driving past. And all of a sudden it hits you, oh, my gosh, I didn't take the garbage out this morning. And that's total distraction for that period of time you're not there.

Correct. Or having kids scream or, you know, all the typical distractions that you'd find in home place are now part of that you now work with.

That's exactly right.

So the separation between work and home.

Becomes really muzzled, extremely blurred to the detriment of both.

Correct.

Because you'll find that your work concepts or your work personality or Persona will bleed into home, but vice versa, what, your home personality will bleed into work. And part of the discipline is to keep it, to keep that separated.

So moving it, what are the risks then to organizations by and large in that sort of challenge of communication in isolation?

So one of the most important parts of communication, especially pre communication, before you're about to go in a meeting is you sit down or you bump into a colleague and say, hey, going to think about raising this at the meeting. What do you think? What's your concept? Okay, right. And then you have this backwards and forwards. You have this information flow. You have a buy in perhaps of critical people before you actually get to the meeting. A lot of that drops away by only being able to be able to be meeting remotely. And look, you also miss out on great ideas. I think that, you know, the, the biggest loss to an organization is an idea you've never had. And when you are just in an informal situation, creative ideas come out quite naturally, especially problem solving.

Could you see that sort of isolation also impacting on their own behavior? So they may feel that they're not being heard. So when they're not heard, that could escalate to other, you know, from a situation where they, they want to do something.

Absolutely. So. And again, it gets back to the realization that you are part of a larger, a larger group. But essentially all you're seeing is that you're a team of one. So where's your support? Where is your. Because that's it. You're sitting there in front of a monitor, probably your phone, and that's it. You're a team of one. And these people are so remote from you. Where is your team? You've become a team of one. So that is a support level situation that allows people to go off script. It allows people to invent things, new ways of doing things that are not necessarily always approved or might not be approved. But who's, where is, where is their check and balance?

Well, pretty little, if I want to add. And the risk, I mean the risk to an organization has definitely increased. Yes, we see, we see, we hear from statistics in talking about the depression that people get as a result. Domestic violence has increased. So there is a huge impact to the person by and large. And the fact that they need to communicate still do the business work they have to produce on a day to day basis is now so much more harder.

Absolutely. Built into a normal business day where you go to work, you have circuit breakers built in, you get dressed, you get yourself into a business attachment, whether that's jeans or whatever it is, but then you go on to some sort of a transport system, whether it's your car, whether it's the bus, whether it's the tram, then you have time to get there. So there is like definite stages, different definite demarcations and areas of time where you're setting yourself up to go to work.

Correct.

None of that happens when you're already at home and suddenly you're at work.

Yeah. Now something we haven't even actually talked about and I think we are lucky in Australia, but there will be certain places where it's very much public facing, like hospitals, airports and other public areas where a lot of people wear masks. How does that affect communication? Even? So now you're facing face to face, but you can't see the facial expressions pretty much.

Correct. So you have different accents, you have different tones of speech. As a for instance, even if you're not actually wearing a mask. You've seen those plexiglass screens.

Yes, exactly.

Okay. There are many times when I've walked up to a service counter and I and I cannot understand the person on the other side of the screen. So eventually we actually have to go around the side of the screen to communicate. Masks are no different. So if you have somebody who has an unusual speech pattern, most of the time if a person is not wearing a mask, you can quasi lip read and kind of get an idea of where they're going with what they're saying. So yeah, there's, there's huge impediments there as well too.

Okay, so wrapping it up, what is the number one secret recommendation reveal that you would mention to the audience?

So this gets into something that I'd like to talk about in another video, which is about how to create a space, how to anchor it, space that is now your business space. So find an area which has a neutral background. And I'm saying that because if you've seen those podcasts of people that are sitting with their favorite football team at the back and that's very distracting for people who vote for the opposition opposing football team. So create a neutral background so that you are respectful of the environment for the people that are watching you. But also you can focus in on by wearing earphones. Or earbuds so that your hearing is exclusive for what's going on and set aside an area that is business. If you're going to do business, do it in an area that you've now defined and quarantined. This is where I'm going to be doing business. Not where you eat your breakfast, not where you. Where you sit down and you do your work. That more than anything else, is going to increase your attention. It signals to you, to the, to the, to the being that you are. That you are now at work. You're in work mode. Make sure that you dressed appropriately, that you're not slouching around in your pajamas, and that will actually heighten your experience of being able to work remotely from home.

Cool. That's great advice. So with that, we come to an end. Thanks again, Peter.

Thank you.

That's great. And next weekend is going to be about anchoring, so stay, stay and check it out.

Fantastic.

Thank you, guys.

Thanks, guys.

Cheers.