The Power of Why: Does Goal-Oriented Beat Task-Oriented Communication?

Depending on the culture, when it comes to reading between the lines, some will be offended if you are too direct, while others will think you’re setting them up to fail if you don’t share all the information. Working in global and diverse environments, people often find it difficult to have a one-solution-fits-all. I found that no matter the culture, there are 2 approaches to communication:

1. Task-oriented communication

2. Goal-oriented communication

Take a look at the example.

Let’s say you’ll have some visitors in the office and the guests will need refreshments. You need someone to take care of it. How do you communicate this?

1. You can tell someone to call the water cooler company about the new shipment.

   “Hey, can you please call the water cooler company for the new water shipment? Thanks!”

2. You can tell someone to arrange the new water cooler shipment because we have an event coming up.

   “Hey, can you please arrange the new shipment of water for the water cooler? We need it for the event on Friday. Thanks!”

Break down each approach to see why they (don’t) work.

You might think “What’s the difference?”. Well, small tweaks in communication can have tremendously different results. 

Task vs. goal-oriented communication

This is a very simple example and even here, the results can be completely different depending on which approach you use.

TASK-ORIENTED COMMUNICATION

• This need-to-know basis approach is missing context, “why” or“bigger picture”, deadline and ownership.

• You got yourself a Schrödinger’s task: if you ask someone to call and no one answers, did they complete the task? It’s a “yes” and a “no” at the same time, depending on how you look at it. The completion of the task should be clear and not open to interpretation. Otherwise, you’ll end up disappointed - and without fresh water.

• How about deadlines? If you want it done by Tuesday, but the other person isn’t aware of it and plans to do it on Wednesday, who is at fault? Hint: It’s the person who communicated the request.

• If you give a task like this, the ownership of the goal remains with you. The person is not aware of other moving parts. For all they know, you already have a backup plan in case the water cooler company doesn’t pick up the call.

• There is no room for excellence. You ask them to call, and they call. Pretty straightforward. But if you give them more context into what you need and why, you give them a chance to show off their skills - solving issues, thinking out of the box, reliability, you name it.
  

GOAL-ORIENTED COMMUNICATION

• If you give some context into what you want to achieve, and when or where, you are more likely to reach it. It’s simple. Expectations are aligned and clear and you’re not micromanaging them.

• You delegated the ownership of the task and empowered the person to solve a problem. You’re also building a stack of proofs of impact. This builds pride in what they do and a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves.

• Since the person knows what the actual goal is, they can optimize for that, and try another angle. They know the task of calling the company is just one way to accomplish the goal. Another might be changing the supplier or simply running to the store and getting regular water bottles.

• With a sense of ownership comes unspoken autonomy and trust. If you put someone in charge of solving a problem, what you’re also communicating is that you believe they are capable of achieving it and that you trust them. Do not underestimate the power of this, even in simple examples. Sometimes, the only thing people need to ignite them is a spark from someone else.

• Contrary to popular belief and “I don’t have time to explain everything”, goal-oriented communication is often more efficient. The goal-oriented message in the example is just a few words longer than the task-oriented one. What is not visible is the back-and-forth you don’t need to have because you took the time to communicate the first time.
  

Which one to use?

The goal-oriented communication enables a hero’s journey. Accomplishing a goal can be a quest filled with trials that we overcome, learn and come out better on the other side.

That is not to say that task-oriented communication is bad. There is nothing wrong with task-oriented communication if it’s done intentionally, in the right context and not as a default communication. Some situations might require it.

Imagine if you apply this insight to more use cases and complex goals.

What kind of impact do you envision?

The intention here is for you to have each approach in your toolbox and use it when appropriate. Not because you don’t know any better. Next time you're jotting down your to-dos or chatting with your team, think bigger than just ticking off tasks. The result might just come down to the way you communicated.