IntraOrganization Negotiation October 25, 2012

Shape the Message You Want to Send

Knowing how your organization or group works allows you to better contribute to its welfare and shape the message you intend to send. There are, in most organizations, if not all, a formal and informal organizational structure existing side by side. The informal organization is not easily seen but is often more important than the formal. Knowing who really talks to whom, makes decisions and allocates resources can help you focus the message for those who really lead.

It’s a matter of give and take. If you allow others to speak, most will recognize your right to do so. Courtesy dictates that each party to a disagreement be permitted to complete their thoughts before the other starts. If they do not let you do so, you have the right to insist that they do.

“Tell me something I don’t know.” People don’t listen to those who tell them what they already know. As a person who wants to be heard, you owe it to your colleagues to bring to their attention matters relevant to them and their problems, not yours. The conduit to their attention is your knowledge from experience, work, and connections that can be of help to them.

How we express ourselves is as important as what we say. If you want others to give consideration to your thoughts and concerns, take the time to present them in a coherent, interesting way. That’s part of the bargain we make with one another at work.

Those on the front line of knowledge by virtue of profession or function in the organization command our attention. Salespeople who, because they meet customers every day, perceive how tastes are changing or where the marketplace is heading are listened to and heard. Such information and knowledge used to move from the top-down, now it moves in the opposite direction.

When meeting to resolve any problem or disagreement give thought to the right time and place. If you fail to do so, then your best ideas may fall on deaf ears.