I have always been one of those guys who sees the world in non-exact, change filled, and nebulous ways. I am hesitant to say I am a big picture thinker because everyone loves to say that they are a big picture thinker (while, of course, still being great with details). That’s always a load of crap though. I don’t think I am the best big picture or details guy, I just think I deal with change and uncertainty better because that’s what the world is to me.
Then there’s my wife. She has a very scientific view of the world and there will be order in the world. She wants to explain everything to me and she expects me to do the same. And while I am a trivia buff, I don’t always know why things work the way they do. I can tell it is a source of frustration at times. I know the answer but not the explanation behind it.
After three and a half years of marriage, I’ve learned to either explain the why or help her research it more herself. Simply leaving the answer to her question out there without further explanation is madening.
What I’ve found in communicating to employees that there are the same expectations. Some deal better with change than others. Some just want to know what the change is and they’ll move on. Some want explanations and justifications (and they still might not be satisfied). And whenever you communicate something new, you have to meet the needs of all these people in an easy to read communication. A couple of simple ways I’ve done this:
- Write like a newspaper story. If you have read a lot of newspapers like I have, you know the basic format: a concise title, the most pertinent information in the first few lines and the details to follow. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve seen an employee communication start with an explanation and justification before delivering the news.
- Simplify everything. Don’t use $64 words. Don’t use corporate speak. Imagine you have an employee that just started and was reading the comunication that you send out and format it appropriately. Again, people that are just looking for answers will drop off after they get the information they want so you can use more words to explain if needed to avoid corporate speak.
- Don’t lie and don’t spin. I think this is a good idea regardless of what you’re doing but I think it is incredibly important in employee communication. If you are going to spin your way to a positive message or lie about anything, despin and tell the truth or don’t send anything out. Your employees deserve the truth from you and if you can’t deliver that, you shouldn’t deliver a bad message that people assume is true (or worse, they assume it is false because you’ve lied and spun before).
- Use a contact person for your employees that question everything. Employees should be clear that they can speak to the contact person if they have any questions. Often times, these are the same people every time that question everything and always have way more questions than everyone else. A contact person can save you from writing a novel for a couple of people that question everything.
- Recommunicate when necessary. If your contact person is being bombarded with questions, your communication was probably inadequate. In order to effectively communicate, you have to be committed to sending out more information and admiting your original communication was inadequate. Use the same template as before in your recommunication but address the questions you have received.
While employee communications can be a challenge, using an effective approach can eliminate challenges. And I guess in that way, I do have a scientific way of doing things.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh I wish! I am a believer of telling employees what is going on whether it is good or bad news. Rumor, second guessing, and uncertainity destroys more productivity and morale than anything else. I have yet to work for a company that would allow full (or any) disclosure and in most cases keeping HR in the dark as well. Employees always know more than you want them to, so make sure they know the truth. If the ship is sinking, the rats will escape. Those who value the company will start bailing water and ride it out or go down playing their violin.
Persuading executives to be transparent in their communications to employees used to be like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill. I find that it’s gradually getting better, if for no other reason than with facebook, linked in, yammer, twitter, etc., transparency is no longer a choice.
Tell people what you want them to do. I worked with a guy who was brilliant. Absolute genius. He could look at a spreadsheet and it sang to him. He thought he could send the information to the factories and it would be obvious to everyone what needed to be done, as in, he would send an email and say nothing more than, “See attached spreadsheet and fix.” The spreadsheet would show all the ink colors in their glorious lack of standardization. (Or something wayyyyy more complex.)
I teased him, telling him not everyone had gotten a 1600 on his SAT. I would take his analysis and convert it to a specific task, such as “Please go through the ink colors on the #2 converting machine and standardize all notations so black is noted as “BLK” and brown is “BRN” etc, etc.”
Lance: I chuckled when I read the different thinking patterns of you and your wife. Years ago (we’ve been married 50 years) I realized that the extreme style differences betwee the two of us would destroy our marriage unless we figured out how to work with them. Obviously, we’ve been successful, but we found the Gregorc style delineator (http://gregorc.com/instrume.html) an exceedingly helpful key twenty five years or more ago. Our thnking styles are exceedingly different. My wife is a very high concrete sequential (sounds like your wife), and I am a very high concrete random (sounds like you). My ideas can be “off the wall,” while hers are very orderly. I’m far more creative than she, but she’s far more analytical and thorough than I–so I’ve learned to make necessary adjustments.
It’s also very helpful for working with different clients. At least half of my client development projects (one-on-one, long term–say a year or more) are concrete sequential, like my wife. As a result, I’ve learned how to converse and think in that framework. . . and they have a far better sense of themselves and their breakdowns.
Although I have the training that makes it possible for me to use an extensive battery of complex inventories and measures, I find this simple-minded Gregorc exceptionally helpful, and a number of long term clients use it to be more effective communicators.
The ability to read, speak and write in the standard, operative language of your culture is essential to success in any endeavor in business, commerce, industry, education and all other fields. Effective use of language skills is key on all levels, whether as an employee wanting to move up in an organization or as an executive responsible for managing employees in order to succeed in achieving the stated commmon purposes and mission of the group. Be direct, be concise, and be very clear in all of your communication with family, friends and associates and you will find that they hear and understand your messages very clearly. Active voice language is also important. Man bites dog is active (and would make a good headline if only there were a story to go with it). Dog bitten by man is passive and less effective.
Make the mastery of language skills one of your most important goals in life and through that mastery, you will find your other goals easier to achieve.
Don
I think communication is king no matter what profession and position we find ourselves in. You provide some good insight on how to effectively communicate with different types people in your company. While sometimes we have to communicate we messed up or things didn’t go according to plan, it at least sheds light on what is going on and prevents rumors from flying around the office.
Great post.
Great examples Lance, and great advice for improving communication in our organizations! I’ve featured your post in my weekly Rainmaker ‘Fab Five’ blog picks of the week (found here: http://www.maximizepossibility.com/employee_retention/2009/05/the-rainmaker-fab-five-blog-picks-of-the-week-2.html) to share your suggestions with my readers.
Be well Lance!
Convincing executives to be transparent is difficult. I wonder if anyone has any solid suggestions for making it work?
My technique has always been logical: people will find out or they will hear parts and assume the worst. Give them the official story honestly and they’ll waste less time.
I’ve never given this much thought, largely because as a consultant I know how to get them to be open/transparent with me. I have, however, watched certain clients become more transparent over the years. Here are my tentative conclusions (I haven’t thought through the research on this):
–transparency is a learned behavior. Most execs got to their role in the old system of CYA
–transparency is contextual. They’ll gradually be transparent with some and not with others. Initially, they’ll want confidentiality.
–early on, trust is a very significant issue with execs.
–asking about transparency is really about challenging a deeply held mental model about how the world of business works, a model that is changing in the new economy.
–when you ask, give the exec an out…”I know you may not be free to share this info, but. . . ”
–eventually, you can get around to the real issue: “What keeps you from being more transparent?” It’s a question you’ll want to reframe on several occasions to get the real truth. Once you get that info, then you may be able to assist the exec in removing the blocks.
–there are some execs that may be too damaged to ever learn to be transparent…I think of Steve Jobs.
–I remember asking a question of Pat McGinnis, CEO of Ralston Purina, a guy I have a lot of admiration for…He responded with a smile and a quick response, “Oh no. That’s not info I’m going to share with you.” And he explained why he couldn’t. However, on other occasions, he was quite willing to share confidential info about relevant issues, personnel, etc..
–Execs need a lot of info and understanding about why transparency is highly valuable…and some will require documentation for your perspective.
Lance, this is an intriguing question, and I need to do some more thinking about it–especially from the perspective of the employee rather than the consultant. But this is my stream of consciousness.
Great ideas. I’ve found that my clients fall into two general camps: the “Informers” and the “Communicators.” Informers like to tell you how it is. They can be very clear, polite and concise but the communication is essentially one way.
Communicators introduce the additional dimension of including the other party in the communication. They make communication a two-way exercise where both parties benefit from being able to provide input. When you have everyone’s participation, the communication is much more likely to be successful and people tend to feel better because their feedback is valued.
This approach to communication does, however, require that leaders learn how to interact collaboratively with their employees.
Regards,
Guy
Guy: One of my pet theories is that most males are clueless regarding interaction. You can see this in the unwillingness of males to ask questions. They talk and talk and talk, but rarely ask questions. Questioning and listening are what drive interaction.
The traditional research (I have little reason to doubt it) suggests that if a behavior is not taking place it’s because: in 1% of instances the person is malicious, 3-4% of instances the person is careless or thoughtless, and 95-96% of instances, the person has no tools in the kit bag. I think that most males have few interactional tools. And, of course, today’s business with clients requires very sophisticated tools of interaction, especially questioning tools. I have two major (really major–two year long) projects teaching professionals how to question and work with mental models.
FYI: I’ve built more than 25 years of business on that hypothesis. It would be interesting to hear an MSW respond to that.
Curious,
Dan
Just sent you an email…would love to meet up on Monday a.m.
We had had a massive communication issue at our company in one department. It was about the department head rather than the employees. We did a Myers Briggs test on him. The result was a very rigid personality. He was open to toning himself down and it made the department function much better. We’ve tried the same process in several other departments and gotten similar results. One person was very against the process – but most were somewhat open to seeing what they could do to aid communication. Like most things, it depends on the person and what they will allow to happen.
@Janice and others. I’ve never been especially thrilled by the MBTI, even though I’ve used it for years. (MBTI has an especially weak area). Clients expect it, so I give it to them (that’s not too cynical, merely pragmatic). I decided some time ago, after using a batteries of tests with several hundred clients , that the actual test doesn’t matter much. What you want is any instrument that will serve as a neutral mediator to make your point. In other words, here was some kind of statistical data that gave the boss insight on himself. He wouldn’t accept what the people had to say, but give him statistics or paper and he gets it. (Nuanced, interpersonal data gathered by an expert can be far more useful than any test in anyone’s dreamworld.)
People that have used and taken tests can manipulate them. Really. Tell me the answer you want on the MBTI, and I can take it and give you the answer you asked for. It’s really tough to take a test honestly when you know exactly what’s going on in the test. The longer, more difficult inventories, cannot be manipulated quite as much, but they’re susceptible. I’ve played around with both the MMPI and the CPI (they’re expensive tests, but I wanted to know) to see the degree I could manipulate them. They were more complex, but it still worked.
The really important point is that you use a test or inventory to make a point–statistically. Statistics are viewed as one of the very best forms of evidence. However, any statistician will tell you interpretation is more important than the numbers.
I’ve had execs look at me and say, “Erwin, you’ve talked to so and so for ten minutes. Give me a thumbnail rundown on the MBTI, Gregorc, etc….even the Strong Campbell.” I used to resist, but gave it to them. Of course, the client wanted the test, and it saved me a lot of time explaining or arguing with him/her when it could be seen in graphic, statistical format.
Psychometrists with their tests are really no more witch doctors than my cardiologist. Garbage in, garbage out.
I’m revealing this because I want readers to understand the real value of testing…and it’s not the statistics. Use them and take advantage of them. They function especially well to mediate problems and motivate people. Just make certain you know what the hell you’re using it for–then stick to your guns.