Encouraging Employee "Voice"

I came across another insightful article I wanted to share from HBR. The article, titled Good Communication Goes Beyond Open Door Policies, provides an interesting perspective into workplace communication between managers and their employees. As stated in the article, “managers can only know what they are hearing, not all the things they aren't.” While open door policies encourage employees to speak with their managers, it has been found this passive policy is not sufficient for promoting employees to continually speak up about business topics. Rather, “employees are much more likely to be forthcoming when their input is solicited.”

The insights in the article speak to the importance of managers taking the initiative to encourage employees to share their knowledge, ideas, insights, criticisms, and suggestions. Further, an environment must be developed that fosters open communication and stifles fears of speaking up too much. Employees may be enthusiastic to share information under their own will; yet, if managers do not take the initiative to seek out information they may be missing out on substantial insights that could be of great value to the organization.  

Think Before You Speak

The attached HBR article, A Simple Communication Mistake to Avoid, written by Peter Bregman, provides a great story about the importance of practicing effective communication.

As we have learned thus far effective communication is essential to leading successful organizations. In the article Bregman speaks about the importance of thinking about how we communicate based on the needs of our audience. Within our routine business interactions we find ourselves in situations where we must think about how we are going to communicate with our audience in order to avoid reacting in an unprofessional manner that would stifle communication and collaboration.

Upon reading Bergman’s article I related his message to a variety of communication scenarios I have witnessed within my organization. Far too often I have seen co-workers react in ways that are not conducive to effective communication and collaboration. Rather than taking the time to think about the situation, as Bregman suggests, the individual reacts based on their emotions. However, if they had simply considered the situation from all perspectives they would have been able to shape a more appropriate response. In turn, more successful communication would have resulted, leading to a more productive solution. In the future I will consider Bregman’s message, as it can prove valuable for shaping communication that fosters strong working relationships. 

A Call to Action

We find ourselves in difficult times as our market is continually changing and forcing us to re-examine our business strategies. While demand for high-quality, American-made products has increased, our business is threatened by cheaper imports, unrelenting competition, and diminishing market sales.

Our workforce is our greatest asset and most precious resource for success. The knowledge and skills you posses will propel us through these difficult market conditions to prosper into the future. Through constant innovation our success as an organization will continue, and we will further establish our position as a market leader. We encourage you to initiate actions and make decisions you believe will add value to the organization. Great deeds will always be rewarded, and honest mistakes will never be punished. It is through success and failure that we learn and grow.

We remain committed to our mission to “consistently supply products our customers can rely on for quality and value...and provide the best service possible.” Through teamwork and perseverance we will achieve this mission, as your roles are directly related to our strategy and ability to achieve our goals. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to continuing to grow as an organization. 

We Should Never Stop Learning

We witness incidents of effective and ineffective organizational communication on a daily basis. While some organizations may have more occurrences of one over the other, the examples we observe provide valuable insight into improving our own communication skills.

My organization has very effective organizational communication skills regarding the implementation of new policies and procedures. When a new policy or procedure is enacted in our organization it is communicated to employees through e-mail, inter-office mail, and posted in the appropriate locations throughout our facility. The extensive distribution of the new policy or procedure ensures it is readily available to the appropriate audience, as well as guarantees employees are aware of, and have access to, the proper documentation.

   

Admittedly, a recent example of poor organizational communication occurred last week in an e-mail correspondence between our production manager, a manufacturing supervisor, and myself. In the e-mail I incorrectly stated the supervisor had requested a specific change, when in fact the supervisor had discussed the change with the Director of Engineering, who then approved the change and requested its execution. My inaccurate statement left the supervisor feeling as though I was placing blame on him for the undesirable change, in turn producing a defensive reaction. Looking back, I should have reviewed my choice of words more carefully before sending the e-mail.  This would have allowed for more effective communication, in turn resulting in the issue being dealt with more efficiently than it was.

      

Reflecting on examples of good and bad organizational communication provides valuable insight into how we can be more effective communicators in the future. I think it is important to continually observe communication tactics and learn from them to achieve continual improvement. What tactics do you employ to improve your communication skills?