Say ‘No, but… ’
Excerpted from Gavin-Hodges Associates
Black Swan Battle Plan for Workforce Communicators— Pat Your Head, Rub Your Tummy and Whistle Through the Leadership Graveyard
by Roland L. Draughon
Communication Management Trainer-Consultant
Leading an organization into workforce communication management means learning to say “No” to all levels of management—especially to those managers who habitually christen their manufacturing problems as workforce communication problems when, almost always, what is needed is a (Gasp!) management decision, not a communication “solution.”
Communicators often are not treated as a resource by manufacturing managers. Operations people consult the legal group and the human resource group for counsel. But they don’t routinely ask for communication counsel. Somehow, it seems, they equate asking for workforce communication help means giving up management power to a group that they view as having no special, usable expertise. The challenge for workforce communicators is to always behave in a way that changes their perceptions.
When some random manager, with more clout than we, clops into our world and delivers to us (a) their workforce communication problem, (b) their solution to their workforce communication problem and (c) their timetable for us to implement their workforce communication problem solution, we need to smile and say, “Please have a seat. Tell me more.”
Do pay close attention to all the problem bearer’s answers during these encounters. The most important red flag comment to listen for is their answer to our question, “What will workforce communication success will look like?” Circle your wagons if the word “happy” or “happiness” is uttered in any form. A future state of happy employees is likely what that person has promised their higherups.
Any manufacturing manager who unfurls “happiness” in our face typically already knows that workforce communication is not the manufacturing problem. Worse still is if he or she really does believe that employee happiness is the solution.
Please remember, too, that any workforce communicator who is brain dead enough to try to please a manufacturing manager and make employees ‘happy’ with a communication “solution” should be prepared to be thrown under the bus and blamed for having made an operating management problem worse.
We especially need to keep our guard up in these situations because these encounters often arrive, not unlike a greeting from our favorite canine (except maybe without the grubby paws) but with a comparable whine for attention. Let us especially beware when the problem-laden bearer arrives wrapped in the persona of a newly hired, smiling, Ivy League, case-study-baptized MBA. Some of these folks actually believe that they are people-workforce communication trained and ready. They usually are not!
These newly minted corporate creatures may already have talked to our boss. Unfortunately, some of our spineless, stasis infected bosses have a habit of making promises and shuttling these creatures off to us. I feel your outrage if you have been as unfortunate as I and have reported to one of those.
But hang on, there’s more. Our corporate-climbing usurper also very likely not only has already talked to our boss but also already has email blasted everybody in his or her higher-up orbit, about his or her brilliant idea for solving the operation’s “workforce communication problem.”
Wait for it. Expect the problem bearer to say, “Just tell all of our employees (my message) and they’ll know what to do.” We know that is not true.
I remind you again, our job is always to ask the right questions.
Again, these are the right questions: What, exactly, are you trying to get done? Who (which employee groups) can make that happen? What specific behaviors from that group are needed to achieve the manufacturing objective? How will you know when the specific behaviors have been influenced, desired actions taken, and the objective has been achieved?
The full-stop script phrase that I always used in these situations (with script variations as required) was, “We really can’t do that, but what we can do is …”
Along with that statement, I would uncork a big, friendly smile and say with false indignation, “If we were to communicate (whatever idea they originally brought with them) your name would be on it! The company’s name would be on it! And more importantly, my name would be on it!”
That usually worked and moved them to a level of consciousness where they could listen more easily.
That tact also allows us to say, up front, “Let’s think through the situation before we determine the need for messages and media.” That immediately lets them know that we’re on their side and willing to help. The basic, no-brainer question that we can ask at that point is, “Exactly what is going on in your manufacturing unit?”
After actively listening and without sounding condescending, we can grab an opening in the discussion and explain that the objective of the workforce communication process is to influence a target audience to do something, to not do something, or to let something be done.
That positions us to ask the manager about the “do” of the proposed workforce communication. Very simply, we want to know, “So that what happens?” and “So that employees do what?”
We do want our managers to habitually come to us for help. But we want to “train” them to begin their requests with, “I know that you can’t do this, but…”
Our ability to pull off our “No, but…” response, depends entirely upon how much time, energy and learning we are willing to exert in becoming our organization’s resident workforce communication management expert.
Too often we fall down on the job and wimp out when a manufacturing manager tries to intimidate us with, “You’re the communicator. Do your job. Communicate! If you won’t communicate what we want, we’ll communicate it ourselves.”In those situations, bless them and let them go for it in peace.
Critically important, let us never involve ourselves with any manufacturing manager who asks for our help in creating untrue messages for employees. We must never help “spin” a tale. Organization’s employee grapevines almost always know basic truths about happenings in the workplace. The grapevine may not know why something happened, but it will never believe a “spin” about the happening. Furthermore, spins tarnish the company’s values and a communicator’s credibility.
Sometimes, however, it is necessary to say, “No” to managers who legitimately need our help.
When I had those situations, I always expected that the request would be escalated over my head to my boss—and sometimes even before I could alert him that it was coming.
My boss:“Roland, (Harry) said he asked you for your group’s help with…”
I would answer:“Yes, he did. I told him that we couldn’t do what he wanted because we’re swamped.”
My boss: “I want you to help him.”
I would answer: “Okay. Which of our current projects do you want us to not do?”
My boss: “What do you need to do all of your current projects and also help Harry?”
Because I had enough credibility for not promising what I could not deliver, that conversation usually resulted in more temporary staff and more budget for me to do everything on my plate and help Harry.
Each of us must work hard to enshrine our own variations of “No, but…”