As businesspeople, we analyze how we can improve business efficiency. How do we cut costs? How do we boost employee engagement and get more production? But one thing we don’t talk about enough is disconnected conversations.
So, what is a disconnected conversation? Let’s dive in together and figure it out.
Your Typical Disconnected Conversation
I’m a supply chain guy, so let’s use that as an example.
We’ve got some cargo to get, and it’s been shipped out of Vietnam. It needs to come to the east coast of the USA, so I call my guy at the other end and sort it out. Job done.
Except it’s not.
All sorts of folks sit in between where the cargo starts and gets to me. You’ve got customs, who need to inspect everything and have the proper paperwork. The shipping company has to get the cargo loaded onto a truck to get to a port, and then the goods are put onto a boat. We’d be going through the Panama Canal, too, so there are some forms we need to fill out for that as well.
All of those bits? The little things that aren’t coordinated between the people who need the product and the ones who have it? They’re disconnected conversations.
Disconnected Conversations Cost Time
Then there’s the software side of the whole thing. You get some kind of garbage middleware—what I call middle (of no) ware—that breaks the flow even further. For the uninitiated (or frustrated), middleware is software that allows two pieces of software to communicate with each other. But what happens in that transfer of knowledge is sometimes things get tossed to the side. This data is important but that other stuff? Throw it out. We don’t need it. And then all of a sudden you do need it, and then what do you do?
Middle (of no) ware causes even further disconnected conversations, and this time it’s between machines and applications. And all of that costs time. Time that you and I simply do not have. If we want to move something mission critical to the fore and the software messes that up, we’re toast.
How Do Disconnected Conversations Hinder Growth?
Say I come out with an incredibly innovative idea and I want to implement it. In theory, I just have to make sure everyone involved has the technology or hardware to get on board. But when you’re having disconnected conversations, you don’t know who is involved. It’s like you’re trying to pitch a perfect game, but you don’t know who the other team is.
Disconnected conversations make you pander to the lowest common denominator. If you don’t know who needs your tech, you have to use the most accessible platform that virtually anyone could use.
If you want to grow, you have to learn who is on your team and how they could benefit from your work. Maybe you could even do something that directly impacts them. It’s all possible when everyone talks to each other.
Technology moves fast, and that means we have to be ready to adapt. But we can’t do that if we don’t have people connected. Once we’re all set up, though, some real magic happens. It’s then that we can move forward and make some real progress.
Want to Know More?
I talk about communication a lot on my website, and I’ve got a few options for you to consider. Feel free to browse around and check out some of my favorite practices, as well as some other AI and business goodies. It’s all right there on the site, so if you’re looking for solutions, go there now. Also, check out my new book, The AI Ecosystems Revolution, available for preorder on Amazon—to be released April 29, 2025.
