Managers in most companies would do well to study up on something called the “false consensus effect.” Whether they know it or not, they are victims of this particular logical bias. And the ramifications for a company are pretty important.
All my peers agree…
Put yourself in your last management meeting. Doom and gloom permeate the room, plans are made to alleviate the problems, strategies and tactics are batted around until a final decision is made on how to move forward. You feel pretty good about it. All your peers feel good about it. You reinforce with each other that you’re doing the right things. You feel like you’ve got a good story to tell your employees- you might even be a bit optimistic about how these plans will strengthen the company and, in the long run, make your business stronger and more successful. You pat each other on the back and draft the communication to the rank and file to announce the good news.
The communication goes out and it does absolutely nothing to buoy morale. If anything – morale goes down. People start to talk about how out of touch management is and begin to loose faith that they know what they’re doing.
“What happened?” you asked. We all agreed and believe that this is the best approach. It’s a good plan, so why would the employee base think we’re out of touch.
But what did they think?
One of the reasons this may be happening is the “false consensus affect.” What this means is that we tend to think everyone thinks the same way we do. Because you and your management team all thought things will be hunky dory based on your wonderful plans – you think everyone else will feel the same way. Each of us think we are representative of everyone else. If you think things are going to be okay based on your conversations –you believe everyone else will hold those same beliefs.
Unfortunately, that’s not true.
How do you avoid this problem? As the old saw goes… the first step in fixing a problem is recognizing you have one. Knowing that your opinion may not be the same as others gives you the space to think through how best to communicate the information throughout the organization.
Second, get a read on the rank and file before you release information. Find out where their heads are at. Use that information to redefine your message in light of your audience’s point of view. If they think things are bad – recognize it and validate their feelings. Show them you understand and that you believe what they believe (to a point.) Your goal is to move them from their point of view to yours, and knowing where they are starting from shows them you’re connected – you’re one of them. Remember, the false consensus effect works both ways… they think you think like they think. Not recognizing how they think communicates that you don’t know what’s going on. After all, they know it, why don’t you.
Reinforce, reinforce, reinforce.
Repetition can even make false information more true. I’m not suggesting you repeat false information – simply that repetition can help get the good news across better.
Think about this issue – I’m sure that there will be a need to communicate more news to your organization as we weather this storm.
Remember – it’s not what you think – it’s what they think you think.
Paul,
an important post, and one that is “better late than never”.
In a related vein, it is also important, I think, for a company’s leadership to inform the rank-and-file during a time of crisis. (And for those who don’t think this applies because their company is not in crisis mode, your employees likely still feel the larger social “crisis.”) The press, in this case, is an antagonist for the company. The doom-and-gloom news stories sell papers/broadcasts/etc.
So employers need to respond with a “glass half full” message. For those looking, a good place to start is Mark Perry’s blog (http://mjperry.blogspot.com/); Perry is an economics professor at UM-Flint. Perry does a good job of highlighting some of the good things going on in the economy (in addition to the bad), and an even better job of demonstrating that “the economy” is really just an agglomeration of smaller economies.
Wherever you turn for your information, balancing the good with the bad can help ease your employees anxiety.
Chris… You make a very important point in that just because your company isn’t hurting, the employees are watching the news and talking to neighbors… they are hurting and that will be their reference point. If the management isn’t talking about how and WHY they are doing well the employees will think something is being hidden from them – and so goes the vicious circle.
Great point. I tried the link you provided and it didn’t work…. must be an extra character or two… I got there with http://mjperry.blogspot.com
hey paul. thanks for this post. i think you raised something important for people managers, gauging the temperature of the masses. when it’s a particularly large group that a message is going out to, i encourage managers to always pick a few folks and test the message. from there, tweak as you need to and then get go back for “buy-in” from those select few and leverage them within the rank and file. i also advise this of some of the managers i work with who provide internal services within my company. before rolling out a new policy, a new process, test it out and get some buy-in from your key influencers. it’s amazing what a difference it makes to get buy in from a select few who have influence power over their peers. conditioning the environment is just as important as the message itself…
Paul,
You hit the nail on the head. I was actually in such a meeting yesterday where the managers and leaders were rolling out their decisions about how to move forward in tough times. The audience, the employees, were ready for them and were not shy about making their opinions heard.
Even as management rolled out their ideas, new suggestions were actually coming from the audience. Many were viable ideas and had management even bothered to sit down with staff representatives before their rollout, the outcome might have left people feeling better about the event.