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There is a place for command and control communication
By Jana M. Kemp
A dozen years of emphasis on building teams and collaborative decision making, raises this question is "Is there still a place for command and control style communication and decision-making."
Collaboration involves people in discussion and decision making sessions that usually move forward by coming to consensus. Typically a large amount of time is needed for the collaborative process to work. Buy-in is usually high because people involved typically have a chance to participate in making the decision.
Command and control communications, when effective, also involve others. Here people are involved in gathering information and sharing input that is fed into a hierarchical structure so that multiple points of data can be coordinated. With the input and coordination, the best and most informed options can be explored so that good decisions can be made. In a command and control structure, decisions can be made in a short amount of time.
Consider these situations and decide for yourself whether there is a place in our work and personal lives for command and control communication.
1. Distracted by a phone call, a mother looks up and out the front window to discover that her three-year-old son is in the middle of the street with an oncoming car. Is there time to come to consensus? Or is a command and control tone of voice in order?
2. The fire alarm sounds in the building you work in. Will you call a meeting to decide what needs to be done, or will someone take charge and get everyone out of the building?
3. You are hiking with a friend whom you suddenly discover is terrified of the place and height that you have reached. You can't turn back. Going further up is the best and safest course. Fear has taken over your friend. Can you come to consensus or will taking charge and providing clear directions be best?
4. Your front office has just received a bomb threat. Will you have time to form a committee? Or what plan will you put into action? Who will take control?
Clearly the answer is "Yes, there is a place for command and control communication."
When does command and control not work? Or, work against the good of the group/team or mission? It fails to work whenever the command position takes so much control that information is not gathered from the field. Without good field intelligence, marketplace knowledge and staff input, poor decisions get made.
Both command and control, and collaborative processes are only effective when:
1. People have expertise and competence - to gather information and to act upon it.
2. Those involved willingly share information and expertise.
3. The person/group making the final decision has/have used all the information available to make good decisions.
4. Everyone involved has strong listening, speaking, observation and question-asking skills.
Develop your skills with command and control as well as collaborative communications. There is a place, even a demand for both in our daily workplaces and lives.
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Jana M. Kemp, founder of Meeting & Management Essentials, facilitates meetings and speaks across the country on meeting management, time management and communication skills. Detective Mike Barker contributed to this article. Detective Barker provides the Lessons from the Force segment on Jana's MomentumT weekly business-news-talk radio show, every Saturday at 9:00 a.m. on KBOI 670am. Reach Jana via her website www.janakemp.com.
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