Communication plays a crucial role in effectiveness Published March 13, 2007 By Col. Michael S. Stough 100th Air Refueling Wing Commander RAF MILDENHALL, England -- I was sitting on a plane in Dallas the other day, marveling at how quickly the passengers can load these days now that everyone is limited to only one piece of carry-on luggage. We were actually at the point of door closure 15 minutes prior to scheduled gate departure time, and it looked like an early arrival into San Antonio. Thirty minutes later, we were still sitting at the gate. The captain finally announced over the PA system that we were waiting for maintenance personnel to arrive at the jet. Maintenance had recently replaced a starter valve on one of our engines (like a starter on your car), and they needed to sign off their work. In the world of military aviation, the mechanics would have run the engine after they replaced the valve to verify correct operation and signed it off before the crew even showed up. In the profit-driven world of commercial aviation, however, airlines typically wait to operationally check routine maintenance until the airplane is actually about to depart on a scheduled flight. In this case, the plan was to start the engine at the gate with maintenance personnel on board, verify that the valve operated normally, then sign off the work and send us on our way. I say that was the plan because another 30 minutes passed, and we were still sitting at the gate. Again, the captain spoke up, but this time he said there had apparently been a "communication breakdown between ops and maintenance," but that mechanics were indeed en route. In other words, the message that mechanics were needed to verify completed maintenance somehow didn't make it to the right folks. This incident made me think about the crucial role communication plays in the effectiveness of any organization, and the adverse effects that occur in its absence. In this case, passengers were inconvenienced, and a crew and airplane sat at the gate generating expenses instead of revenue. I could point to many examples in our own wing (in fact, across every unit on this base) of adverse effects from inadequate communication. In fact, I personally think that effective communication is the single most important factor in an organization's ability to successfully accomplish its mission. In its most basic form, communication involves a sender, receiver, and a message. Lots of books, articles, and dissertations have been written about these elements, covering everything from the impact of different backgrounds between sender and receiver to the different meanings that can be inferred from even the simplest messages. We don't need to read these studies, however, to know that effective communication rests with each one of us. If you want to be more effective in your job, I recommend that you start with communication. Paying attention to how you communicate, and following up every day to make sure your messages are understood (and you understand the messages being sent to you) can have a tremendous impact on increasing our mission effectiveness. With increased emphasis on this important process, we can avoid the pitfalls and keep our own passengers from waiting at the gate.