Can You Over-Communicate?

If there is one thing about communication that has stuck with me, it would be a quote by Paul Watzlawick, “One cannot not communicate.” Simple, but very true. Not communicating sends a message just as much as communicating, formally or informally, does.

During the worst of the recession, organizations were, and continue to be, tasked with communicating (or not communicating) some very difficult news. An organization’s decisions to communicate how the economy is affecting them can have a big impact on the organizational culture. Knowing this, we thought it would be interesting to dive into our benchmarks and see what has happened with communication scores between 2008 and 2010. In particular, we wanted to see the difference between our Overall Benchmark (all surveys) and our Best-of-the-Best Benchmark, (the top 25% of companies). Had the Best-of-the-Best once again done things differently?

It was no surprise to us that communication is still of critical importance to the employees. The single largest change in the Best-of-the-Best was in the area of honest communication. In comparing the Best-of-the-Best to the Overall, the Best-of-the-Best is 21.3 percentage points higher than the Overall on “I feel my company communicates openly and honestly with employees.” Companies in the Best-of-the-Best Benchmark managed to increase their favorable results on honest communication by 6.0 percentage points between 2008 and 2010. Mean while, the Overall showed a 4.5 percentage points decrease in 2010 compared to 2008 on honest communication. The numbers clearly indicate that employees value the truth, even when the news is not positive.

When senior management doesn’t let employees know how the company is doing or what their plans are to survive and thrive, the grapevine will fill in the blanks for them. In most cases, the grapevine will be far worse than the actual truth. Employees already know what is coming, they just need to hear the truth from management and how the company plans to take action to address concerns. This will give employees the information they need to be fully engaged in the company’s plan.

So what else did we find in our review of our two benchmarks from 2008 to 2010? Again, communication wins the number two slot. In the last two years the Best-of-the-Best results increased by 16.1 percentage points in response to: “Senior management at my company has clearly communicated the company’s strategic direction.” The Overall increased by only 0.7 percentage points on this question. Leaders in the Best-of-the-Best Companies know that to keep employees motivated and focused, the strategic direction must be repeated several times throughout the year. Doing so not only tells employees where you are going as an organization, but gets them excited about getting there.

So what is the take away? Communicate, communicate, communicate. Do it often and keep it positive, but honest. Communicate your company’s successes, as well as the shortfalls. Let employees know where you are headed and the plan to get there. When there is a plan in place to address the issues, employees are more likely to jump on board and help execute the mission.