Category Archives: Internal Communications

Communications, Internal Communications, public relations

Handling Hecklers

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Whether you’re standing in front of an audience of thousands or your colleagues in a meeting, handling a heckler is no fun, but it can be done with aplomb.

In various studies conducted over the years, public speaking has ranked number one as the most feared activity.  In some studies, almost 30% of respondents have indicated that they feared public speaking more than death. Jerry Seinfeld may have put it best when he said, “Most people would rather be in the casket at a funeral, than giving the eulogy”.

Since public speaking can encompass delivering a lecture, standing up in class or a meeting to express an opinion, there are any number of communications opportunities that get missed due to fear. In fact, fear of public speaking can have a negative impact on your career and can undermine success in life if you do nothing about it. The good news is that you can do something about your fear.

There are tried and true methods explored in Trips, Sniffs and Nerves and in Body Language that can help you to overcome everything from your hesitation to sweaty palms. However, there are other things that can go wrong that have little to do with your preparation or nerves but can make you reluctant to speak. Although it doesn’t happen often, every once in a while you will come across someone who wants to challenge the authority of the speaker.  They may have an agenda of their own and are looking for a forum, they may be holding a grudge. They may simply be cranky. Whatever it is that motivates this verbal bully, you can manage them just as you do other aspects of your presentation.

The first thing that you need to remember is that you are in charge of you and your presentation. There are tips out there for taking on a heckler and perhaps having a battle of wits, but that doesn’t seem like much fun for you if you’re nervous about public speaking and certainly, no fun for the audience unless you’re a professional comedian.

I enjoy public speaking. I happily abandon the stage and walk in and among the audience when presenting. Hecklers don’t phase me and I generally try to incorporate them into the presentation…to a point. If practice makes for a better presentation, then taking on an additional presenter in the middle of delivering is hardly going to improve your performance. Instead, avoid grandstanding and deal with a heckler by taking a deep breath and allowing the heckler to deliver their message. In most cases, the audience will be more annoyed than you are by the interruption and let the heckler know it, but that can only happen if you let them have their airtime and keep your cool.  Once they have said their bit and you have responded (to the group, not just the heckler), they are generally prepared to be quiet.

If that’s not the case and they persist in disrupting you or being rude, consider the following tips:

  • Acknowledge what they are doing, consider saying, “You’ve made many points or asked many questions.”
  • If that isn’t sufficient, then let them know how they are making you feel. This is not an opportunity to be rude, accusatory or judgmental. Try saying, “I’m having a hard time completing my presentation.” or “I’m having a hard time finishing.”
  • If the heckler just really wants to keep going no matter what you do, solicit the aid of your audience by asking them through a show of hands what they would prefer, the rest of your presentation or an impromptu presentation by the heckler.  If you have been patient and have allowed the heckler to say their piece and have responded, the audience will vote them off the island.
  • If you are in a meeting consider thanking them for their input and saying no more or ask them if they would like to continue the conversation privately later.

During the Question and Answer Period

  • Challenge a negative premise.  The world isn’t always doom and gloom. Worst-case scenarios are interesting, but not the only eventuality. Addressing worst-case scenarios or “what if” questions will typically lead to you saying things better left unsaid.
  • Use reflective language to ensure you understand their point and to let them know you were listening, try saying,  “So you are saying…” This approach also works if you get a heckler on your blog.
  • When you do respond, don’t repeat baiting words – use your own words or risk being quoted later with words you never intended to utter.
  • Remember to remain calm yet assertive.
  • Don’t speak on behalf of others.
  • Keep your own opinion to yourself if you are representing an organization. Any comment you make will be recalled as being organizational. Even if you state it as a “personal opinion”
  • If you can’t answer a question, give a reason why you can’t answer and move on. Don’t guess or speculate. Consider saying, “I would rather not speculate and I can’t answer your question.”
  • Break up multi-part questions in your answer.
  • More than anything, remember that you’re in charge of your reactions.

Have you ever run across a heckler online or in person? How did you manage the situation? Have you ever seen anyone do a great job of dealing with a heckler?  What did they do?

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Communications, Internal Communications, Management

Surprises at Work

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I once had a boss who loved to sabotage meetings.  It wasn’t a question of him not liking his staff or even disliking meetings.  It was more that he didn’t want people to enter into discussions with their minds already made up. His theory was that if we all started from the same point, with the same information, we would produce honest and open responses. So, he habitually called meetings without explanation or gave only the vaguest indication of what he had on his mind.

While this concept might have worked in theory, it was a bit of a bust in practice.  I remember feeling completely lost in meetings, staring across the boardroom table at my colleagues who were equally lost while our boss discussed his newest idea.  Now, I’m all for hearing new ideas, but he wanted a decision about what we thought of his idea right then and there. What we discussed was his idea, his research on the idea, his perspective, his contemplation and of course, his bias. It didn’t go well. Not because he wasn’t smart, but because there was no opportunity for the rest of us to research, test or think about the idea as he had.

No matter what genius you call your own, if you really want your ideas to be given a fair hearing, you have to assume people need time to consider and test that idea. No matter your ailment, you probably wouldn’t take medication based on even the best scientist’s suggestion without first knowing some independent testing had been done.  So why would you accept an untested idea any quicker?

So what did we do as a group when my boss presented his surprise idea? We reacted on instinct, impulse and prior bias.  Instead of having an open debate, we ended up arguing over our own biases, perspectives and ideas. The facts had little to do with the discussion. Rather than build on an idea collectively based on our individual expertise, we became little more than the sum of our independent parts.  For those of you who have been taken by surprise at work by unexpected propositions, meetings or changes, you won’t be surprised to know that our meetings frequently ended in tears, anger or frustration – not exactly an ideal or productive working experience. Certainly not the honest and open response my boss had hoped for.

Lessons Learned:

  • No one likes surprises at work.
  • Whether you’re preparing for internal or external meetings, providing a fair warning in the form of a briefing note or clear agenda is central to success.
  • Give participants the opportunity to bring their best thoughts and research to the table and your meeting will prove more fruitful, effective and productive.
  • Taking people by surprise with ideas means that, rather than putting ideas to the test before implementation, at best all you’ll get is the sum of your own parts and some disgruntled colleagues.
  • Even if you’re the best brain on the planet, synergy will always improve on good ideas, not to mention the acceptance of them.
  • Despite the popularity of brainstorming sessions, they have many built in flaws that reduce their effectiveness.
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Communications, Internal Communications

E-MAIL Versus Communications

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It lurks, waiting for the unsuspecting communicator.  Its disguise, the quick and easy transition of words or documents from one place to another. Yet it has an insidious power that can transform grown men into small-minded bullies or professional women into petty tyrants. Yes, I’m talking about e-mail.  If we’re totally honest with ourselves, we would see email for what it really is, a supervillain.  I’ve seen the horror it can do.

I’ve run down a hallway shouting to colleagues to, “STOP SENDING E-MAILS” when a chain of emails with some of our stakeholders across the country escalated into war. It’s not that I don’t enjoy a good joke and really, email fights are always funny in retrospect. It is just that when you make your living building relationships, you don’t have much humour about watching years of cultivation, goodwill and hard work go up in flames because of a few poorly worded emails. It’s not just your external stakeholders who can be affected by it either. Internal emails are probably among the most prolific contributors to poor morale.

A poorly worded or too widely sent email can spiral a team into chaos. I’ve coached managers on what to say to chronic email abusers and I’ve had to soothe frustrated team members when someone showed disrespect to them in an email. There is also the abusive reply all function. Imagine the chain of events that unfolds when thousands of people receive a shrill email questioning management on a decision that impacted the whole organization. I still wake up screaming.

Or there is the unjustified anger that follows when someone sends an email with directions and subsequently does not get the behaviour they want. If I hear one more time, “But I sent them an email!” I may get dangerous. For the record:

  • Sending does not mean people received it.
  • Receiving it doesn’t mean they read it.
  • Reading it doesn’t mean they understood it.

There are protocols associated with email use that is a Google search away, so I won’t belabour the point here, but keep these lessons in mind.

Lessons Learned

  • Read it out loud, if it sounds obnoxious, it is. Don’t send it.
  • A smiley face after being obnoxious doesn’t make the email less obnoxious.
  • How many people really need to see your message? Do the math and don’t add anyone else.
  • If you’re getting angry, stop emailing, pick up the phone or walk down the hall.
  • If it’s urgent, important or a risk issue, don’t email, pick up the phone or walk down the hall.
  • E-mail is a temporary short-cut for sharing information, not a substitute for good communications or good relationship management.

Have any e-mail nightmares to share? Do you LOVE email or are you a careful user?

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Internal Communications

Lies

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Lies

Any number of people might assume that I lie for a living. Public relations people are often asked (mistakenly) to spin bad news into good. It’s kinda like asking someone to spin straw into gold. I have yet to meet a communications person who could alter the outcome of news by using more pleasant words. No matter how good, bad or indifferent the news, you can’t change its impact by using clever language. Using rightsizing instead of downsizing doesn’t stop anyone from losing a job. Financial restraint instead of financial trouble, doesn’t give you more money. In fact, this kind of sanitization makes people want to roll their eyes and walk away.

There are occasions however when a lie can have a soothing or calming effect. When it’s easier all round to lie in order to get out of a difficult social situation. There are points in my work day when I simply don’t see any choice in the matter. Faced with a colleague who I will happily chat away thirty minutes of my day with if I answer honestly, “yes I’d love a coffee” then I may respond with a no. Or there are those times when in response to a query from a concerned co-worker I nod my assurances that her pink polka dot dress doesn’t look that bad. I cringe as I head back to my office, but have probably avoided an extended period of distraction as she tries to determine if a sweater, belt or anything makes the polka dots better or worst. These lies generally make our social interactions run smoothly.

For most of us when we are put on the spot and feel we have to make up a lie to get out of an awkward social situation, we struggle.  We scramble around looking for something to say.  We run through a series of disconnected thoughts in our head trying to come up with something to say that might be believed. It takes us time and the more time it takes the more awkward the situation becomes. Good liars or habitual liars on the other hand are very good at producing their lies on the spot.  They can quickly analyze the situation and run through plausible scenarios and ideas at top speed until they reach an effective lie.

Like most things in life the context matters.  When a good liar is getting out of an awkward social situation you may laugh over their efforts or even appreciate their finesse.  When a good liar applies their skills to undermine your work then it’s not so funny. Most of us have encountered a liar at work, the liars who lie because it makes them look good or gets them out of trouble. Someone who doesn’t think twice about claiming the work of a colleague as their own and who won’t hesitate to explain that they had no idea that a project was due that day, although they were given the deadline several times. These folks are problematic not just because what they do is inherently unfair, but they also engender a great deal of discontent among colleagues, creating any number morale challenges. If they are successful at work and are given recognition they didn’t earn, or worst still, a position of authority, they send all the wrong messages to the rest of the organization.

If you have ever encountered anyone like this in the work setting you probably want to know how you can avoid them in the future. The good news is that there are a number of tips and hints out there on how to spot a liar. The bad news is that most of them would require intensive training in micro-expressions which once accomplished may still prove useless. While micro-expressions can tell us what someone is feeling they don’t tell us why they are feeling it?  You can learn to correctly interpret fear, anger or surprise but that doesn’t mean you know why someone is feeling it. Micro-expressions are micro because they are fleeting.  They may be a result of the conversation you are having or they may be a consequence of a passing thought that is completely unrelated to the conversation.

Harvard Business School professor, Deepak Malhotra and his colleagues from the University of Wisconsin, Associate Professor Lyn M. Van Swol and doctoral candidate Michael T. Braun offer an interesting alternative.  They look at liars based on linguistic cues in their paper, Evidence for the Pinocchio Effect: Linguistic Differences Between Lies, Deception by Omissions, and Truths, published in the journal Discourse Processes.

In brief they suggest looking for these cues if you think you’ve got a liar on your hands.

Liars are chatty: Liars use more words .Van Swol called this “the Pinocchio effect.” The more they lied the more words they needed to make the lie seem real.

Liars by omission are more abrupt: Perhaps they are trying to avoid blurting out the truth, but liars by omission like to keep their answers short and to the point

Liars swear: Compared to most people, liars use more swear words. It’s as if their filter fails in this area because they are working so hard fabricating in other parts of their brain. If ever you needed a reason to stop swearing, this is a great one.

Liars speak in the third person: Maybe because their telling a story, maybe because they need some space between themselves and the lie.

Liars use complex sentences: So not only do they say more, they say it in really complicated ways.

Told any whoppers? Ever have someone tell you a blatant lie? Take credit for your work? I’d love to hear your comments.

Quick Reminder, I’m inviting stories on communications for my blog.  For more information, check out last weeks post, Everyone Loves A Good Story.

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Internal Communications, public relations

Saturday Morning Chit Chat, Laugh it up…at work

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Laugh it up...at work

I like to laugh. I like to laugh a lot, and I have one of those laughs that you can hear down the street.  I’ve been told it is infectious. Actually, my husband was once told by new neighbours that they loved his wife’s laugh.  They could hear it through their closed windows in the winter.

My laughter is an intrinsic part of me. I can’t express myself without it showing up sooner or later. So you can imagine that when I’m at work, that laughter is still in play. It’s what helps me get closer to people, it helps me to engage. Not surprisingly, it’s easier to know someone when you laugh with them. Yeah, I can focus.  I’ve been known to start the first conversation of the day by asking about a project and then remembering to say good morning and take off my coat, but I always go back to laughing.  One of my old bosses claimed he could hear me laughing at the building’s entrance, down the corridor, four floors below. He was unimpressed, I think he underestimated the echo effect of elevator shafts.

Sometimes, when laughter makes it’s way into conversations about work there is the impression that a professional atmosphere doesn’t include a sense of humour. I always wonder why. Are you working with humans? Humans don’t wear one emotion indefinitely and we spend more time at work than we do in almost any other endeavour.  I’m not suggesting becoming the office goof or showing disrespect, just that you need to have a release valve at work, the same way that you do anywhere. Arguably, the more stressful your job, the more often you should look for humour as a release.  That pent up energy has to go somewhere and too often anger is the outcome.

I work for an amazing home care organization.  We have thousands of nurses, personal support workers and volunteers moving in and out of private homes all day long, every day.  You can imagine that with that much interaction, I periodically get called in because situations have escalated into potential media problems. They aren’t always funny, in fact, they rarely are and they can ratchet up the tension quickly.  So calm and humour are often the tools that I use to diffuse a situation. Again, because it bares repeating, appropriate humour.

There are other times when the situation is so strange or silly that the only thing you can do is laugh.  A while back one of our sites contacted me when the son of a client threatened to go to the media because our nurse refused to visit his mother. She refused because every time she went, the son, a man in his thirties, would be dressed in nothing but his underwear.  Eventually the nurse was so unnerved by the man’s near nudity (remember, he’s not the client) that she finally put her foot down and refused to go unless he put on some pants during her visits.

When the site contacted me to share this problem there was an awkward silence. I was on the line with a very concerned district executive director and an equally serious director of risk. Eventually I burst out laughing, then said, “Let him go to the media. It will be the best coverage we’ve ever had.  The public will get a chance to see how difficult the job of our front line workers is.”

My reaction was unanticipated by my colleagues, but it diffused the tension that was building and gave a little perspective. Not all situations are worth a laugh, but sometimes you have to relax and release. The Wall Street Journal recently carried a great article on the value of humour at a work. In it they not only suggest it’s a good idea but share some of the science behind why.  Notably, being funny makes you seem smarter, employers like people with a sense of humour, it builds rapport and when you laugh it stimulates the same part of your brain that reacts when you get a big bonus check.  Not bad for a giggle, so laugh it up.

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Communications, Internal Communications

Finding Common Ground

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Finding Common GroundSometimes the hardest part of facilitating communications is people recognizing that that they need the facilitation. Communications is such an all-encompassing term.  We all communicate, in fact, we’re engineered for it.  Everything about us is geared towards getting our message out.  The way we use our hands, the shape of our vocal chords, even our eyes. We gave up a useful protective camouflage by having so much of our eyes be white and we did it for the sole purpose of better communication.

With so much focussed on enhancing our capacity to communicate, it’s not surprising that we would struggle with the concept of a professional communicator, after all, isn’t it an inherent human trait? Yes and no. Yes, we are geared to express ourselves, but we are geared to express ourselves best inside our own tribe.

Finding Common Ground in Communications - Schramm's ModelThink of a group of chemists having a wonderful conversation on the molecular structure of various substances. They could have a heated debate or energetic agreement, but it’s unlikely that the average person could join in  or even follow the exchange. The language would be specific to their field of interest and particular knowledge. Seems obvious enough, but often when it comes to organizational communications, or even person to person communications the deliverer of the message takes for granted that all listeners will understand what is being said. Wilbur Shramm put it simply and said that for understanding to take place between the source (sender) of the message and the destination (recipient), they must have something in common. Communicators work to identify and develop that common ground.

In my work as a liaison between organizations it became very clear how easy it was to misinterpret messages.  Let me give you an example, a national organization set out to build closer ties with its provincial counterparts. In an effort to express their desire to enhance relations, they decided to give a gift or peace offering to several provincial organizations. Nova Scotia said thanks, Ontario didn’t respond and Alberta got angry. What happened?

Traditionally the organization I represented would speculate on the reasons for the various responses, determine what they thought the problem might be and then decide not to offer a similar gift again. However as I was tasked with building the relationships, I opted to visit Alberta. Why speculate about the answer when I could just ask them what was going on? By meeting them in person I would be able to not just hear them but see what their body’s had to say.

I flew to Edmonton and met with the CEO and second in command to ask them, why the gift had upset them. Imagine my surprise when they explained that they would not tolerate attempts to restrict or in any other way control them. Since the peace offering came in the form of a free publication that could be altered to reflect the needs of the user, I was flabbergasted and asked them to explain further. Through discussion it was eventually revealed that the sample we had sent had images that were inconsistent with local activities…I said we could change the images to whatever they thought would suite. They said the literary content was out of date with the local practices.   I said they could change the content to reflect local objectives. “But, that would cost a lot of money if you did that for all of us!” exclaimed the disbelieving executive.

“That’s why it’s a gift.” I said. After an awkward silence we started laughing. I asked why they thought we would not change the content or images when we had offered to do so from the start.  It turns out that historically there had been a somewhat patriarchal relationship between the two organizations and although the people had changed, the nature of the relationship had not. Over time, the provincial organization had grown to resent the national body and felt they didn’t understand their needs. There was also an expectation of disagreement on both sides. The national organization expected the provincial organization to reject anything they said or suggested, so didn’t spend much time investigating the reasons.  The dance pattern had been set and the dance partners chosen.  No one veered from the pattern or suggested a change in music. Since there was a tacit understanding on what to expect, at every encounter the assumptions would grow until the estrangement was so loaded that even a peace offering could be interpreted as a threat.

What communicators do is work to understand the perceptions of the source and the destination and make sure that the signal or message is delivered in an environment of mutual understanding.  In order to do that effectively we have to be able to step into everyone’s shoes, even if just for a moment and see the world from their perspective. This is why market research and environmental scans are such an essential part of developing how messages are delivered.

Have you ever had to put yourself in someone else’s place? Did you learn from the process? Have you ever had your message completely misinterpreted?

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Communications, Government Relations, Internal Communications, public relations

Have We Run Out Of Stories?

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Have we run out of stories
Have we run out of new stories?

Vulture recently posted an article about the demise of the blockbuster. In it, Gilbert Cruz itemizes all that’s wrong with Hollywood’s blockbuster system from a lack of imagination to the high cost of production.  It seems our preoccupation with rehashing old stories in a spectacularly expensive way is beginning to wear thin. The article prompted me to ask the question, have we run out of stories? I wondered because I regularly watch movies and television with half an eye and yet follow the story line with no challenge. It may be because I’m an avid reader but it’s more likely that the same stories are often retold. It makes you wonder if Christopher Booker didn’t have it right when he proposed there were only seven stories in the world and they were continuously being retold.

Cover of "Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell ...
Cover of Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories

If you are not familiar with his perspective, in his book, “The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories” he suggests that there are only seven stories and they are:

  • overcoming the monster;
  • rags to riches;
  • the quest;
  • voyage and return;
  • comedy;
  • tragedy and
  • rebirth.

He falls into some interesting traps based on his own paradigm and at times seems to counter his own argument, but that aside, if his basic theory is correct, it poses a conundrum for communicators. The business of communications is the telling of stories.  We capture the attention of our audiences by telling them well. Whether we take them by surprise, intrigue or mystify them, we need to be clever and original. That becomes increasingly challenging if we believe we have to choose from a limited number of options. While Booker’s ideas are interesting and Hollywood’s challenges perplexing, I don’t think there are a limited number of stories. That would be the same as saying there are limits on our imagination.

I am reinforced in my belief through my work. As I go about the business of my job, I encounter an endless array of stories. In fact, I have encountered so many good stories during my career that my biggest challenge is finding the time to tell them.  When I worked with pharmacists, I was constantly amazed at the stories that would emerge when they were relaxed and reflective. They told amazing stores, funny, sad, bizarre and poignant ones. The one about the pharmacist who leaves her shop in the middle of the day because one of her clients needs to get home from the hospital and she’s the only one who can pick her up.  Then there was the pharmacist who made house calls out to the country and regularly got chased by an unfriendly turkey. In my current job, it’s the Meals on Wheels volunteer who doesn’t just leave the food at the door when no one answers, but investigates and saves the life of a client in the midst of a medical emergency.

Imagine how the conversation went the next time the meals on wheels program coordinator had to explain that the program was an important security check for seniors and shut-ins, not just a necessary food service.  Imagine what that story did to increase the number of volunteers the program receives. What do you think I might have said when an interest group leader suggested that pharmacists just counted pills? Stories provide us with powerful ammunition. They allow us to illustrate the complex in accessible ways and they allow us to inspire others to action.

The stories I hear are endless and I don’t think that it’s a reflection of the health sector, I think all sectors have great stories to tell, but someone has to choose to tell them. We haven’t run out of good tales, we just stopped looking in the right places for them and listening when we do find them. One of the best parts of my job is to hear those stories. I sometimes joke that it’s a good week if I cry once, a great week if I cry more than once.  That’s the power of a good story. It moves you and makes you think about the world in a different way.

As communicators, we all need to look for the story that illustrates our objectives, our brand and our aspirations. Clever tag lines, corporate colors and advertising dollars are worthless without the stories.

Have you ever used a story to make a point?  Has a story moved you when you thought you were resolved?

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Internal Communications, Management, public relations

Rather Have a Conversation or a Meeting?

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Ever had a project introduced in a meeting and thought, “What are these guys smoking? That will never work.” Did you stay silent and subsequently watch the same project move forward with disastrous results? Did you ever have a great idea but thought no one would listen so stayed quiet?  Did you later learn that your idea was tried somewhere else to great success? What about attending a meeting where nothing useful happens or following a process where nothing of value is accomplished? These kinds of scenarios are played out all the time in organizations and sadly, we’ve come to take them for granted. We often accept them as part of the cost of doing business, but what if we changed the dynamic, what if we stopped having meetings and started having real conversations?  It’s not as difficult as it sounds and it doesn’t require special training. Getting into that right groove is a question of trial and error and will reflect the will and makeup of the group but there are some basic interpersonal communication skills that can help.

  • Know Your Audience: As a speaker take the time to consider the audience, their state of mind and experience. Have you prepared them for the presentation? Ask yourself if what you are presenting is truly engaging. Would it capture your attention? Look at their body language, are you reaching them? If it’s two in the afternoon, do they need to stand and stretch for a minute?
  •  Actively Listen: As an audience member you have a role to play and sitting passively isn’t it. Think about the last really fantastic conversation you had. An exchange of ideas where you felt heard and where you could really connect with what was being said. What did it feel like? What was happening was that you were actively listening.  You were hearing what the person meant without contemplating blame, accusation or what you were going to say next. You listened without prejudice and the same was being done for you.  Try it the next time you’re in a meeting. Do not distract yourself with e-mail or other things that will take away from your ability to listen. Do not multitask.
  •  Say It If You Mean It: Speak with honesty and from your personal perspective. Speak because you have something of value to contribute. Do not speak defensively or to blame, speak about how something makes you feel. In business settings, we are often told to suspend emotion and speak “professionally”. While screaming fits and temper tantrums are not helpful, you can only have an emotionless workplace if it’s devoid of humans.
  •  Don’t let dogma distract you: We all have ideas or beliefs we hold to be true, things we are “certain” of. Those ideas shape and inform how we see, hear and understand people and ideas. These paradigms help us to navigate the world around us so they are very important, but they can also act like blinders, blocking our ability to see facts.  It’s important to step back periodically and try to see the world through different eyes.  This doesn’t mean live in perpetual self-doubt, but stay open to new concepts. The same principle holds true when talking to colleagues. Suspend your beliefs, listen with an open mind to what they are saying, you might be surprised by what you learn. Notably, you may gain a better understanding of yourself and why you have the beliefs you do.
  •  Accept Conflict: If you work with people who care about what they do then inevitably there will be moments of conflict. This does not have to be a bad thing. In fact, the absence of dissenting voices can be disastrous for an organization. It could mean that you’re all stuck in the same paradigm.  This means you all see the same way and are also all blind to the same things. Anticipate that you will not always have the same perceptions as those around you and embrace the differences.  Take the time to listen to alternative ideas. Give yourself a chance to learn something new or see something old in a new way.
  •  Slow Down and Smell the Coffee: Sometimes after someone delivers a presentation or proposes an idea we ask, any questions? Generally, we give listeners an entire ten seconds to form their thoughts. Imagine, talking to a group for anywhere from ten to thirty minutes about an idea or project and then giving them ten seconds to digest, integrate and develop questions. Is it any wonder so many meetings and teleconference calls are packed with awkward silence? The real question is, is that silence really awkward? Consider slowing the conversation and giving people the opportunity to ask and engage during presentations.  Consider having a conversation rather than a presentation. Pause and ask people what they think. Ask specific people to feedback what they heard. Let people get back to you later. Allow ideas to percolate.

What was the last great conversation you had at home or at work?  What made it great for you?

Suggested Readings

Updated in July 2017

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Communications, Internal Communications, Management

Silence is Deadly

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Challenger Explosion: Image from NASA,/Wikipedia Commons
Challenger Explosion: Image from NASA/Wikipedia Commons

In 1986 the Challenger Space Shuttle lifted off the ground with millions of onlookers from the world over watching in awe. When it exploded 73 seconds later, those same viewers stared in shocked disbelief. Those who witnessed this horrifying incident can still recall where they were as they watched  it unfold.

What followed were 32 months of investigation and millions of questions. Why, how, when did things start to go wrong and what had caused the explosion were prevalent among them. Perhaps even more amazing were the answers that followed. Every engineer on the project had felt the flight should not happen.  They all had misgivings, hesitations, reasons why they thought it should be rescheduled, yet it was scheduled anyway. When asked why they had remained silent, they said, they felt pressured not to speak up. So they coached their concern in the language of hints and abstractions.  They wrote messages that were lengthy, used convoluted language that so distilled the essence of what needed to be said plainly that the style of writing effectively obscured the message.

Their management, under tremendous pressure to produce results or lose funding was reluctant to acknowledge failure, so reluctant that they eventually evolved and encouraged an atmosphere of false optimism. This structure discouraged anyone who expressed hesitation or doubt about the mission’s success from speaking up. They built a structure of silence and it ended up costing lives.

Over the years numerous people have cited the explosion of the Challenger as a sign post to warn us against the danger of silencing employees.  Plain language specialists use it to demonstrate how organizations can not only lose money but lives by not speaking in simple terms and short sentences. Organizational facilitators use it to illustrate the costs of not having a culture that supports open dialogue.  Any organization, collective or group that is focused on outcomes needs to consider the lesson. Ineffective communications is not just inconvenient, slow or frustrating; it can be disastrous.

The stories associated with the cost of miscommunication are almost countless.  The thing is, we don’t need to add to their ranks. Miscommunications isn’t inevitable, unavoidable or inescapable, it’s a choice. We can choose to communicate effectively by making an effort to understand and pursue clarity in our exchanges. We can take the time to ensure that messages are delivered accurately or we can pretend that we don’t have time to communicate and then spend much more time later correcting our miscommunication.  That is, we can spend more time later if we are lucky.

In our personal relationships, we can address miscommunications by taking the time to know what inspires the people around us and then listening with care.  By understanding what motivates a person we create a window into understanding why they say and do the things they do. By eliminating distractions and focusing on what they are saying, we are more likely to have meaningful exchanges. Coincidentally, the same is true of our work relationships.

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Communications, Internal Communications, Management

Does Working From Home or the Office Really Matter?

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Winter TrafficThere have been a few articles, to say the least, on Yahoo C.E.O. Marissa Mayer’s decision to ban all working from home for all Yahoo employees.  Following her earth shattering announcement was a series of, “She had to do it” articles that explained about the shiftless, mindless, non producing consequences that followed from allowing employees to work from home. Or the list of missed opportunities that it represented.

Not long after that came an article in the New Yorker that mockingly explained something that I had been thinking all along. I don’t need to be at home to be non-productive. Statistics have shown for years that the majority of employees are not engaged.  One study indicates that 60% of employees in Canada are disengaged; another 15% are actively disengaged leaving just 25% who care about their work.  By actively disengaged I mean that they are not only not interested in their work, but they spend most of their time at work trying to ensure that others are not interested in their work. As someone who has to manage and motivate, I’d prefer if those actively disengaged employees were at home…permanently, but that’s another discussion.

The problem with employees who work from home and don’t produce isn’t location, among other things its culture and approach.  The work culture, the management approach, the tools provided to employees to do their work, the incentives given and of course, how accountability is reinforced. Working in the office is not going to be a magic wand that solves a lack of engagement, commitment and dare I say it, poor work ethics.

I would be a poor communicator indeed, if I didn’t add that what’s also missing is communications. It would be challenging for even the most dedicated of employees to get their focus right without clear direction and ongoing communications, no matter where they work.  In a world where teams are increasingly spread across continents, never mind cities, the whole debate of home or not home seems a bit moot. We have to learn to adapt our management approach to accommodate the concept that we won’t always be able to see our employees.

We have the technology required to do it. We have webcast, podcast, teleconference calls, videoconferencing, email and that ancient technology called faxes among other things. Yes, people still use fax machines. We can Jostle or Jive our employees into better engagement, we can even use Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus or any other interactive medium to inform and take a pulse. We just have to figure out how to use that technology to help us effectively manage and motivate staff.

I’m in Ottawa, Ontario and I have someone who reports to me from Halifax, Nova Scotia.  She is easily one of the most dedicated employees I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. I don’t worry about what she’s doing.  I don’t debate the merits of having someone reporting to me that I can’t lay eyes on every day. I know what she’s doing based on weekly reports, calls and daily emails. I also get a clue from the products she produces and the services she delivers to our internal clients. We brainstorm on the phone and I have made fun of her by email.

I should also add that I work for an organization that has 5000 employees, the vast majority of whom work independently taking care of clients in their homes.  These incredible employees spend their days on their own and rarely take time for lunch, never mind making their way into an office.  They epitomize dedication, commitment and have a work ethic second to none. As it happens, the majority of the home and community care sector operates this way. So I think before jumping into the, “You need to be in an office to be productive” line, the more critical question is, what kind of culture have you created for employees to be productive in?

For the record, I’ve stared into space from my office desk and worked 12 hours without pause from home. I have also had great impromptu conversations that produced useful insights while I’m in the office and have been known to put a load of laundry on while at home.  There is no magic related to location. The only real impact that working from home has on productivity, is lower traffic volumes.

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