This blog is about the relationship between organizations and the people who work for them. And, it’s dedicated to the millions of people around the world who go to work every day wanting to do a great job.
Transparency
Grey zones are costing your organization big time
There’s a lot of focus in organizations on moving fast to meet customer needs and shifting market conditions. We’re encouraging employees to be more involved in defining and delivering organizational success. People from all levels and all functions of the organization are getting together to ‘hack’ solutions to important business problems. Collaboration is our mantra. Innovation our goal.
When the formal structures and systems of the organization aren’t supporting what we’re trying to do we’re finding ways around them. And this is a good thing. But, in our rush to collaborate and democratize our organizations we’re losing clarity. While we’re busy crowd sourcing hacks: Who’s got the responsibility? Who’s got the authority? And, how do we know? Will we only find out once whoever it is pops out of the wood work to disagree with what we’ve been working on/towards?
This lesson came crashing home last summer when I discovered that, on a not-for-profit project I’d been working on for several years, I had all the responsibility and no authority. Since, I’m in the business of clarifying, helping make the grey zones black and white, this was a shocking revelation. But it was an informal volunteer thing, so… “These thing happen”.
Now I’m noticing grey zones places where I would never have expected. In a high growth, high success organization that completed a major restructuring and failed to make accountabilities clear for over a year. In a 500 year old institution where lack of clarity on roles and relationships and responsibility and authority is somehow seen as a good thing. And, in a global company where decentralization of decision taking was taken to such an extreme that their shareholders are now threatening to sue them due to lack of oversight.
The grey zones we create, intentionally or not, are costing organizations time, energy, and money. They are increasing politics. It’s more and more about who you know rather than what you know or how well you do it.
Grey zones are decreasing transparency to the point where it’s virtually impossible for anyone to figure out who’s doing what, why, when and how decisions are being taken.
And, they are decreasing trust in the offering, the leadership, the institutions and, if you’re on the inside, in each other.
At high speeds, when we’re all moving fast to meet customer needs and shifting market conditions, new ways of working are imperative but grey zones may be costing us big time. Are they worth the risk?
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Be aware, be very aware
Dale Carnegie once said people will judge you not only by what you do, but also by how you do it, and what you say, and how you say it. In other words, words and speech matter. True, but strong and silent men and women have even more problems. Because in the real world people will judge you not only on what and how you do and say it, but when, where, why, and to whom you do it and when, where, why, and to whom you say it. Not to mention, who said and did what immediately before and after you did. In other words, words, speech, action, and context matter. This is why communication is so difficult. The lesson for communicators in organizations is “be aware be very aware.” A lesson everyone else would also be wise to learn,too.
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What do we do?
Good question.
“I’m an internal communications specialist.” Silence. ”Oh you mean you do employee newsletters?” Sigh.
“I work at the intersection of the brand, human resources, and business strategy. I help my clients involve their people and achieve the goals they are after.” Silence.
Then a conversation last week with a client who’s worked with me three times before – once as a colleague, and twice as a client. “You know what you do for me isn’t communication. It’s OD or change management or something. It’s not really communications… ”
This shouldn’t be so hard. I’m a communications professional after all.
Apparently I’m not alone. Just this week, the PRSA launched an initiative to update the definition of public relations. They set up a website where people can submit their definition and see it in a word cloud. Cool.
And then, Richard Edelman’s address to the IPR crossed my desk. “Re-imagining our profession. Public relations for a complex world” sheds some light and reinforces a view I’ve been trying to express – badly: ”…policy and communications cannot be separated… both are tied to operating reality. Communications must be a core element in the business planning process.”
I’d go further. Communications is core to doing business. Strategy and operations must be aligned and the only way to achieve that is through communications. Relationships with employees, customers, suppliers and vendors, governments and shareholders need to be built and sustained over time. And the only way to do that is by communicating.
Edelman goes on to say that “PR needs to create coherence out of complexity. As the stakeholder discipline, we are the profession that pays attention to the broad interests of the corporation… one foot planted on the policy side and the other on the communications side.”
The best of us [and as organizational leaders you should be demanding nothing but the best] think about the world from that place where the interests [and point of view] of key stakeholders, the operation and the strategy come together to create an institutional experience. That’s where I live and work [with a particular passion for employees].
Whatever it’s called it’s ….it’s what I do. And as my clients will tell you it helps them achieve their business and professional goals. Now I guess I need to find a better label than communications! Be seeing you!
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A case of “internal communication deficit disorder”.
This week a Canadian University was diagnosed with internal communication deficit disorder. Though not rare, the disorder is almost always fatal if left untreated.
Concordia University is an institution I know well. It’s 45,000 students studying in over “300 undergraduate and 200 graduate programs” are at the centre of the downtown community I work and live in. I studied and graduated with my MBA from there; began studies for a PhD there; taught there; consulted there; worked with a student intern and volunteers from there on an urban farming project. And it’s an institution that has seemed sick at the core for some time; perhaps even further back than the Fabrikant murders in 1992.
Last year, for the second time in 3 years the President left before the end of their contract. After considerable bad press and internal finger pointing, the interim President, Dr Frederick Lowy, asked an external committee to review the governance of the university. This week, Concordia University received the report “Strengthening governance at Concordia: A collective challenge“. The review pulls no punches in reporting the situation and recommending changes to all aspects of governance.
Among other things, the review panel reported that the university was “…blatantly deficient internal communications“… had created “…a lot of distrust, often bordering on mutual contempt, between the various communities of the University.” And that “…the chorus of negative response [to the most recent President’s departure], the depth and even the fury of that response could only have arisen in a context where long simmering governance and internal communication problems between the Board and the University community, to say nothing of other outstanding matters, had neither been addressed nor resolved.” The report reflects my experience and understanding of the good [and there is a lot of good there], bad and the ugly of Concordia.
Today, the University has a decision to make: To take the recommended course of treatment for internal communication deficit disorder or not; to act on the letter and spirit of the report and its 38 recommendations or not.
If they do, it won’t be either a quick or easy recovery but recover they will. Concordia has an opportunity to change how they do things. To become a place where the board, faculty, administration, and students work together to create a unique and compelling experience for those who want to study and learn, to teach and do research, to invent and explore new ideas. In the end, this report and its recommendations are less about fixing something that is broken and more about supporting Concordia in becoming the great institution it has always had the potential to be.
As a neighbour, alumnus and friend that’s my hope.
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Employee orientation. The essentials.
New employee orientation begins way before you think it does. It starts when an employee makes first contact with your organization. That could have been years ago if they use your product or service or if you’re a major brand with lots of advertising dollars. Or it could have been the job ad on Workopolis or Monster. Or it could have been at a booth at a job fair. It most certainly isn’t at that “onboarding” event you asked them to attend 2 months after they started working for you.
Orienting employees has more to do with introducing employees to your culture: “The way we do things around here” and the brand experience than it does all the rules and regs that are the usual focus of employee orientations.
Nordstrom’s employee handbook may do this better than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s certainly the shortest. Here it is in its entirety.
Welcome to Nordstrom
We’re glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them.
Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.
Please feel free to ask your department manager, store manager, or division general manager any question at any time.
What do you think? Does this say more about their culture than a full-day briefing and a 300-page orientation binder?
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Great idea # 2 – Netflix on building a great culture
An occasional post on a really great idea for internal communications – simple and high impact.
““I will not lie, not cheat, not steal,
nor tolerate those who do.”
All of us are responsible for value consistency.”
What a simple and obvious way to ensure that values are valued. And that behaviours reflect values. Well, it may be obvious, but how many organizations do you know where employees are really responsible for ensuring values consistency?
Netflix CEO Reed Hasting’s “Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture” presents their current best thinking about maximizing Netflix likelihood of continuous success.
I’m a little behind in seeing this. But thanks my good friend Christine Pietschmann I did.
This deck is one of the best things to cross my desk in a long time. It’s well worth the time it takes to flip through the 128 slides. It’s clear. It’s concise. It describes the kind of culture Netflix is building and practically what that means for employees and managers on a day-to-day basis.
It describes in a comprehensive way ‘how we do things around here’, why, and what that means for you – if you are already an employee or if you’re considering joining Netflix. And it has clear implications for you if you are an investor or a customer or potential customer. No ambiguity. No gray zone. No corporate jargon. No acronyms.
Well done Netflix! You’ve set the bar very high indeed.
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The power of acronyms
I’ve always thought that once we moved from typing on machines the days of the acronym would be over. Why do we need them? We don’t need to push keys up and down to type in the same words over and over. We can search and replace in one stroke.
I was so wrong. Acronyms are alive and thriving in every organization I work with.
Acronyms are short form. They’re code. They’re kind of cool – you can make them spell catchy words like DEVIL [development in logistics – thanks to my dad who loved creating sticky acronyms for projects he led]. They’re the part of the language that proves you’re part of the ‘in’ group – the ones that know what the acronyms mean. Until you don’t.
I remember joining a large global company about a decade ago. Engineering was key to this business and so were engineers. And engineers love acronyms [an unproven theory]. Anyway, I went to meeting after meeting in those early days just trying to wade through the acronyms.
There was one meeting that stands out. Somewhere about 5 minutes into the meeting someone referred to “XMNP” [acronym disguised to protect the innocent]. The discussion got incredibly animated and built to a crescendo when about an hour in I realized that there were two groups in the room. They both used “XMNP” acronym. And they both used it in different ways. They were fighting about different things. No one had really thought about what the initials meant since they’d made them up and except for the new person in the room who asked they might not have.
And that’s when I realized the real power of acronyms is to obscure and confuse. If you’re not in favour of obscuring and confusing then I think you know what you have to do.
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Recent Posts
- Decisions based on compromise
- Grey zones are costing your organization big time
- Saying goodbye to jargon
- Don’t leave them laughing
- A master class with Ed Sullivan
- Innovation & collaboration: Strategic priorities or not?
- The truth about the number 1 fear
- Want to know the secret to writing a great speech?
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Recent posts
- Decisions based on compromise
- Grey zones are costing your organization big time
- Saying goodbye to jargon
- Don’t leave them laughing
- A master class with Ed Sullivan
- Innovation & collaboration: Strategic priorities or not?
- The truth about the number 1 fear
- Want to know the secret to writing a great speech?
- Connecting for big business benefits
- Staying in touch with reality
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