Keep the lines open
You also need to make it clear to the people who are participating in these forums that you’d really appreciate it if they’d spread the word about what they thought and heard in the forum.
“There’s another request we always make,” MuruzÁbal says. “Whatever you heard here, help us take the message to the rest of the organization. It would be great if we could do this with every single employee, but when you have more than 3,000, it’s difficult to do it. So those of you who have the opportunity to sit at this table, I would really appreciate it if you could take this message across. The message is we want to hear you. We’re looking for ideas.”
When you leave the meeting, don’t just say, “Thanks for participating.”
“When there is a true follow-up, that really counts,” MuruzÁbal says.
It was during one of these sessions that MuruzÁbal got great insight into peer networks that were being set up at Neoris. Such networks are a great help to the company in every market, including the new venture in the United States.
“We have a lot of talented people that know many technologies and concepts in detail,” MuruzÁbal says. “We create these peer-to-peer networks organized by leaders in the business based on their expertise, not their position in the company. They interact and they help each other and you get to improve the knowledge of a given area of expertise.”
By encouraging dialogue in the first place, the peer networks were able to flourish and help give MuruzÁbal an even better means of spreading communication around the organization.
And a free flow of communication where there is occasionally a mixed signal is much better than a company where dialogue is hampered and even discouraged.
“I prefer to have a conversation and run the risk of having an interpretation issue than not having the conversation at all,” MuruzÁbal says. “There’s always a risk somebody will interpret something in a different way and will go and talk to a third party and describe something that he or she thought they heard. I prefer to deal with that.”
In an open culture, you’ll find out about the discrepancy a lot quicker than if you try to control everything.
“If you have a command-and-control organization, you never learn about that,” MuruzÁbal says. “Nobody is going to get back to you and say, ‘Hey, you said such-and-such thing in such-and-such environment. Is that what you really meant?’ It gives you the opportunity to go back and fix it if there was a misunderstanding. I prefer that instead of no communication.”
The open way in which MuruzÁbal approaches change paid off again with the Neoris entry into the United States. The company generated more than $300 million in revenue in 2009.
“We’ve attracted premier talent from the market and our highest expectations for growth are from the U.S. market,” MuruzÁbal says. “We were new to the market and we were able to make it happen.”
It wasn’t always easy and there were certainly bumps along the way. But MuruzÁbal says it’s the only way he knows how to operate.
“Live what you are trying to accomplish on a daily basis,” MuruzÁbal says. “There’s always going to be a certain percentage of people who don’t believe. There’s a lot of opportunity in this world, so maybe that’s not the right company for those people. This is a strong, detailed, management-focused culture that happens to pay attention to the fact that the talent that you have in your organization is what makes the difference. You need to make sure you get the best out of your people and the way to do that is to allow them to speak up, contribute and help us build the future.”
How to reach: Neoris, (305) 728-6000 or www.neoris.com