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February 22, 2007

Why not tell the truth?

Imagine this scenario:

The CEO is unhappy. The results from the latest employee attitude survey are not good—in fact, significantly lower than the last time the survey was conducted. The numbers clearly indicate that employees are dissatisfied with many aspects of working for the company.

So HR and communication people race around trying to “fashion a response” and “shape messages” for the CEO to deliver to employees. These draft messages have a defensive tone and are filled with empty phrases like “human capital” and “prioritizing initiatives” and “we value our employees.”

My colleague and I who work for this client keep trying to quietly stop the madness. “The best practice is to give employees the straight story,” we say. Or: “Employees know how they answered the questions. And they probably have a pretty good idea how their co-workers answered the questions. So if you try to ‘spin’ the results, employees will know. And you’ll lose credibility.”

But our advice falls on deaf ears. Meeting after meeting is held, where participants talk about how to “manage the issue.” Message after message is drafted, and each is more dense and full of corporate speak than the last one. And, worst of all, a promotional agency is hired to create an “upbeat campaign” (slogans, posters) to improve employee morale.

If this were an external issue, it would be handled quite differently. For example, last week the airline JetBlue screwed up. Thousands of passengers were stuck on airplanes, delayed or had flights cancelled. After a few days’ hesitation, the CEO realized he needed to take action. So he issued a statement (even buying ad space to do so) saying, “We are sorry and embarrassed” about what happened, and making a commitment to change.

Why is this kind of response so difficult when it comes to an internal issue, like those bad survey results? My theory is that leaders are afraid that if they tell the truth, the company’s weaknesses will be exposed. But everyone in the organization already knows the way things really are. As a result, if you don’t tell the straight story, employees feel like the company is treating them like children. Or, worse, like they’re being lied to.

When something bad happens, the right thing to do is to take a deep breath and tell the truth. Not varnished, not spun, not packaged, not pretty. The naked truth. The ugly truth. Just the truth.

Posted by Alison Davis at 01:56 PM | Comments (3)

February 15, 2007

Why change efforts (still) fail

I just got around to reading the January 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review and discovered that the magazine has wisely reprinted John P. Kotter’s famous article, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail,” which originally appeared in the magazine in 1995.

If you’re not familiar with Mr. Kotter and your job involves helping organizations change, I strongly urge you to read the article (available for purchase online at www.hbr.org or his terrific book, Leading Change.

Why is reading either the article or the book worth your time? Because Mr. Kotter knows exactly what makes change efforts in organizations succeed and what makes them fail. And more than 12 years since I first read the HBR article, I’m amazed that companies are still making the same mistakes Mr. Kotter warned against so long ago.

For example, in 2005 my firm worked with a Fortune 500 company to communicate a major change initiative (which I’ll call Transformation) designed to improve operational efficiency and lower costs. We helped develop messages, support senior leadership communication, provide information to managers, even design a special intranet site about the initiative. And for eight months, as the change teams did their work, there was a steady stream of communication about Transformation in a variety of vehicles and channels.

Then the CEO seemed to get bored. “I don’t want to talk about Transformation any more,” he said. “Transformation has already become part of what we do, so I don’t think we need to make it such a big deal anymore.”

That’s a classic mistake, says Mr. Kotter. In fact, it’s #7 on his list of why transformation efforts fail: “Declaring victory too soon.” Although we tried to counsel our clients and their senior management not to stop talking about Transformation, the CEO’s mind was made up.

And a month or so later, when I visited one of the company’s manufacturing sites, the local communicator, who knew I had been working on Transformation, asked a good question. “I thought Transformation was critical for helping our company succeed,” she said. “If that’s the case, why—just when we are starting to take action—is senior management acting like the job is done?”

In this situation, John Kotter couldn’t help me. But there have been many times over the past decade, this his advice has helped enormously. That’s why I urge you to read the article or get his book.

Posted by Alison Davis at 01:38 PM