Go to source (and turn the volume down)

Invalidated rumours (corporate, project, group, individuals), minor issues and personal or group fears are reinforced by passing them along. There is only a fine line between benign rumours and a toxic atmosphere. Also, half-truths have a tendency to spread faster than the real truth. By constantly decreasing the decibels and going to the primary source of information to clarify issues, you will detox the organisation fast and you will create a culture of transparency.

In any organisation you have ‘hi-fiers’ and ‘buffers’. ‘Hi-fiers’ are people who enjoy amplifying things (challenges, uncertainties, fears) and who have mastered the skill of ‘decibel boosting’. They increase the organisational noise with statements such as “We have a huge communication problem!” or “This is the most complex organisation ever!” ‘Buffers’ are people who tend to calm things down and effectively lower the volume. Whilst ‘buffers’ may on occasion be ‘Houston-we-have-a-problem’ people, ‘hi-fiers’ are always ‘world-we-have-a-problem-the-sky-is-falling’ people. One of the best ways to turn the volume down is to go to source and bypass all the amplifier nodes!

The ‘go to source’ behaviour has enormous potential to transform the organisation’s internal communication fabric. Organisations often create a cloud of gossip, assumptions and second-hand information that floats around, preventing sunshine from getting through. Some of it is inevitable, because it is the natural by-product of human interaction. There will always be things that were misinterpreted or half-baked information that was passed on in several directions.

The issue is not about how you suppress all this, but about how you can create mechanisms to compensate for this side-effect. Distance (remote teams in transatlantic sites, HQ - field reps, etc.) doesn’t help, but it is not the main cause of the problem. Inside an organisation, Chinese whispers can be very dangerous. Some examples:

• The project is going to be discontinued.
• We are going to be acquired.
• Somebody in sales said we don’t need document A anymore.
• The CEO is not happy.
• The CEO is happy.
• Somebody in X said that our data was poor.
• Somebody in Y has a complaint about us.
• It’s going to get worse/better.
• We have a big problem.
• Employees are unsatisfied.
• Morale is low.

You’ll see that the above list is a mixed bag. Some things may be theoretically easy to validate (ask the CEO if he is happy, find out from N if he really said that our data was poor), others are almost impossible to check unless you have ALL the data (employees are unsatisfied, morale is low).

However, all of them share the ability to snow-ball and become validated by the power of Chinese whispers. They are viral, but often not in a positive way!

You could preach to the organisation on this: “don’t spread rumours, wait for official announcements, don’t comment on (guess about) anything unless you have 100% of the facts…” It won’t work. The measures to tackle this cloud of ‘he said/she said’ are behavioural and equally viral:

• Go to the source. If somebody tells you that ‘somebody said’, find the source and ask. You will see you will only need to do this a few times to decrease the number of people saying, “I am told that he said…” Bypass the whispers and go straight to the start. Do whatever it takes to get straight to the origin of the chain to clarify the information.
• Decrease the noise. As I said at the beginning, in any organisation there are people who act as hi-fis: they increase the organisational decibels. Most of them are not malicious. Don’t reinforce this behaviour by sending an email to the entire department asking for clarification. Even if that may be a logical thing to do, all it will do is increase the noise and thicken the cloud.
• ‘Validate the statistics’. Nine out of ten times when a client tells me, “Group A is very disengaged” or “We are beginning to have problem Y” or, simply, “people now say that“, I need to ask the question: “How many people?” Organisations have an incredible ability to extrapolate the norm from the few who express their views. I have seen the power one single individual can have in a group of fifty to unconsciously achieve the goal of convincing the Managing Director that “We have a problem“. Don’t dismiss this power because you feel that that particular individual is just more vocal than the rest and is simply expressing something that other people are unable or unwilling to say. You may be right, but then again, you may also be wrong.

If ‘go to source’ is practiced, its viral effect will be visible in the short term: fewer people will produce invalidated and half-baked assumptions in the (mostly unconscious) hope they will get attention. The chain of Chinese whispers will definitely be shorter!

The first time you actually ‘go to source’, it may be unexpected or even shocking. The second time you may already be welcomed. If spread virally as a behaviour, you create a culture of transparency in which half-truths and rumours fade because they simply no longer have reason to exist.

Turn the volume down! Always decrease organisational decibels even if people are talking about a legitimate problem.

Make ‘bypass hierarchy’ a desirable behaviour to deal with half-truths and rumours. People will abuse it less than you think.

When spread virally, true transparency will follow.

Don’t let half-truths, rumours (corporate, project, decision, people) become toxic as they will create a life of their own.

Aim at having lots of ‘buffers’ and as few ‘hi-fiers’ as possible!

Copyright © - Leandro Herrero - 2008