Translating the organisation: five minutes a week.
The Engage item is “I understand the reasons behind key organisational decisions”. The reasons travel through the line manager or they do not travel at all.
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Five minutes a week on what is going on beyond the team, the monthly rumour check, a senior visitor each quarter, and the plan in one sentence.
The all-staff email was sent. Nobody read it, or they read it and did not know what it meant for them. The rumour got there first. The manager who spends five minutes a week translating what is going on beyond the team is the difference between a team that trusts the organisation and one that has given up on it.
Five minutes in every team meeting
- What has been decided. What it means for us. What you do not know yet.
- Take questions. Write down the ones you cannot answer.
- Bring the answers next week, or say you are still waiting. Never let a question disappear.
Once a month, ask what the rumour is
“What is the rumour this month?” Make it safe: you want the rumour, not the source. Confirm what is true, correct what is not, find out what you do not know, and report back inside the week. The rumour is the communication that actually landed; start from there.
Once a quarter, bring someone senior to the team
Twenty minutes, in person or on a call, with two questions from the team sent in advance. If you cannot get the person, take one written question up and read the written answer out. Confidence in senior management is built by contact, and you are the contact.
Every six months, say the plan in one sentence
What the organisation is trying to do this year and what the team’s part is, in one sentence. Ask everyone to say it back in their own words; where it does not come back, explain again. Put the sentence somewhere visible. People can carry one sentence. They cannot carry a strategy deck.
When you do not know
Say so, find out, and say. Credibility is what you are left with when the news is bad; spend it on honesty.
The clearest thirty minutes in your week.
Send us your last engagement survey and we’ll show you what it’s missing – no charge, no deck, no obligation. Or start with a pilot or a 30-minute conversation.