A real tale about bad internal communications

This isn’t an award-winning case study in great internal communications. Just a real life story where the absence of it is all too evident. Lessons can be learned which is why I am sharing it.

The normally cheery and uber helpful ticket check guy at my local railway station told me today he is being replaced by a machine. Indeed, rather like the Sword of Damocles, said machine is already in situ, right behind him silently waiting to take over his job.

Now I love change – particularly when it’s for the better – but my current operator Southern Rail and the equally appalling bunch waiting in the franchise wings - haven’t a clue about running trains. Which is really frightening when you consider that’s all they are supposed to do. When you throw in Network Rail it’s a rail recipe for disaster.

None of them communicate well – with staff, with commuters/customers or with each other. That means every day feels like a crisis comms scenario. And as a comms pro I have managed a few of those. Indeed, good old Southern Rail isn’t doing great on employee engagement bearing in mind the machine that’s replacing my experienced, cheerful, helpful chap has already been installed before he’s even collected his P45. I could fly to New York in the time it has recently taken me to get to work in London but thanks to my chap at the station and his help and advice he does make me feel valued as a customer, albeit one spending some thousands of pounds for the sheer, giddy pleasure of delays, cancellations and random jettisoning on to freezing platforms. He sadly tells me the service we are all getting is ‘disgraceful’. Not surprising when everyone can see it is and he doubtless gets the brunt of commuters’ increasing rage on a daily basis.

Where is the company’s leadership in all this?

I politely enquired when I might have an opportunity to find out why the service is deteriorating so and was told senior managers prefer their ‘Meet The Managers’ sessions on the concourses of large, open stations rather than smaller ones.

“They are very scared of actually meeting customers face-to-face”, says my man in the know.

Nuff said.

A taste of things to come

I have just started an exciting new job full time at VMA Group and had a great first day which in more than 20 years I can honestly say hasn't really been matched.

And no, this isn't me sucking up to my new employers (an unattractive trait at the best of times). I am just slightly agog as I have worked for some big old companies who should know better about how they treat new staff (as well as their existing people) and pride themselves on checking how they are doing it at least once a year with those marvellous engagement surveys that cost the GDP of a small nation.

Many of my other new starter experiences have felt like that old Japanese game show Endurance, battling to try and get a computer pre-ordered three months' ago; tussling with security guards on the door the first morning and for the following fortnight saying over and over again mantra-like "but I DO work here"; devising my own induction when there was no obvious one coming and lack of it got me locked in the office with no escape; and, in one memorable case, pleading to be given a security pass so that I might meet the CEO without an armed guard. 

First days at work can feel like this!

It's a funny old thing being a Head of Internal Communication and perhaps actually wanting to meet and work closely with the biggest cheese from the outset. Moving freely around the organisation so you can do your job. I just felt that six weeks after starting with this huge organisation with its robust People Strategy promising great things for employees that getting a security pass to the building on the first day should have been a tad easier.

 

But back to my new role and Day One. Firstly I got introduced to everyone in the company - at least 50 people and a handshake with all of them; was handed all my equipment, including the Crackberry; given a two week planned induction timetable with lots of sessions working with various colleagues and a two day training course; welcomed by my own personal 'Buddy'; given a delicious box of chocolates and taken out to lunch with my new team.

I shall report back if it goes downhill from here. But these are very good signs. Lessons should surely be learned. I am also available, for a very low fee (!), for any HR colleagues who need to know more about how it should and shouldn't be done!

How do corporate despots survive?

The fabulous eye of cartoonist Tom Fishburne is in spot on focus with this amusing array of corporate characters. If I was a talented artist like Tom I might add the Talk To The Hand guy and Mrs Shssssh You Have Nothing Interesting To Say While I'm In The Room - both of whom I have encountered. And let us not forget Mr Jump-Up-And-Down-On-The-Spot-Ranting-In-The-Middle-Of-An-Open-Plan-Office whom I met on one, very memorable, occasion along with 150 aghast colleagues. Now, I hasten to add, I have worked with many brilliant, inspiring people but there have been a few really, really bad ones along the way. And I am not alone. One such baddie is the bane of a good friend's life. 
My pal is pretty resilient but has extreme challenges with one of those 'Unique Individuals' who everyone seems terrified of, who has single-handedly added triple digits to the sick leave stats, yet whose budget and organisational power remain solid and growing, year-on-year. (Think Edward Tufte's Stalin doing a PowerPoint presentation for more of a pen picture).

In his three million years of service with the organisation, scary, unpleasant, upward managing, nightmare Head of Function big cheese has clawed his way up and all the while successfully avoided any attempts at leadership support, training, performance management and Decent Human Being immersion courses.
Yet it's my pal who is being coached on how to handle this despot and all to improve communication! It's a complete mystery to me what these fiendish folk are good at apart from filling dead men's shoes or roles left by better people having babies. Yet how do they survive? If there's a war for talent, if CEOs are generally wanting to embrace employee engagement, and if research shows people leave their manager not their company, tell me how do they get away with it? If anyone knows, then do please put me out of my misery. 

Read more about 'horrible bosses' from body language guru Carol Goman.

Align leaders' actions and words

Actions speak louder than words is a phrase that is never more true than in a corporate context. Carol Kinsey Goman speaks wisely about the importance of leaders matching their behaviour with the words coming out of their mouth if they really want people to believe in them, what they have to say, and act on it.

As communicators I think we are in a unique position to observe this more than many folk in the business, particularly when coaching managers on how to have the most fruitful and inspiring conversations with their teams.

There's no doubt it can be very hard work.

I recall many instances, my own and gleaned from colleagues, about leaders with a genuine want to engage people but who failed to realise that their own behaviour was going to be the main barrier.

• The financial services company whose executive team wanted more 'openness' including open plan offices but who swiftly installed glass cubicles and wooden doors so you could see them but couldn't hear them.

• The bankers who did get rid of their private dining room but carried on having their lunch delivered to their offices on silver domed platters - a daily ritual watched with incredulity by employees who had just seen 25% of their colleagues axed in the name of cost-cutting.

• Or the very genuine but nervous boss who turned up for a factory team building event dressed in a very expensive Italian suit and Rolex and couldn't understand why no-one could relax.

An important part of our role is to help leaders at all levels avoid the pitfalls of non-verbal communication which is just as important, if not more, as the verbal kind. But to have that conversation in the first place you need to be in a position of trust. To get there means understanding what you need to do to add the most value to the business and getting on with it.

Recounting these sorts of anecdotes also helps and I welcome more for the collection plus tips on how you've addressed it.

Making sense of it

And on the search for commonsense around employee engagement here's one of the clearest discussions on the subject that I have heard for a long time.

http://ciprinside.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/is-there-a-future-for-video-in-employee-comms-and-engagement/