Consider these seven habits that ail many companies:
1. Sharing information “on a need-to-know basis” to protect corporate secrets.
2. Withholding information to be more efficient.
3. Avoiding saying anything so as not to worry people.
4. Staying silent to avoid acknowledging a problem that doesn’t yet have a solution.
5. Sugarcoating information to try to put a positive spin on negative situations.
6. Saving time (especially leaders’ time) by staying quiet.
7. Keeping information under wraps as a power play.
Up-to-date, actionable data and information helps knowledge workers perform their jobs. Yet, leaders and managers often don’t see it that way.
For example, one of my clients expressed frustration with several plant managers. Most of them are ex-military baby boomers who have worked almost their entire careers under the “need-to-know” principle, which restricts access to information.
These managers are comfortable with the status quo, yet the archaic need-to-know principle causes complications on several fronts. Even companies that have more open communication practices are grappling with similar obstacles, related to power imbalances. Here are three ways to improve communications.
▶ More Transparency
Today employees at all levels can independently interact with business partners outside their plant’s walls.
The business partners—co-workers, clients and suppliers—operate under the assumption that the employees know what’s going on inside their own organization.
These business partners question employees’ business acumen and judgment when employees are in the dark about mission-critical work, such as hiccups in the supply chain or the outsourcing of a business process.
Furthermore, the partners expect the employees to use their brains to help the partners solve problems and get things done.
When these employees aren’t able to contribute as much because they don’t have the context or the details to make educated decisions, the business partners get frustrated with the black hole swirling around them.
▶ Respect and trust
Inside the organization, tensions exist between employees and managers. Younger employees in particular complain to each other and colleagues who work at other locations that the withholding of information makes them feel like children. They add that they resent not being trusted by senior staff and, in turn, have less respect for their managers.
The declining levels of respect and trust can lead to higher levels of disengagement or apathy. That can hurt productivity, as well as quality and customer relations.
▶ Encouraging sharing
Managers who are information undersharers have got to start communicating interesting and useful information.
While that’s easier said than done, it is feasible to change managers’ behavior. One effective way is to tackle the “will, skill and hill” simultaneously.
This three-prong approach takes into account managers’ motivations (the will) and their ability (the skill), while helping them overcome actual and perceived barriers (the hill).
From the “will” perspective—the motivation—explain to managers that they have the power and the autonomy to be the go-to people for ensuring their employees have the tools of their trade.
As for “skill” perspective—the ability—managers need contemporary communication training. Managers need to learn how to share content, listen better and help people take action with information.
To help get over the “hill,” managers need support. Give them tools that are easy to access and use, such as agendas for team meetings, talking points and frequently asked questions and answers.
By addressing the will/skill/hill simultaneously, you help managers adopt new ways of working. If you then recognize and reward managers for their new actions, they will start to build new information-sharing habits.
The transformation won’t happen overnight, yet small steps can add up to positive change. PRN
CONTACT:
Liz Guthridge is the managing director of Connect Consulting Group. She can be reached at [email protected].
This article appeared in the July 1 issue of PR News. Subscribe to PR News today to receive weekly comprehensive coverage of the most fundamental PR topics from visual storytelling to crisis management to media training.