Remember when you were a child and whispered to a friend or classmate and they whispered to the next one and so on? Within just a few people it was already almost unrecognizable. That is often what happens in the work place.
The top levels of leadership have a vision and communicate it to the next levels and so on, by the time the vision and communication reaches front line employees and the customer that message is often unrecognizable. Over the years, I have coached many companies, I always start the process by interviewing as many employees as possible and one of the common challenges I hear is lack of communication. Team members feel disrespected when they don’t know what is going on.
Depending on the size and type of organization this can be handled in several ways, week or monthly newsletters with the company mission statement on them somewhere, regular team meetings with specific communications goals, a shared calendar folder with regular updates, bulletin boards, carrier pigeons, smoke signals, etc.
One of the best things to do is to ask the team members how they would like to receive information. You could send out a survey and give a few choices. Almost anything you do will be appreciated.
If you want your customers to get the message and vision of the leadership team make sure that communication flows regularly, both directions.
