Business communication expert Karen Friedman believes that directness is the most important ingredient for achieving effective on-the-job communication. However, there are a number of additional factors that may help improve the fluidity of dialogue between individuals and different departments in the workplace. The first step to successful communication is to be a good listener; in the average conversation, humans frequently interrupt one another or busy themselves preparing a response without properly absorbing the message. By giving a speaker one’s full attention, it becomes easier to progress through a situation.
Equally important is choosing the most appropriate form of communication to the situation at hand. For instance, if a company’s warehouse responds faster to in-person forms of communication (as opposed to e-mail or other remote forms), employees should recognize this and bypass the less effective method whenever possible. Finally, making an effort to maintain a professional writing style may facilitate quicker responses from fellow employees; e-mails riddled with spelling errors and casual expressions will be hard to read and may be treated more as personal mail, rather than a form of professional communication.