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March 21, 2008
A Christmas story
I know what you’re thinking: I’ve got my Christian holidays confused. But I’m telling this “Christmas” story now because it’s a timeless tale of what can happen when communication breaks down. And since I just heard it this week, I thought I’d share it with you.
It goes like this: Once there was a manufacturing facility located far out in the country, away from major metropolitan areas and a thousand miles from company headquarters.
The company had been acquired about a year before, and the acquiring corporation had quickly swooped into the facility and made some big changes, including laying off about 25% of the workers. So the remaining employees didn’t have warm, fuzzy feelings for the corporation or for senior management.
Right around Thanksgiving, the facility had a tradition of putting up holiday decorations. In the old days, these decorations used to consist only of a life-sized nativity scene, but in recent years the facility had become more multi-culturally politically correct and had added a giant Menorah and Kwanzaa display.
This holiday season, as part of an emphasis on safety, the decision was made to locate the holiday displays not in the center of the lobby, but up above on a mezzanine. But when employees returned from Thanksgiving weekend, they were surprised to see that the mezzanine contained not three holiday displays, but only two. The nativity scene was missing.
Within minutes, rumors started to fly. Was new company management anti-Christian? Did the parent company have something against baby Jesus? Was this some kind of statement about values? Should employees read some darker meaning into this disturbing action?
The grapevine went crazy. For days, in the cafeteria and the hallways, people talked of little else than the missing nativity scene.
Finally—not in any official communication, but once again through informal channels—the truth was revealed: As the maintenance guys were taking the nativity scene out of storage, they broke the section that contained Mary and Joseph and Jesus. It couldn’t be repaired, and obviously it was wrong to display the scene without the main characters.
So crew members decided not to put the nativity out at all, while they pondered what to do.
Nobody involved thought that communication was necessary; it never even occurred to those involved to post a sign explaining the nativity’s absence. And no one ever considered that employees might read sinister intentions into the situation.
The moral of the story is obvious: Communication is essential, especially in times of change.
Happy Easter.
Posted by Alison Davis at March 21, 2008 05:12 PM