Submitted by Don Doman.
Lack of communication is a major cause of conflict. In feature films, no communication equals conflict and conflict means a possible Academy Award. In business, no communication equals conflict and this means a possibility of no profit and no business.
The great filmmaker Stanley Kubrick constantly used communications as his element of conflict in his feature films. The Shining (a man goes mad in a closed-up hotel cut off from the outside world), 2001 A Space Odyssey (a moon base has been out of phone communication for ten days), Full-metal Jacket (during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam a military patrol is unable to communicate with headquarters), and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb (U.S. bombers are sent within the Soviet Union and out of communication) are all examples of communication problems leading to conflict and box office popularity.
With communication and conflict, the problem is: someone knows something, but is unable or unwilling to tell someone else and problems arise. This happens between characters in novels or feature films, between members of an organization, between husbands and wives, and almost every day between management and employees under their supervision.
Everyone always has a reason for not communicating. “You’re not seeing the bigger picture” and “We operate on a need to know basis” are popular excuses from management for not communicating. They are not good excuses. “I didn’t want to bother you” and “I thought we could handle it” are popular excuses from employees on all fronts for not communicating. Again, they are not good excuses. Communication needs to flow equally between management and employees – both up and down the ladder as well as between employees and between management.
Forget about winning an Oscar. Leave conflict to feature films. We need communication to survive. Communication is like oxygen. Without it we suffocate. Communication breathes life into business.
