The 80-20 Rule to Improve Communication

In both our personal and professional lives, we strive to be more communicative. But then, if we were communicative 100% of the time, wouldn’t life be easy? Reality is, our communications come and go like waves. This is more so considering how aspects such as perceived alienation plague employees as one of many issues in a WFH scenario.

Catalysed by COVID-19, the world has experienced a digital transformation to a radical degree. We use collaborative tools, to increase our communication, enhancing our efficiency in the process. But there are rules that when applied with this, can push it further. The 80-20 rule is one such example.

Also known as the Pareto principle, this says that 20% of inputs generate 80% of outputs. Simple, right? Yet many struggle with its application. So let’s talk about applying this.

Applying the 80/20 rule towards communication means to listen in 80% of the time, and speak in 20% of them. Critical team meetings need us to listen, and listen well. This means utilizing active listening. While the most effective form of listening, it’s one of the most challenging too.

It therefore needs a good collaborative tool to apply it with; one such being MultiCall, a group calling app dedicated to let you call many with the ease of calling one.

Active listening requires 3 critical steps in its process:

Pay Attention

And no, we’re not saying this just with regard to focusing on the call. You need to listen to understand. Immediately thinking of a response to give next can throw you and the meeting off track. MultiCall’s Call Monitoring serves as a useful feature here, with its ability to mute any and all participants as required.

Hold off any judgement

Remember, the point of a meeting is to focus on the idea, not the person. Bear this in mind while maintaining the etiquette of effective

Read back

By reading back, we don’t mean just repeating what the speaker said. The idea of reading back is so you convey what the speaker said into your own words. Not only does it confirm that you correctly understood, it also affirms that you understand the underlying intent, emotion and any other things that you sense are embedded in the words you heard.

Even as a people in one country, we still have different culture. Influenced by said cultures, people may use various words and lingo. Reading back what you heard helps to ensure that whatever might have been unclear is brought out and clarified.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither is the process of active listening. It’s often iterative, and doing a read back about what you heard can assist in clarifications, add on to what was said or avert potential misunderstandings. Going back through the process on a repeat basis helps ensure you really understand and you have used active listening effectively.

MultiCall can help here as well in two angles. First, increased regularity in communication helps the parties communicating to be comfortable and understanding of one another’s intentions. So, you can use Call Scheduling to set recurring meets with whomever you are communicating with!

Next, improving the identification and use of active listening skills best happens by emulating people who are exceptional active listeners. This can be done by utilizing Call Recording during such meets, and playing them back later as a reference guide to understand how they handle situations.

Conscientiously applying the 80/20 rule is an investment that can provide outstanding returns not just to the communication of your company, but to its teamwork and productivity in the long run as well!