According to Harvard Business Review, studies also show that most mergers and acquisitions don’t fail because of conflict, they fail from the “organisational silence” due to the fear of conflict. Silence can only be broken by talking about things, to communicate more to break critical silences!
It is important to have a mix of formal and informal communication.
Informal communication helps to build relationships. Show an active interest by asking questions when talking to others. It does make people feel special if you remember to ask about, for example, their hobby or family.
Formal communication avoids a lack of communication and improves clarity. What do you need from your team and what do they need from you? Do they have all the tools and information they need to do the best job possible? Leave no room for misunderstanding: ambiguity creates mistakes and mistakes create conflict!
Communication needs to cross boundaries in the organisation. We have all experienced times where projects fail or are negatively affected by gaps in communication between departments. It is assumed that important information will be passed on to the rest of the team, so when this doesn't happen as there is no process or follow up, it feels like a real *face-plant moment*. It could so easily have been avoided.
To solve this, there should be a solid and agreed process in place to ensure that information is passed to the right people at the right time. At the end of a meeting, it should be agreed who is responsible for circulating the information and when by. Then, if the information has not been received by the deadline, this can be chased up directly with the person responsible. At a major client, a change in sales price was not passed to the on the road sales team: havoc ensued!
This is hard to get right, so work hard at it.
It is vital to communicate immediately when conflict arises, do not leave it to stew and damage relationships. Work quickly to get to the source of the problem and find a solution that works for all and then communicate this to all relevant parties.
As a leader you should (literally) lead by example. Teach your team to improve communication and to be honest with one another by doing this yourself. Help to create the culture you want and that is best for the company. Good luck!