Dear beloved Colleagues and Friends!
Hearty greetings from Yola! Arising from the desire to interact with the Staff, who live and work in the North –East, I travelled to Yola. In Yola, the Staff gathered for a Coordination Meeting and for the training organized by CRS on Simple Measurement of Indicators for Learning and Evidence-based Reporting, (SMILER). It was a good time with the Staff, who showed zeal and zest for learning and mutual sharing. On Sunday- today we attended the 10am Mass at the Cathedral and thereafter, we found time to go out to look at the city and have our fun together. It was for me an enriching experience, sharing in their presence, and in their jokes and joys.
Today, I wish to reflect on Feed-backs, Up-dates, Follow-Ups and Communications in a work environment. We are all aware of the nature of our daily tasks. Most of us are actually very busy. There are a thousand and one thing taking up our attention. Multi-tasking is the order of the day. Our daily to-do-lists are never fulfilled. There would always be left overs. We are always not able to complete our daily tasks, for reasons of their enormity. Sometimes, we cannot help it. Sometimes, some spend extra-hours in the offices, to ensure that they complete their daily assignments. It is not easy. That explains why some suffer from emotional stress arising from poor emotional resilience. Emotional Resilience deals with the stress associated with our daily tasks in the offices. It is not always easy to deal with these stresses. Even when we put in our best, sometimes the situation appears as if we are not working. But we have done elaborately well.
The foregoing situations in our work places, make feed-backs, up-dates and follow-ups essential. If we do not remember to keep track of all we are doing, and fail to give feed-backs through appropriate channels of communication, we increase our stresses and emotional agitations. Feed-backs, Up-dates and Follow-ups are activities designed to help us work well with others. They are channels of work relationship that ensure continuity and stability. They remind us constantly that we are not alone in the work place. We have duties to feed-others back. We have duties to follow-up on our tasks, we were not able to complete the other day. We have the duty to Up-date our Supervisors and Supervisees and even Management on recent developments and matters of concern in our work.
FEED-BACK is essential in the work we do. We are working with people and not alone. People are there to benefit from the work we do. We need to hear their appraisal of what we do with them. How does our work resonate with them? What are the impacts our work make with them and of them? What are the possible channels of feed-back mechanisms? We can see that both our beneficiaries and ourselves need some modicum of feed-back. If a business outfit, does not pay attention to the feelings of the customers, whether they are satisfied with services rendered or otherwise, such a business stands the risk of collapse. We need feed-backs to improve on our service delivery. We can be happy and excited each time we receive compliments of good works being done. In the same way, feed-backs on our areas of improvement are also needed for a balanced assessment. Feed-back in not seeking to be praised, or getting lost if praises are not expressed.
UP-DATES, give reports of work being done. It tells where the matter is at the moment. It seeks clarifications and encourages progress. Up-dates deal with new knowledge or improved information. It brings enlightenment. It expands the horizon of knowledge. It seeks other sources and relies on most recent data available. It does not reside in the past. It looks forward to new ways and means of achieving the end. It reminds one of the agreement earlier reached and looks forward to other developments. Up-dates are not stagnant, rather, they are progressive. Up-dates show that one is working on the matter. There are improvements and researches are being done. New information and ideas are evolving and one is not idle. Up-dates keep us on our toes.
FOLLOW-UPS appear to be deeply related to Up-dates. But for purposes of emphasis, follow-ups as the name suggests, reminds us not to allow the matter die on the way without a conclusion. Matters are to be brought to their logical conclusions. If matters are not followed up, there would be no conclusions. Lots of works are abandoned, for reasons of poor follow-up. People would like to begin always anew. But follow-up demands a peaceful conclusion of one phase and the beginning of another phase. Follow-up makes evaluation possible. In our work relations, it is important to follow up matters, especially those one already agreed and concluded. We have bitter experiences of poor follow-up in our organization. A LOT has been agreed upon, but not much is being done to carry out all our decisions. And this cuts across all units. What is it that delays our processes? And how can we overcome that. Maybe the Simple Operating Principles in the making will help us.
COMMUNICATIONS –This is the key. It is at the centre of all we do. It brings peace and its absence brings conflicts and wars. Communication solves most problems. Communication deals with accurate information. It deals with carrying everybody along. It shows that everybody is important in the process. Whenever and whoever is omitted in the communication chain feels very bad. Communication is a large step to peace either in the home or in the workplace or both. We cannot afford not to communicate. Especially in a work place, we can kill peoples morals for good works with poor or no communication. It is dangerous not to communicate. Human persons are animals of communication. But we are aware that all is not well with us here. People are eager to hear the next line of action. People have also the right to be informed about the ebb and flow of the organization. But sometimes, even those who wish to be informed, do not inform others. And so we are all guilty of one form of poor communication or the other. Sometimes it is not deliberate. But it happens. And when it does happens, it generates bad blood and conflicts. There can be no better solution to lack of communication than to communicate. We can only learn and improve on our communication efforts. It is better to over-communicate than not to communicate at all. As exercises in communication, we must all go back to square one and ask ourselves the questions: Do I communicate as I ought to? What do I communicate? How do I communicate? Everyone of us is guilty of one form or the other. Today is a new day. We can pick ourselves up and improve on our communication styles.
In Summary, I would pray all of us, to pay particular attention to the issues of Feed-backs, Up-dates, Follow-ups and especially Communications in the work we do. We cannot afford to miss this mark. Let us minimize the possible conflicts and rumour arising from either poor or lack of communication. You know nature abhors vacuum. People try to fill in the gaps of poor communication with lies and half -truths that result in hatred and anger. Let us make the workplace a home, since we spend most of the hours of the day in the work environment.
