The broken phone.

Have you ever played  "the broken phone"? It is a group game that consists of whispering a message in the ear of one person and this is shared with another and so on until reaching the last of the participants, the last person must reveal the message, sometimes it coincides with the original message, that It means that there was good teamwork and clear communication, but on many occasions, it does not coincide because at some point in the teamwork communication was broken, someone lost concentration or was not interested in the activity, this was the activity with which the Instructor of my Management Practices class, Tracy Watson started class and would leave us not only a good moment of teamwork but also a reflection.

 

This game is an analogy of many real-life situations that we can find in work and personal life, in the game the “message distortions” are laughable and it creates a nice atmosphere in the game, but when that happens in the business world, the result is a possible loss of money, something that does not sound so funny.

 

The magnitude of the losses and consequences due to inefficient communication can be unimaginable, a communication error is not only how it is distorted but also how the message is delivered, an example is from the famous company "Phillips Morris", this company took an article saying “Says Smoking Deaths Good.”, in  1999, Phillips Morris commissioned a study on the economic effects of smoking in the Czech Republic and came to an unusual conclusion “The company argued that premature deaths due to smoking were, on balance, a positive thing, because the government saved money on health care and pensions.” (CBSNews.com staff, 2001). After the outrage of many people, the company's vice president Steven Parrish said "We understand that this was not only a terrible mistake but that it was wrong," this cost for the company $100 million a year in positive publicity, donations and shelters for battered women to persuade the public.

 

Managing a communication crisis should be the priority in a company,  it is clear that there is no magic recipe to manage a crisis, but if it can be handled professionally and on time, this is important if you want to avoid losing the reputation of the company, due a reputation takes years to create but it can only take minutes to destroy it.

Reference: CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff. (2001, July 26). Philip Morris Admits “Terrible Mistake.” CBS News. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/philip-morris-admits-terrible-mistake/