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Will You Add? - Communicating Change; Don't Let Them Hear It on the Grapevine
What do you do when your boss calls you into her office, closes the door, and says, "...we're not happy with your performance on this job, so we're terminating your employment. Go clean out your desk and report to HR for your exit interview and your final paycheck." I've been fired a few time in my career and I'll share what I've learned from the experience.The Initial Shock Your first reaction might be stunned silence - you didn't see this coming and it caught you completely by surprise. If this is the case, then you've got a rotten boss, because a termination shoul
Waiting until all factors are known invites the risk of people filling in the communication gaps they observe with speculation fuelled by rumour and counter rumour, denial and further speculation.
Telling people early does not eliminate speculation. What it does do is concentrate the speculation on what is truly unknown. If organisations take the time to think through the process before making announcements, then the discussion may even be able to centre on the adequacy of the process rather than the potential range of outcomes.
In managing change, discussions on the process for cha
What is a profit and loss account?The profit and loss account (p&l) is usually presented as a statement and it shows the trading activity and associated expenditure of an organisation over a defined period of time. A typical p&l will contain the following:SalesThis is the turnover of the business, the main source of income from sales of products or services. This figure is always net of taxes as these are payable to the government and do not form part of the income of the business.Purchases (stock/inventory)Purchases are the items of
Many organisations have difficulty determining the answers to the former question and do not enough thinking about the latter question and few ask the question, "What do our employees consider to be bad or good news and what news are they interested in hearing?" at all.
Further still, not enough thought is given to how the communication of news can shape the culture of an organisation.
Bad news or even extremely good news is difficult to keep completely secret. Good or bad, pending major news announcements generally require discussions between senior executives, the human resources function, the finance function and significant groups of line management. Sometimes it requires the pulling together of a project team.
Employees are not stupid. They notice when HR, finance and line management are having long meetings locked away in a room. They notice when people are pulled off their normal jobs to conduct a study. They notice when people they regard as friends stop talking about what they are doing.
At some time, even though the most draconian confidentiality clauses have been signed, a snippet of information will leak out. Even if it is that, "I have signed a confidentiality agreement about this and therefore I can't talk to you about the project".
The recipient of this information knows three things from this sentence; the impact of the "project" is BIG, the initiative being worked on is complex enough to make it into a project, and whatever line of business their friend is in is involved.
What they don't know is what areas of the organisation will be impacted. Will it be people? Will it be the financial status of the organisation? Will it be marketing or sales or operations? Will it involve an expansion or contraction of activities?
Rest assured that the individuals who do not know will speculate, piecing together what they do know and what they perceive they know. They will begin to interpret words said by the leadership group and others they perceive to be "in the know", based on their particular view of what might be happening.
Fairly soon, conspiracy theories emerge which need to be denied by the leadership group. The denial is listened to and interpreted by some with a high level of scepticism, not so much in the context of what is said, but in the context of what is not said.
Uncertainty and rumours feed off each other in a situation where employees know something is going on and they know they are not being told about it. Perceptions become un-shakeable truths in days.
Through all of my major change experiences whether the news was good or bad, I have found an adage that works for me. "Tell them early and tell them often" is my mantra for communicating change. It is better to tell employees early on that change is coming, that it will be significant and to spell out the process by which they will be engaged and by which decisions will be taken and communicated than it is to wait until all the factors are known.
Waiting until all factors are known invites the risk of people filling in the communication gaps they observe with speculation fuelled by rumour and counter rumour, denial and further speculation.
Telling people early does not eliminate speculation. What it does do is concentrate the speculation on what is truly unknown. If organisations take the time to think through the process before making announcements, then the discussion may even be able to centre on the adequacy of the process rather than the potential range of outcomes.
In managing change, discussions on the process for chan
An interesting aspect of the proposed new Security & Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations on Executive Compensation relate to the need to supply justification for their decisions (see February 2006 issue for details of the proposed regulation). Currently, most Boards provide a written section, which discusses their general philosophy, such as “providing a total compensation package for executives that is competitive with a group of comparable companies”. In recent public filings, the narrative has even spelled out relative to the measures that will be used in evaluating the level of performan
Employees are not stupid. They notice when HR, finance and line management are having long meetings locked away in a room. They notice when people are pulled off their normal jobs to conduct a study. They notice when people they regard as friends stop talking about what they are doing.
At some time, even though the most draconian confidentiality clauses have been signed, a snippet of information will leak out. Even if it is that, "I have signed a confidentiality agreement about this and therefore I can't talk to you about the project".
The recipient of this information knows three things from this sentence; the impact of the "project" is BIG, the initiative being worked on is complex enough to make it into a project, and whatever line of business their friend is in is involved.
What they don't know is what areas of the organisation will be impacted. Will it be people? Will it be the financial status of the organisation? Will it be marketing or sales or operations? Will it involve an expansion or contraction of activities?
Rest assured that the individuals who do not know will speculate, piecing together what they do know and what they perceive they know. They will begin to interpret words said by the leadership group and others they perceive to be "in the know", based on their particular view of what might be happening.
Fairly soon, conspiracy theories emerge which need to be denied by the leadership group. The denial is listened to and interpreted by some with a high level of scepticism, not so much in the context of what is said, but in the context of what is not said.
Uncertainty and rumours feed off each other in a situation where employees know something is going on and they know they are not being told about it. Perceptions become un-shakeable truths in days.
Through all of my major change experiences whether the news was good or bad, I have found an adage that works for me. "Tell them early and tell them often" is my mantra for communicating change. It is better to tell employees early on that change is coming, that it will be significant and to spell out the process by which they will be engaged and by which decisions will be taken and communicated than it is to wait until all the factors are known.
Waiting until all factors are known invites the risk of people filling in the communication gaps they observe with speculation fuelled by rumour and counter rumour, denial and further speculation.
Telling people early does not eliminate speculation. What it does do is concentrate the speculation on what is truly unknown. If organisations take the time to think through the process before making announcements, then the discussion may even be able to centre on the adequacy of the process rather than the potential range of outcomes.
In managing change, discussions on the process for cha
Business directories are an excellent platform to both advertise and find useful contacts, resources and supplies. Since the millennium the internet has become filled with directories to the point that at times they have swamped the search engines, Google and Yahoo for example. Such directories come in a many forms. The aim here is to discuss the differing directory types, their use on the internet and to offer tips on embarking one of the many paid for services.First off, we have the business to consumer directories, some of these are excellent and some not so good, yell.com probably sta
What they don't know is what areas of the organisation will be impacted. Will it be people? Will it be the financial status of the organisation? Will it be marketing or sales or operations? Will it involve an expansion or contraction of activities?
Rest assured that the individuals who do not know will speculate, piecing together what they do know and what they perceive they know. They will begin to interpret words said by the leadership group and others they perceive to be "in the know", based on their particular view of what might be happening.
Fairly soon, conspiracy theories emerge which need to be denied by the leadership group. The denial is listened to and interpreted by some with a high level of scepticism, not so much in the context of what is said, but in the context of what is not said.
Uncertainty and rumours feed off each other in a situation where employees know something is going on and they know they are not being told about it. Perceptions become un-shakeable truths in days.
Through all of my major change experiences whether the news was good or bad, I have found an adage that works for me. "Tell them early and tell them often" is my mantra for communicating change. It is better to tell employees early on that change is coming, that it will be significant and to spell out the process by which they will be engaged and by which decisions will be taken and communicated than it is to wait until all the factors are known.
Waiting until all factors are known invites the risk of people filling in the communication gaps they observe with speculation fuelled by rumour and counter rumour, denial and further speculation.
Telling people early does not eliminate speculation. What it does do is concentrate the speculation on what is truly unknown. If organisations take the time to think through the process before making announcements, then the discussion may even be able to centre on the adequacy of the process rather than the potential range of outcomes.
In managing change, discussions on the process for cha
"Ed, I used to love this place. We were all firefighters when we needed to be, and that's good. But right now it’s full of arsonists."Change leaders don’t get it. They confuse enthusiasm for progress. Oftentimes their best people are arsonists and they don’t even know it. They allow their organizations to be so hooked on the old ways of firefighting, where they get their jolly's being the fire chief and putting out fires that they can't let it go. They don’t have the guts to instill process discipline, discipline that is needed to drive change.When we were brought in to Compaq in t
Uncertainty and rumours feed off each other in a situation where employees know something is going on and they know they are not being told about it. Perceptions become un-shakeable truths in days.
Through all of my major change experiences whether the news was good or bad, I have found an adage that works for me. "Tell them early and tell them often" is my mantra for communicating change. It is better to tell employees early on that change is coming, that it will be significant and to spell out the process by which they will be engaged and by which decisions will be taken and communicated than it is to wait until all the factors are known.
Waiting until all factors are known invites the risk of people filling in the communication gaps they observe with speculation fuelled by rumour and counter rumour, denial and further speculation.
Telling people early does not eliminate speculation. What it does do is concentrate the speculation on what is truly unknown. If organisations take the time to think through the process before making announcements, then the discussion may even be able to centre on the adequacy of the process rather than the potential range of outcomes.
In managing change, discussions on the process for cha
Shrink wrap systems are commonly used by various industries to protect their products from moisture, dirt, and damage during storage or transport. Shrink wrap is also a quick and simple way to keep items neatly organized. Plastic film, made of PVC, Polyolefin or polyethylene wraps around the objects.When the film is heated, it shrinks, conforming to the shape of the object and sealing it from outside elements. Shrink wrap systems may be handheld, or automatic machines with a high throughput that can handle objects of different sizes quickly.Separate shrink wrap systems exist for CD
Waiting until all factors are known invites the risk of people filling in the communication gaps they observe with speculation fuelled by rumour and counter rumour, denial and further speculation.
Telling people early does not eliminate speculation. What it does do is concentrate the speculation on what is truly unknown. If organisations take the time to think through the process before making announcements, then the discussion may even be able to centre on the adequacy of the process rather than the potential range of outcomes.
In managing change, discussions on the process for change are always welcome as the inevitability of change by then has been generally accepted.
Other benefits accrue from telling employees early about change even if all that can be told is the rationale for change and the process for change. When employees know about the rationale and process they form opinions on what else they want to know. They form opinions on what to each of them and as groups, is considered bad news and good news.
Setting in place a feedback mechanism for employees to tell the leadership group about their reactions and thoughts is an important tool to use in any change programme. It stops senior executives and line managers speculating themselves about what is important to employees.
Developing a communication strategy for what an organisation wants their employees to feel, think and do, distinct from what they currently feel, think and do, is important. It does not matter whether the news is good or bad.
Organisations that fail to think through their communication strategy are leaving their future at the mercy of the grapevine.
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