I’d never have thought I’d learn such an important lesson for sales management in a Communications Technology module in my IT college degree.
We learned about different flavours of transmission mode, from simplex to full duplex.
A simplex transmission is like a radio transmission that you send out with no idea if someone is listening.
A full duplex transmission is where you can send and receive at the same time, like a phonecall.
So if I communicate something to my team simplex style, sending it out without an agreed protocol to confirm that it landed, I’m trusting that I’ve delivered it successfully.
But if I want to go full duplex, I can look for signs that it was received AND understood. Did I get nodding heads? Is my protocol to accept a nod? Or should I expect something more to make sure it was *really* received, like seeing actions taken?
Since full duplex means signals going both ways at the same time, I can be looking for that level of acknowledgement, and changing the format of my message until I’m sure it landed.
It’s on me as a manager to go beyond blind broadcasting, if I want to have an impact on the team.