Question

Communication Case Study

Mike's Missed Step Today was going to be a big day for Mike. He finally had a chance to show management that he had some good ideas about how the company could be improved. Because of a new policy allowing employees to submit written suggestions for changes to top management, he planned to send a memo to the president for consideration. Having worked in the stockroom for three years, he had seen the great amount of time wasted by pulling supplies on numerous orders and handing them to individual employees at the front window. He thought that if the departments obtained all supplies at the same time on one order, the company could save stockroom personnel time, speed up distribution of supplies, reduce paperwork, and lessen the need for overtime.

Knowing that his suggestion had to be received before the 9 a.m. management meeting, Mike hurriedly prepared an e-mail and sent it without proofing it or asking someone else to read it. After he sent it, he called the president's secretary to make sure she gave it to the president before the meeting. The e-mail the president received said, “Want to save a lot of money? Have everyone come get their supplies at the same time and not waste so much of my time.”

Mike eagerly waited for some response to his recommendation. Finally, he received a brief written memo thanking him for his suggestion and stating that, after consideration, management had decided not to make a change. He later learned that management didn't consider his proposal because they didn't understand it. They thought he was recommending that everyone, including managers, go to the supply room at a certain time to retrieve whatever supplies they needed (rather than, as Mike intended, having one departmental staff member pick up supplies for all department members on one order).

Amazed, Mike said, “What? I told them what I thought would work. Why didn't they understand?”

1. What happened? Why didn't the managers understand what Mike was recommending?

2. How could he have handled this situation better?

3. Rewrite Mike's message so that it is complete, concise, correct, clear, and courteous

Answer 1

1. Mike's communication was insufficient. It did not comprise of a detailed report or an explanation of the current state and the proposed future state. How efficiency could be increased and wastes of waiting, motion, inventory, etc. could be reduced or eliminated. A detailed description of his proposal for improvement was not provided in the short e-mail. Thus, his key idea didn't even reach the management.

2. Firstly, he should work on his presentation skills. A present value stream map and a future value stream map of the process could have added extra weightage. Further, he must not take the opportunity lightly and must invest sufficient time presenting his idea. Further, he could have taken a co-workers help, one whom he may trust to be more efficient and have greater control over the soft skills and presentation skills. Further, must have proof read and ensured there are no flaws or grammatical errors.

3. "Currently, all the stationary and office supplies arrive at the stockroom and individual employees come to take their required supplies. The frequency of transactions is very high. This is time consuming as well as tedious.

Instead, I propose that one representative from each department could collect order for the entire team. Thus, reducing paperwork, saving time and improving time efficiency. Besides this, the saved time would mean the stockroom personnel would not have to do overtime and that supplies would be handed over to the respective teams effectively.