Do you avoid workplace ‘chitchat’? Here’s what you could be missing out on

Business strategist Hannah Cremona on Wednesday shed light on the importance of allowing healthy conversations to take place at the workplace, together with the opportunities that they bring about.

She started off by questioning: “At what cost are you avoiding or not giving space for conversations?”

“In the past, we would frown upon ‘chitchat’ and ‘get to work’ but today that can’t work anymore,” she explained, as doing so could result in businesses missing out on “dozens of opportunities”.

Speaking through her own experience of working with different companies, particularly when it comes to training and activities, she proceeded to list three particular opportunities that can be completely missed if conversations are discouraged.

Firstly, Ms Cremona pointed out that employees could demonstrate skillsets that are not used in their current roles while speaking to others. She remarked that this is an “indicator of misalignment in their role, underutilised strengths and skills which could also be due to them feeling unfulfilled and disengaged”.

She added that there are also instances where conversations can allow for solutions to be brought about to problems that the senior management “didn’t know they had”. This can bring to light ideas that “foster a better working environment, improved employee loyalty and retention, and an overall better customer experience”, having a significant impact on the bottom line.

Lastly, she also noted that business leaders very often need to allow space for “hard conversations” which may include things they “don’t want to hear” in order to “filter out the bad weed and viruses in the system”.

“Business owners, CEOs, and leaders get so bogged down in day-to-day task-oriented discussions that they forget to lean back and allow conversations to take place,” she concluded.

Ms Cremona is vastly experienced when it comes to business strategy coaching and advisory, particularly as a Strategic Advisor at Vivian Corporation, and as a Business Strategy Coach on a self-employed basis.

Prior to that she worked in various marketing and business development roles at a number of companies, and also has experience in editorial positions.