Top-Down Communication

Business coaches talk about the importance of getting everyone together on the same sheet of music (which is a pretty bad cliche, if you think about it…how many orchestras only use one sheet of music? That would be a very crowded music stand? But I digress.). It is important to understand where you want your company to go, what position you want it to occupy in broader society, what you want your employees to do and how well they should do it…all of this is critical.

But knowing that does not do you any good if nobody else knows about it.

We often talk about the importance of bringing ideas from the bottom up, but there are a lot of things that need to go from the top down.

So you need to talk to your employees, not just about the “big picture” stuff but about the “little picture,” too (how came no one ever uses the term “little picture?”). There are a lot of ways to do this. You can use e-mail, of course, which is a pretty proactive method that creates an “information push” rather than an “information pull” culture. There are other, less direct ways to communicate down the line through, say, company wikis or internal blogs or a discussion forum, but those might be less effective; your employees have to seek out that information (rather than having it pushed through to their desktop via e-mail) and you may also lose control of your message as others discuss and debate it.

Of course, you could also just talk to people.

And this brings us to the subject of meetings.

Actually talking to people, in a somewhat structured environment rather than just a casual conversation in the hallway, has a lot of benefits. You can be sure that you convey whatever message you want, whether it is an evolution in the company’s mission or the planning for a company dragonboat team. You are in a position to answer any questions that come up so you do not end up creating more confusion. You can get immediate feedback, or provide folks an opportunity to come talk to you later after they have thought about things, just in case the idea you’re presenting is, you know, dumb. And maybe, just maybe, you can have donuts.

If you are going to bring everyone together for a meeting, there are a few things you can do to get the most out of it:

First, let everyone know about it in advance. Do NOT be one of those people who calls a last-minute meeting. Just don’t do it. You will be missing more people than you normally would plus you are likely to create unnecessary frustration. Let them prep for it with some warning.

Next, have an agenda. You, and everyone else, should know why you are having a meeting. This does not need to be overly formal, with set times for discussing each topic…just make sure everyone knows why they are there.

Finally, have an ending time. Do not let it drag on (and on and on and on…) especially if the same stuff is getting repeated. Know when it is going to end and then end it. If you need to follow up later, set a time to do that.

A lot of people trash talk the idea of meetings, and usually for good reason. But even though you do not want to interrupt your employees’ work for the mundane task of sitting around discussing things, the reality is that you need to communicate with them. Sometimes, like it or not, the thing to do is just bite the bullet and call a meeting.

And seriously, do think about bringing some of those donuts.