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February 14, 2005
Let’s not be hypocritical about candor
At most organizations, “open communication” is just an abstract concept. In reality, communication is carefully scrutinized—and scrubbed to eliminate anything risky or controversial. As a result, communication feels cautious, guarded, removed from reality.
The problem, of course, with sanitizing communication so that nothing negative or scary remains is that it loses credibility. Employees know that tough stuff happens—they see it with their own eyes—so when the organization communicates as if everything is always swell, employees disengage. They delete e-mails without reading them. They leave the company newsletter untouched in the “take-one” rack. They link right out to a Yahoo message board instead of stopping to look at the intranet site.
This is all bad. But it gets worse when a cautiously communicating company claims that candor is something it believes in. Employees are invited to “share your thoughts,” “ask a question,” or “make comments” in an environment where senior leaders spin messages—and where being candid in a public setting is career suicide.
My musings in this web log entry are inspired by two sources, also pertaining to blogs. The first is a Washington Post article from February 11 that reports on how “blogging employees” who share opinions about their companies have been fired for those opinions—even if the company they work for isn’t mentioned. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15511-2005Feb10.html I urge you to read the article. (You have to sign in first but it’s painless.) It definitely puts “candor” into perspective.
The second inspiration comes from a client whose boss said, “Let’s have a blog” on a new intranet site that was being created. Blogs, or web logs, carry an expectation of openness—“I share my thoughts and you have the freedom to post your comment”—that is the opposite of this company’s communication culture, which is very conservative and controlled.
I understand the culture—employees do, too—and I even know why it’s appropriate for this particular company to be cautious, given recent events. My objection is in creating a communication that purports to be candid when candor is not a possibility.
In other words, the only thing worse than lack of candor is pretending that it exists. Let’s not be hypocritical about candor.
Your candid thoughts?
Posted by Alison Davis at February 14, 2005 04:40 PM