Heads down and gobs shut

This caught my eye - 71% of companies aren't saying enough to thier employees about the current economic crisis according to PR consultants Weber Shandwick.

Apparently senior teams are heading into the bunkers and saying very little - no doubt terified that anything smacking of candor will make it onto the front pages of the financial press in seconds.

When I was at Marconi back in the days when it was in trouble we did have the problem of things being posted on Motley Fool within minutes of being announced internally.  I never worked out if the culprits thought they were being helpful or were just making trouble.

But should a senior manager go to ground at the moment when people most need leadership just because investor relations demand silence?

Of course not, but it makes sense the avoid written stuff - good old fashioned face to face is what's needed.  And it's what is wanted.

In my experience, staff don't want a rehash of the analysts presentation; they don't want lots of facts and figures, graphs and comparisons.  They want reassurance that the people at the top of the organisation know what they're doing.

At Marconi, we measured in some detail how people felt about the company during our difficult times (with a lot of help from Robert Berrier's team) and what we saw after town hall meetings was that scores for emotional commitment rose, whilst understanding of company strategy stayed static.  People told us that although they didn't really understand the complex world of corporate restructuring and debt for equity swaps, they valued a visit from the CEO who talked openly about a wide range of difficult subjects.

So if you can't write it down, getting the bosses out on the road is the way to do it.

Liam

Comments

[Daniel Penton]

These tips about good crisis communications on the NYT site caught my eye recently - http://tinyurl.com/5slles.

Summed up in three words its all about: Transparency, transparency, transparency.

It also gives some tangible steps that people can take today to be better prepared for workplace crises.

[Daniel Penton]

And the link to the NYT should work better without the full stop - http://tinyurl.com/5slles

[Liam FitzPatrick]

Thanks Dan

I do still regret not challenging the PR Consultant who told a conference of internal communicators that CEO's should be free to get on with handling the media - and staff are understanding when the CEO goes to ground.

You couldn't make it up!

Liam

[Marc Wright]

The problem I often find is that the executive suite use the legal department as an excuse not to communicate. Talking to anyone during a crisis is pretty tough, so if the lawyers caution against it, then hey presto the Directors have an excuse to carry on digging themselves into a bigger hole of silence and obscurity.
If you ask a lawyer an opinion, then inevitably they will give it; and it will be on the side of saying less, not more. It's rather like blaming the weatherman when you don't go for that jog lest you get wet.