Training and staff development programs are as critical to building a successful organization as regular exercise is necessary for maintaining healthy bodies.  It is easier to exercise three times a week when life follows its regular routines with little distracting stress.  Similarly, when corporate profits are healthy, management often turns its attention to training incentives.  When unexpected changes, stresses or economic curves suddenly develop, these essentials for both corporate and personal health quickly disappear.  

The main skill that many training and staff development programs focus on is communication. In this world of shrinking profit margins, mergers and lightning speed competition to supply customers faster, the ability to communicate effectively is a critical asset.  The crux of many business crises today is companies have too many employees who create problems instead of solving them.  Certainly most people perceive they are doing the best they can with the resources and tools they are given.  The inability to solve problems stems from the lack of developed skills in resolving conflicts, negotiating, working in teams, and just plain getting along with each other.

Most of us think communicating is talking and we definitely do a lot of that.  Effective communication is the ability to:

• Give information and ask for feedback, to understand all sides of a problem before creating a solution 
• To ask effective questions in sourcing out information to ensure that all parties have a clear understanding of the issues at hand
• To understand and agree on the same course of action when leading others, resolving conflicts, closing business deals or managing projects

There is an excellent commercial, showing water falling one drop at a time until a pool of water forms.  Learning how to communicate effectively is like that one drop of water falling. If the message is understood and accepted, a pool of remarkable ideas starts building. 

Stephen Covey states in his book, Principled Centered Leadership, "We might look at communication skills as we would at an iceberg - at two levels.  The small, visible part of the iceberg is the skill level of communication.  The great mass of the iceberg, silent and unseen beneath the surface, represents the deeper level - the attitudinal, motivational level.  To make any significant long-term improvement in any issues requires us to work at both levels".

The surface of the iceberg is an analogy for when we are talking. The unseen mass under the water correlates to when we are listening, which should be our biggest activity when communicating. Actively listening and understanding the other person's perspective happens when we:

• Stop what we are doing and thinking and become fully present in the conversation
• Avoid interrupting
• Ask questions to clarify what the person is saying
• Give feedback by re-phrasing in our own words what was heard and ask the other person to verify or clarify

A wise sage wrote, "Nature gave people two ears but only one tongue, which is a gentle hint that they should listen more than they should talk."