"What we have here is a failure to communicate," goes a line from the movie Cool Hand Luke. In reality, managers label a lot of issues communications problems that are not. For example:

¦ Disagreement: "My subordinates do not agree with the new pricing strategy," a vice president lamented. "I guess we have a communication problem." In this case communication was not the problem. Subordinates understood the strategy; they simply thought it was a bad idea. To call disagreements communication problems only confuses others.

¦ Distrust: "My manager tells me one thing and does another," an employee complained. "We just don't communicate." No amount of communication could improve this relationship. It is a matter of trust, not communication. To improve relationships, the manager must work on improving trust among subordinates. A beginning step is to be open and direct with people.

¦ Information overload: From a manager: "I don't know why our people complain about communication. We provide them with stacks of reports." This organization bombarded employees with tons of data, but employees could have cared less about most of the details. The few things of interest were often buried deep. Again, more communication does not reduce frustration. But a newly designed, more effective management information system would probably help.