Jim Collins: What are the ways in which they communicate? Well, part of it might be the way they articulate something, some of them were again good at that, but that wasn't really their strength. It was by their decisions and by being able to connect the dots of their decisions and most important, by their people decisions.
So let me very briefly, tell a little story about communication, and direction and clarity.
There was a great debate within Gillette a number of years ago, back in the good to great era of Gillette. Coleman Mockler, who had become the Chief Executive, and we may as well go back to Coleman later, because it's interesting how these people become Chief Executives. Coleman's an interesting example on this.
Coleman Mockler, had this great dilemma, are we going to go steel or plastic?
Meaning, you could go on the high end and you could do what was the much more expensive razors, like Mach III or something else very sophisticated, costing maybe tens or hundreds of millions in dollars to develop. Very sophisticated manufacturing, that's one strategy, they call that the steel strategy.
At the other end, you have the plastic strategy --, which says that no, we’re not going to go high end --, we're going to basically turn it into a commodity, we're going to compete with the cheap disposables and that's the plastic strategy and that's where the market’s going.
Now Coleman, while listening to this, he doesn't know what the right answer is at first, because you could actually argue both side of the coin.
And what he did, he brought together, and there was a steel camp and there was a plastic camp. And he would listen to the debates, the arguments and the evidence and so forth, until he gained a point of clarity, which was that the best answer for us is the steel strategy.
Now, how did he communicate this?
He took the proven champion of the steel camp and put him in charge of the razor business.
Is there any ambiguity about where we're going, what the strategy is, which strategy makes the most sense, which strategy won the strategic argument?
In one simple people decision reflecting a strategic direction, he communicated more than if he would have been able to give ten great speeches, or write all these things, that decision.
So you stand back and say, well, was Coleman Mockler a great communicator?
Well, if you look at his speeches, no, he wasn't a great communicator in that sense.
But, you want to ask the question, did he communicate effectively?
Yes, he communicated with great effectiveness through his decisions.
So I was puzzling on your question, it was a great question. Well I thought, Wait a minute. Are they all great communicators, or not?
The answer is, it depends on how you define communication.
Thomas D. Gorman: Right.
Jim Collins: If it's actions supporting clarity of direction and values, they were spectacular communicators.
If it's being able to give the best speech, most of them got pretty bad marks.
Thomas D. Gorman: Right.
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吉姆·柯林斯：那他们用哪些方法沟通呢？他们阐述想法的方式可以算作是一种沟通能力。他们往往在这方面表现优秀，但这并不是他们的力量所在。他们是通过做决策、通过将决策中的各个要点关联起来，以及最重要的——通过手下人的决策来进行沟通的。
让我来非常简短地讲述一个关于沟通、前进方向和清晰度的故事。
若干年前，吉列公司开始从优秀迈向卓越，当时公司内部有过一场大辩论。柯尔曼•莫克勒时任吉列首席执行官。我们稍后会再谈到柯尔曼，因为这些人（比如柯尔曼）成为首席执行官的故事总是非常有趣。
柯尔曼•莫克勒当时面临着极大的困境：我们究竟是要走钢铁路线，还是塑料路线？
意思是说，如果走高端路线，你可以生产比现在的产品昂贵得多的剃须刀，比如锋速3（MachIII）剃须刀，以及其它一些非常精致的产品，可能要花费几千万甚至几亿美元去打造复杂的产品生产线。生产极为复杂精致的产品，这是其中的一种战略，他们称之为钢铁战略。
另一种战略是塑料战略。支持塑料战略的人认为，我们不走高端路线，要从本质上将它变成一种日用品，我们要与便宜的一次性剃须刀进行竞争，这就是塑料战略，也是市场的大势所趋。
柯尔曼听了这两方面意见，一开始他也不知道正确的答案是什么，因为这就像硬币的两面，各有各的道理。
他将“钢铁派”和“塑料派”叫到一起，让他们进行辩论，听取他们的论点和证据等，直到他得出一个清晰的观点，即钢铁战略是最好的答案。
他是如何沟通的呢？
他找出“钢铁派”中公认的佼佼者，让他负责剃须刀业务。
对于何去何从、采取什么战略、什么战略最行得通，以及什么战略最终在辩论中获胜这些问题，还会有什么不明确的地方吗？
对这位负责人的选择直接反映了今后的战略方向，柯尔曼的这种沟通方式，比做十场出色的演讲还要有说服力。
所以，如果你问：柯尔曼•莫克勒是一个杰出的沟通者吗？
如果仅看他的演讲水平，他谈不上杰出。
不过如果你的问题是：他沟通得有效吗？
我想，是的，他的决策达成了非常有效的沟通目的。
我被你的问题难住了，这是个很好的问题。那么他们是否都是杰出的沟通者呢？
所以答案是：这取决于你怎样定义沟通。
高德思：是的。
吉姆·柯林斯：他们用实际行动清楚地表明了企业方向和价值观，就这一点来说，他们的沟通能力都非常出色。
如果要看是否能够做出最优秀的演讲，他们中的大多数在这方面都比较糟糕。
高德思：对。 |
