Are you just ticking the box?

Recently a friend spoke to me about her visit to the doctor. She was suffering from stress and after doing some tests the doctor made out a prescription and listed off some things she should do to manage her stress better. She said he just rattled them off. She was hard pressed to remember what he said let alone understand it or do it! The doctor assumed that once he had made the diagnosis and told her what to do, his job was done. He had ticked the box and then moved on to the next patient.

 

From working with organisations one of the main causes of corporate dysfunction is the sizeable gap between what 'management say' and what 'staff do.' It is a massive false assumption to believe that just because people hear, then they will do what you say. Like this doctor, managers all too often believe that their companies operate with strict top down command efficiency. In their perfect world, every command is not only obeyed but obeyed precisely and promptly. The manager never has to follow up, because just like an absolute monarch ‘he said it, then it was done.’

I recently worked with a manager (let’s call him John) who could not understand why his team were not implementing some new business processes. He was a smart man, proactive and results focused. I asked John about his communication process with his team. His response was typical of so many managers. He said he clearly outlined the business processes in his team meeting. He then stated that he summarised the main points in a memo. He even printed off a copy of the memo to show me. When he handed over the memo, he sighed and shrugged saying ‘what more can I do?’

For a moment I thought he was joking, he is an intelligent man, but the expression on his face showed me he was serious.

Here is a rough transcription of the follow-up conversation we had.

"How was this memo distributed John?" I asked.

"By email," he replied. "It went to everyone."

“How many people actually read the email?"

"I don’t know, I assume everyone" he said.

"Did you get any responses?"

"No."

"Of those who read the email, how many do you think understood the contents of the memo?"

He thought for a second and said, "I don't know."

"Of those who understood it, how many actually believed it was serious?"

He shook his head.

"Of this dwindling group how many do you think would remember this memo if I asked them?"

Another head shake.

"That's a lot of unknowns for something you regard as vital to your department," I said. "But that's not the worst part. Once you eliminate all those people and it's quite possible there aren't many people left, how many people do you think will change their behavior based upon the memo? How many will begin implementing the new business processes because of your memo?"

I tried to revive his spirits by pointing out that the deeper issue was his mistaken belief about communication, not his memo.

"The only thing you're guilty of," I said, "was that you ticked the box too soon. You thought your job was done when you outlined the business processes and wrote the memo. It was just another item on your to-do list. You then mentally moved on to the next item."

Like most busy managers, John wanted to believe that after he communicated something, people heard him, understood him, believed him, and then actioned it.

The good news for every manager, including John, is that this false belief has a simple cure. It's called ‘follow-up.’ After communicating, follow up to make sure that people really understand, talk with them to get a read of their buy-in, and involve them to make sure that they're committed to action.

If during a meeting or a 1-2-1 you are the one doing most of the talking, it is not that they are totally absorbed in what you are saying, they are more likely to be disengaged. In this context as a manager you have two ears and one mouth and you should be using them in the proportion. That is listening twice as much as you are speaking.

The same thinking applies to training. I was recently working with a large organisation who were investing in customer service training. The success of training can only be measured by long-term behavioural change. Unfortunately this company had no systems in place to follow up with staff to see if they were applying their training. This approach means training is not delegated, it is abdicated.

Follow-up may take a little time, but it's less than the time wasted on miscommunication. As Ronald Reagan said ‘trust but verify.’

If you're just checking the box, add one more item to your to-do list: Follow up

 

 

This article was inspired by an article by Marshall Goldsmith. (www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com)

 

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