Engage and cascade
In a time of transition, Maryland says you should tell everyone in your organization as much as you can, starting with your leadership team and cascade messages throughout the organization.
It’s the approach Maryland uses to communicate her messages at St. John.
“It’s clear that we had to engage all the leaders first and foremost and we had to explain some of the data,” she says. “I’m very data-driven as a leader, so that’s how I approached it. I told them ‘Here are the facts; here is what the implications are.’ So I started with the leaders, engaged them, and we provided open and honest communication with all of our employees.”
Managers at St. John must meet frequently with their staffs to keep information flowing. Maryland holds her managers accountable for communication by setting an example and performing regular check-ins.
“Consistency of communication is very important,” she says. “And part of that is encouraging and holding accountable the executive team. I schedule time to meet with them and ask them to do the same with their teams. We call it ‘straight talks,’ and I ask them if they’re making time to schedule those meetings with their teams. In addition, I make time to attend those meetings so I can hear what people are saying.”
Transparency from management is another key component in building trust among all levels of your organization. The time might come when you have to deliver some bad news to your work force, and if it’s unavoidable, the best course of action is honesty and full disclosure.
“Transparency is critical to this process,” Maryland says. “You want people to be a part of the solution, and if you’re honest with them and you’re sharing the data, it helps create a sense that we are in this together. It helps employees realize that management needs the minds and efforts of everyone in the organization to help you with this challenge that might be very significant.”
Along with communication that cascades downward, you need to develop channels through which communication can bubble up from the lower rungs of your organization. Feedback avenues are another component in showing employees that they have a collective voice in your company, and that their input and opinions have the ability to influence the direction of the organization.
“You need to create a safe environment within each of your departments to allow employees to be able to share their concerns,” Maryland says. “It could be something a little bit controversial that they have to share, but you want your leaders to continue to empower their associates.
“Creating that safe space that allows employees to freely share their concerns and ideas is what empowers them. Through our associate feedback channels, anyone can communicate directly to me. I follow up with them. I have to reply to all their questions and give them honest responses — and they can have that contact with me through phone or e-mail or personal contact when it’s possible.”
Recognition is another ingredient in soliciting feedback and involving employees in shaping the direction of the organization. Employees value the gratitude of management, whether or not management can ultimately implement the idea.
“We give credit to the associate that came up with the idea,” Maryland says. “We acknowledge and recognize the person appropriately as we track the results of the idea. Another thing we’re doing is encouraging our managers to empower their associates to implement their ideas. If they’re straightforward and easier to implement, it doesn’t need to go all the way up the ladder for approval. One simple example is that one of our associates suggested that we could save money by printing pages double-sided. That is now something we have implemented across the entire organization.”
As an additional step, St. John has composed a transformational group charged with taking employee ideas, researching and examining them for their potential to enhance the organization.
“It goes back to the idea that our transformational effort has been a cultural change that we created,” Maryland says. “It wasn’t one-time, one-shot, reduce the cost, improve the revenue base and just get everything better for this year. It was that we are culturally changing the organization, and it’s an ongoing process.”