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The ‘path to trust’ leading to ‘open communication’ (see diagram below) is the ideal situation with any team, organization or even family.  However, there are other key considerations, perhaps the most important being: self-awareness.  How do your own behaviours affect your relationships with others?  Understanding your ‘internal self-awareness’ is a good start!

If you haven’t heard of the term “social inflammation”, it’s probably because I made it up!  It was after witnessing certain scenarios in the workplace, that I felt compelled to come up with an analogy to demonstrate its damaging effects.  Don’t worry, it’s not a physical condition, but it certainly is mental!

Houston, we have a problem! Imagine a co-worker that exhibits the following behaviours: Always late for meetings, with poor excuses (if any); Is unfamiliar with telling the truth; Will blame co-workers for errors that they have made;

What is Mental Fermentation? Fermentation is a metabolic process that catalyzes chemical change over time.  For example, grapes are fermented to create wine. I’ve taken this process and applied it to communication and call it: “Mental Fermentation”.

Everything comes down to communication.  Any conflict or challenge I have witnessed or been a party to with a customer, a parent or student or co-worker was always a result of miscommunication or a lack of communication.  “Open communication” is often considered as the solution, but what exactly does this mean?

‘BUY IN’ is not the same as ‘CONSENSUS’ Open communication is not simply allowing co-workers to go on legendary rants, or providing an open forum for airing of grievances and granting permission to communicate what they really think of one another like some kind of “workplace Festivus”.  Rather, it allows everyone the opportunity to: Get a