1.4 Case Studies: The Cost of Poor Communication
No one knows exactly how much poor communication costs businesses, industries and governments each year, but estimates suggest billions. In fact, a recent estimate claims that the cost in the U.S. alone is close to $4 billion annually (Bernoff, 2016). Poorly worded or inefficient emails, careless reading or listening to instructions, documents that go unread due to poor design, hastily presenting inaccurate information, and sloppy proofreading — all of these examples result in inevitable costs. The problem is that these costs aren’t usually included on the corporate balance sheet at the end of each year, so often the problem remains unsolved.
(What is the Cost of Poor Communication, 2022)
Knowledge Check
You may have seen the Project Management Tree Cartoon before (Figure 1.4.1); it has been used and adapted widely to illustrate the perils of poor communication during a project.
The waste caused by imprecisely worded regulations or instructions, confusing emails, long-winded memos, ambiguously written contracts, and other examples of poor communication is not as easily identified as the losses caused by a failed proposal. But the losses are just as real — in reduced productivity, inefficiency, and lost business. In more personal terms, the losses are measured in wasted time, work, money, and ultimately, professional recognition. In extreme cases, losses can be measured in legal damages, stock losses, and even company closures.
The following “case studies” show how poor communications can have real-world costs and consequences. For example, consider the “Comma Quirk” in the Rogers contract that cost $2 million (Robertson, 2006). Also, check out how a small error in spelling a company name cost £8.8 million (The Guardian, 2015). Or examine Tufte’s discussion (.pdf) of the failed PowerPoint presentation that attempted to prevent the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster (2001). Or you might want to read about how the failure of project managers and engineers to communicate effectively resulted in the deadly Hyatt Regency walkway collapse (McFadden, 2017). The case studies below offer a few more examples that might be less extreme, but much more common.
Knowledge Check
Review the Case Study 1 and 2 below. Answer the questions that follow each case study. Exercises adapted from T.M. Georges’ Analytical Writing for Science and Technology (1996).
CASE 1: The promising chemist who buried his results
Bruce, a research chemist for a major petrochemical company, wrote a dense report about some new compounds he had synthesized in the laboratory from oil-refining by-products. The bulk of the report consisted of tables listing their chemical and physical properties, diagrams of their molecular structure, chemical formulas and computer printouts of toxicity tests. Buried at the end of the report was casual speculation that one of the compounds might be a particularly effective insecticide.
Seven years later, the same oil company launched a major research program to find more effective but environmentally safe insecticides. After six months of research, someone uncovered Bruce’s report and his toxicity tests. A few hours of further testing confirmed that one of Bruce’s compounds was the safe, economical insecticide they had been looking for.
Unfortunately, Bruce had since left the company because he felt that the importance of his research was not being appreciated.
CASE 2: The unaccepted current regulator proposal
The Acme Electric Company worked day and night to develop a new current regulator designed to cut the electric power consumption in aluminum plants by 35%. They knew that, although the competition was fierce, their regulator could be produced more cheaply, was more reliable, and worked more efficiently than the competitors’ products.
The owner, eager to capture the market, personally but somewhat hastily put together a 120-page proposal and sent it to the three major aluminum manufacturers, recommending that their regulators be installed at all company plants.
She devoted the first 87 pages of the proposal to the mathematical theory and engineering design behind this new regulator, and the next 32 to descriptions of the new assembly line she planned to set up to produce regulators quickly. Buried in an appendix were the test results that compared her regulator’s performance with present models, and a poorly drawn graph showed how much the dollar savings would be.
Acme Electric didn’t get the contracts, despite having the best product. Six months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.
In small groups, examine a selection of two or three “cases” listed below and determine the following:
- Define the rhetorical situation: Who is communicating to whom about what, how, and why? What was the goal of the communication in each case?
- Identify the communication error (poor task or audience analysis? Use of inappropriate language or style? Poor organization or formatting of information? Other?)
- Explain what costs/losses were incurred by this problem.
- Identify possible solutions or strategies that would have prevented the problem, and what benefits would be derived from implementing solutions or preventing the problem.
Present your findings in a brief, informal presentation to the class.
Exercises adapted from the Maruka Centre for Applied Ethics and T.M. Georges’ Analytical Writing for Science and Technology (1996).
See more case studies for discussion below.
CASE 3: The instruction manual that scared customers away
As one of the first to enter the field of office automation, Sagatec Software, Inc. had built a reputation for designing high-quality and user-friendly database and accounting programs for business and industry. When they decided to enter the word-processing market, their engineers designed an effective, versatile, and powerful program that Sagatec felt sure would outperform any competitor.
To be sure that their new word-processing program was accurately documented, Sagatec asked the senior program designer to supervise the writing of the instruction manual. The result was a thorough, accurate and precise description of every detail of the program’s operation.
When Sagatec began marketing its new word processor, cries for help flooded in from office workers who were so confused by the massive manual that they couldn’t even find out how to get started. Then several business journals reviewed the program and judged it “too complicated” and “difficult to learn.” After an impressive start, sales of the new word-processing program plummeted.
Sagatec eventually put out a new, clearly written training guide that led new users step by step through introductory exercises and told them how to find commands quickly. But the rewrite cost Sagatec $350,000, a year’s lead in the market, and its reputation for producing easy-to-use business software.
CASE 4: One garbled memo – 26 baffled phone calls
Joanne supervised 36 professionals in 6 city libraries. To cut the costs of unnecessary overtime, she issued this one-sentence memo to her staff:
After the 36 copies were sent out, Joanne’s office received 26 phone calls asking what the memo meant. What the 10 people who didn’t call about the memo thought is uncertain. It took a week to clarify the new policy.
CASE 5: The co-op student who mixed up genres
Chris was simultaneously enrolled in a university writing course and working as a co-op student at the Widget Manufacturing plant. As part of his co-op work experience, Chris shadowed his supervisor/mentor on a safety inspection of the plant, and was asked to write up the results of the inspection in a compliance memo. In the same week, Chris’s writing instructor assigned the class to write a narrative essay based on some personal experience. Chris, trying to be efficient, thought that the plant visit experience could provide the basis for his essay assignment as well.
He wrote the essay first because he was used to writing essays and was pretty good at it. He had never even seen a compliance memo, much less written one, so was not as confident about that task. He began the essay like this:
On June 1, 2018, I conducted a safety audit of the Widget Manufacturing plant in New City. The purpose of the audit was to ensure that all processes and activities in the plant adhere to safety and handling rules and policies outlined in the Workplace Safety Handbook and relevant government regulations. I was escorted on a 3-hour tour of the facility by…
Chris finished the essay and submitted it to his writing instructor. He then revised the essay slightly, keeping the introduction the same, and submitted it to his co-op supervisor. He “aced” the essay, getting an A grade, but his supervisor told him that the report was unacceptable and would have to be rewritten – especially the beginning, which should have clearly indicated whether or not the plant was in compliance with safety regulations. Chris was aghast! He had never heard of putting the “conclusion” at the beginning. He missed the company softball game that Saturday so he could rewrite the report to the satisfaction of his supervisor.
Review the video below for a few additional suggestions on improving workplace communication.
(The Recipe for Great Communication, 2015)
References
Bernoff, J. (2016, October 16). Bad writing costs business billions. Daily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/bad-writing-costs-businesses-billions?ref=scroll
Georges, T. M. (1996). Analytical writing for science and technology. https://www.scribd.com/document/96822930/Analytical-Writing
McFadden, C. (2017, July 4). Understanding the tragic Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. Interesting Engineering. https://interestingengineering.com/understanding-hyatt-regency-walkway-collapse
Robertson, G. (2006, August 6). Comma quirk irks Rogers. Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/comma-quirk-irks-rogers/article1101686/
Sagan, C. (1995). The demon-haunted world: science as a candle in the dark. New York, NY: Random House.
The £8.8m typo: How one mistake killed a family business. (28 Jan. 2015). The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/law/shortcuts/2015/jan/28/typo-how-one-mistake-killed-a-family-business-taylor-and-sons
The Colin James Method. (2022). What is the cost of poor communication [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTCXCpJ-CpU
The Latimer Group. (2015). The recipe to great communication [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFWsTsvJ8Xw
Tufte, E. (2001). The cognitive style of PowerPoint. https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/pi/2016_2017/phil/tufte-powerpoint.pdf
Ward, J. (2019, July 8). The project management tree swing cartoon, past and present. TamingData. https://www.tamingdata.com/2010/07/08/the-project-management-tree-swing-cartoon-past-and-present/. CC-BY-ND 4.0.