360DigitalInfluence

 When we media train people, we teach them to tell the punch line first – to hit their key messages, and then go back and fill in any blanks. Why is it so hard to learn that the same principle applies when communicating to employees?

I recently accompanied a well-intentioned and popular CEO on a day of town hall meetings. There was an issue hanging over the company – the threat of imminent layoffs – but at the first meeting it was not addressed. Instead, employees sat through an hour of presentations from the CEO, CFO, and site leader. When the floor was opened for questions, hands shot up: “Are we going to have layoffs?” And I realized that the employees, waiting for a chance to ask the question that was uppermost in their minds, hadn’t heard a word the CEO and other leaders had said.

In the afternoon session, we turned it around. The CEO opened the session by saying, “I know this question is on a lot of your minds. Here’s what I can tell you…” He then took a couple of questions on the topic and then we moved into the program. When we got to the Q&A, there were multiple questions about the presentations – and none about layoffs, because they’d been answered.

Whatever you call it – voicing the objection, naming the elephant in the room, telling the punch line first – it works.