Communication is an Art - work together

One of the most important things I have always strived for is communication - everyone should know what everyone else is doing. This speeds response to customers and empowers everyone in the organization to make decisions.

When I worked at Milliken we underwent a lot of training focusing on Japanese management technics. If everyone had a consistent desk layout, papers organized the same, then you could sit at any desk and work.

This holds true in todays environment. I have pushed for this in our company with our IT strategy. I should be able to sit at any computer and see my same desktop I see anywhere else. My mapped drives, programs, etc. Well, we did it! We created images with all of our software installed and built common user profiles. With our IT company's help they added network roaming to the domain so no matter where I sit down, I see MY COMPUTER desktop.

There will be more to follow on this ....

But, it brings me back to what prompted me to write this. I am amazed at how compartmentalized companies are in how they work. We took multiple phone calls and emails from the same company today reporting a software problem. Each person that encountered it, reported it independently. Each person IGNORED our tech ticket system, except the first person who reported it. And, it was already a resolved, closed issue. Anyone could have logged in and checked the status.

Communication, consistency --- can you work from someone else's desk tomorrow? Do you know what to do if a customer calls them and asks a question? Send them to voice mail or help?