High Technology and Strong Interpersonal Skills Win in the Marketplace

 

A high-technology company historically employed people with strong technical backgrounds. In fact, they promoted people based on their level of technical skills. Seventy-five percent of the employees had some level of post-graduate education in engineering. The company was growing at an incredible rate of speed--22 percent a year. Each of their facilities cost 1.5 billion dollars to build (housing 400 employees) and they had six facilities on the drawing boards ready to go into construction. The company was producing revenue at a rate of one million per day.

 

However, many of the employees, while well educated, had little experience or knowledge of interpersonal skills. As a result, departmental silos developed with enormous barriers to communication. The interaction within departments was also problematic, with time consuming conflicts and squabbles arising daily.  The high-technology company realized they needed to increase effectiveness; their market stronghold was tentative and they had to remain competitive.  The inability of their employees to work on teams efficiently, and operate cross-functionally was going to hurt their competitiveness in the long run.

 

Initially, employees from the defense side of the business (I.e., the division that supplied technology to the defense department ) were put through the Communication Styles program.  Although many of these employees had been though other communication courses, they found the concepts and models of Communication Styles were ones they could remember and easily apply in their daily interactions with others.  As one of the managers said, “Your technology sticks while others seem to vanish over a short period of time.”  The division increased their overall communication capabilities both with internal staff and government customers.  They were able o work effectively on cross-functional teams and across divisions.  Today, the company see Communication Styles as an integral part of their culture.

 

 

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