08 Sep How do we communicate?

In present times, the power of communication allows us to develop ourselves more and better. We communicate in many ways, sometimes in a hurry, sometimes with few resources, at other times affected by nerves, yet others by happiness, sometimes too much and at others too little ….. All people have the art and the capacity to communicate! But how do we communicate with each other? We do not always achieve effective and reciprocal communication, and this can be the cause of inefficiency, disorder and of course conflicts in our relationships with people, all of which undermine an organization’s success.

New technologies have advanced rapidly in the area of communication; we can communicate with various people at the same time without being physically present in the same place…, via different devices (personal computers, tablets, smartphones, etc.) but nevertheless, this type of communication does not guarantee that communication will be effective and by no means empathic. The skills for communicating with each other are very basic, but in our culture we are not trained for good communication.

Our communicative objective is to work at overcoming the barriers that we might encounter, such as:

• Misunderstandings
• Inadequate notification of priorities
• Confusing orders or application of incorrectly interpreted personal criteria (I thought that … I was told that … I didn’t know that …)
• Generalizations, i.e. drawing a generic conclusion based on a single experience
• Omissions, leaving out information
• Distortions, transforming the perceived reality into an internal representation and which is assured to be the only real option

The challenge has been to initiate a communication project and we are right in the middle of its development! Our goal is to be aware of how we communicate, since we want:

• Active listening communication, in which our communication partner can make comments and ask questions.
• Empathic communication, which allows us to put ourselves into the position of our communication partner.
• Effective communication, in which we are able to understand the transmitted message.

How do we communicate? In Rieusset we have differentiated between two types of communication:

• External communication: aimed at customers and/or suppliers so that they may be informed about new developments in Rieusset with regard to our products and processes. With this goal in mind, the blog was created that allows us to communicate today.
• Internal communication: we have improved our internal channels, so that currently information is more fluent and accessible to all our employees, allowing us to:
  • Provide a solution to problems, keeping in mind the opinion of all implicated areas.
  • Know about things that are of interest to us.
  • Receive announcements or news about Rieusset.
  • Coordinate activities, training courses, etc…
  • Organize tasks.
  • Control data regarding the production processes that need to be kept in mind for our continuous improvement.
  • Thank collaborations.

For internal communication we have implemented:

• Daily meetings with all persons in charge of areas that intervene directly or indirectly in our production process (production, planning, printing, handling, engineering, quality and maintenance).
• Information panels for the following areas: General Management, Human Resources, Risk Prevention, Printing, Pre-printing, Handling, Maintenance, Technical, Quality, Continuous Improvement, Customer Complaints.

We are aware that optimal and satisfactory communication is going to enable us to improve coordination among all of us who intervene in any of our company’s processes. Defining what we understand by communication is equivalent to saying in what type of company we want to work. Therefore, within this project, we have proposed to generate constructive dialogue and communicate clearly, at all times with the intention of promoting this art, thus guaranteeing the appropriate and sustainable development of Rieusset.