<p>A natural disaster is about to strike. It has never happened before so don´t expect people to be prepared. Nay sayers have even popped up claiming that the disaster isn´t going to happen. But meteorologists have assured community leaders that it will hit-and hard-in about 48 hours. You want to make sure your employees know about it and have time to evacuate.</p>
<p>If this were your organization, what would you do? Would you put out an e-mail and decide you´ve done your duty the minute you hit the send button? No way! If you really wanted to get the message out, you wouldn´t take any chances. You would do whatever it takes.</p>
<p>A client of mine responded to this question saying they would use multiple venues for getting the word out. Most of all, they would rely on face-to-face meetings as the only sure-fire way to make sure everyone knew about the disaster and the need to get out of town.</p>
<p>My point: If you really want to effectively communicate with employees, you have to make the effort. It´s not enough to simply send out a newsletter or e-mail and expect the message to get there.</p>
<p>Real communication requires both sending AND receiving a message. If the message isn´t received, the circuit is incomplete and no communication has occurred.</p>
<p>I recently worked with a large group of employees in a client organization where communication was considered to be something of a joke. I had strongly encouraged the client to add members of the core workforce to the customer service team so that those who were doing the jobs-who understood what customers were experiencing-could contribute to improving customer service. I also suggested they develop a basic description of this opportunity and invite people to come forward if interested.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, employees had stopped paying attention to the newsletter years ago and not everyone had access to e-mail. So, in this large group meeting I mentioned something about the customer service team and was deluged with complaints like, "Why weren´t we told about this?" and "Nobody let me know." Despite the announcement in the newsletter, an e-mail invitation, and a payroll envelope stuffer, the message didn´t get there.</p>
<p>Of course, just completing the communication circuit is rarely enough. I´ve had clients that were known to send scathing e-mails back and forth even though their offices were next door to each other. Besides hiding behind their e-mails saying things they would never say if they were standing in front of each other, they tried to have important discussions using a tool better suited for passing along information and asking questions that required quick and simple responses. Matching venue to purpose can make a huge difference in what gets communicated as well as the relationship that develops as a result.</p>
<p>Intentions also play a major role in what gets communicated. In a recent management development session that challenged traditional practices a manager expressed her opinion that not everything should be shared with core workers. She felt it was necessary to say things in a way that manipulated employees into thinking they had job security when in fact they were going to be layed off. Her intentions were mostly for controlling employee attitudes, morale, and understandings when she could have been communicating to increase employee understanding and commitment.</p>
<p>If you have something important to share, you need to be deliberate about it. Forget about the chain of command. Get in front of people and communicate it directly. Be clear about your intentions making sure they are honorable, allow for a healthy two-way exchange, and reinforce your message using newsletters, e-mails, and other methods.Many organizations pull together and communicate well in a crisis. But if you want your organization to pull together on a daily basis, you need effective daily communication...even when it´s not a crisis. </p>
<p><b>Trying it on for fit:</b> Here are a few ideas for assessing your organization´s communication patterns:</p>
<p>1.Communicate a message using your typical methods. Survey the intended audience later to see if they got the message, how long it took to get to them, and what they understood it to be. Try this with various types of messages to see which ones get through.</p>
<p>2.Ask core employees who they most trust to give them clear and accurate information. Include their peers, immediate supervisor, department manager, and executives as options.</p>
<p>3.Some organizations have banned the use of e-mail for internal communications. Try it for a day and see what happens.</p>
<p>4.Keep track of all general announcements for a while. Create a simple chart that allows you to track communication method, importance, urgency, intention, and whether the message was direct and complete, or spun and intentionally incomplete.<dfn> </dfn></p>
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<p>Send an e-mail and let me know what you learn from your experiences. I would love to hear from you! Kevin Herring is co-author of <i> </i> <a href="http://www.hroutsourcingalternative.com/" target="new">Practical Guide for Internal Consultants</a><i>, and President of <a href="http://www.ascentmgt.com/" target="new">Ascent Management Consulting</a>.</i></p>
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