The waiting game - keeping people engaged while negotiations drag on
May 13th, 2010
By Chris Hopkins, MD
‘Sort It Out You Clowns’ screamed the Daily Star’s headline on 11 May, five days after the General Election failed to deliver a clear winner to govern the UK. For a country unfamiliar with the long, drawn-out process required to form a coalition government, it’s not surprising that the red-tops were reflecting a growing sense of distrust as the hours and days of cross-party negotiations ticked by. The rolling news coverage of talks proved frustrating for both the press and the British public. After all it’s the 21st Century and we’re accustomed to web news, tweets and emails spelling things out clearly and instantly in modern life. We like hard facts delivered immediately, not prolonged bouts of uncertainty.
In business, just as in politics, people like to be kept in the loop when it comes to slowly emerging information that will affect them personally. In the workplace this is when the rumour mill kicks in, stirring up distrust and disengagement. Parallels can be usefully drawn between the predicament of a Hung Parliament and boardroom dramas unfolding. When hammering out a merger or acquisition, selling a business, or putting a redundancy or contingency programme in place, CEOs and their teams should never forget their duty to keep updating frontline staff and wider stakeholders, or they will lose the faith of the workforce.
It’s expected that engagement levels will drop when change is on the cards simply because uncertainty, fear and confusion creep in. But if communication is very carefully managed these problems can be contained. Of course negotiations behind closed doors will be necessary, but communication strategies can also be put in place to ensure candid updates about the status and progress of change.
It’s vital that employees have repeated opportunities to hear directly from the decision-makers at the top of the organisation. Leaders and comms teams should help employees understand the benefits of proposed changes for themselves and for the business as a whole, and a channel for feedback should be made available and publicised well from the start. A little reassurance of why things are happening can go a long way. Feeling left in the dark gets nobody’s vote.
