A friend of mine once told me that she had worked for the “best, worst culture, ever!”

This organization was known for being a “fun” place to work. They talked about it in their recruiting efforts, bragged about it in company-wide meetings, and leaders used it as a way to rally the team.

The problem was that although they had the parties, the perks and the speeches to point to, the actual employee experience, the one people dealt with every day, was filled with chaos, confusion and conflict.

Why? Because while the leaders were busy creating the perks, they failed to create an operating system around how the team should be communicating, collaborating and connecting to deliver great work. This led to constant frustration.

We all know that communication is important, but in the workplace it can make or break a team, so leaving it to chance is dangerous and can not only hurt morale, but can impact productivity and profitability.

According to extensive research by zippia.com here are just a few statistics about why communication matters:

• Teams with effective communication plans are 3.5X more likely to outperform their peers.
• Companies with effective communication plans increase employee retention by 4.5X.
• 70% of the workforce would be more productive with better communication.

But in spite of this data…

• 60% of companies don’t have a long-term communication plan in place.
• Up to 95% of employees don’t understand their company’s strategy.
• 57% of employees report not being given clear direction by their supervisors.

Simply put, employees are fumbling their way through the work and that fumbling leads to frustration. As my friend explained her experience, she summed it up by saying this, “When HR would send out notices about an event they were holding for employees, all I could think was, I don’t want to hang out with the people I’ve been in conflict with all week.”

The truth was, all of the people attending those events, were in the same boat. They too were frustrated but with nowhere to turn, and no life preserver to grab hold of, they were taking each other down in the meetings, in the emails and in the moments where their frustration with poor leadership and communication could no longer be contained. That is the experience that created the toxic culture.

Here is the good news! There are ways to remedy this and here are 3 steps to get you started.

1. Create a platform and process where reliable project and company communication is shared early and often.
2. Design a plan that not only encourages cross functional collaboration, but one that ensures it happens.
3. Develop a cadence for connection, one where supervisors regularly meet with their teams to clear obstacles, provide context and give encouragement.

My friend ultimately left that organization and went onto lead a highly successful company! Here is the lesson…

The perks and the parties were not enough to satisfy this high performing employee. What she wanted was strong leadership, clear communication and true teamwork.