Communicating better - What I learned from a Business Trip to Japan!

Hey Everybody!  This weeks video is all about communication.  Communication is something we can always work on to improve - with your spouse, with your co-workers, and/or with your team.

The biggest example I can pull from my career so far is when I went on a business trip to Japan when I worked at Wal-mart Logistics.  We had three different cultural groups, terms that each group shared but meant different things, and I essentially became the punching bag for the Japan team because I was the first person in a long while on the project team to show up in person.

The struggle was real.

The biggest value I added to that project was not the official mission of that trip.  By seeing and undertanding the communication problems the project had, clarifying shared terms so we understood common words, and building relationships.  To sum up, here are four points for better communication:

1. Understand - Try to understand, in an unbiased way.
2. Clear - Be sure you are clear on common terms and word definitions
3. Relationship - Build realationships so you can address things head on
4. Direct - Talk direct and to the point when you need to make a point

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