ENCOURAGING
CONSTRUCTIVE
DIALOGUE
Leaders have always been encouraged to engage in frequent and widespread communication in support of their role of defining and moving towards the future Some have become public spokespersons for their company, as is the case at Ford; others speak in the company’s annual report; while still others direct their corporation from within, from mission statement to memos. However, it is not unusual for the same well-intentioned leaders to fall into the trap of having their communication be largely going one way; in other words, they are mostly in “transmit” mode, and only rarely in “receive.” - .
Sometimes-they rationalize this as a consequence of shortage of time, the need for speed, and the rapid coalescing of a workforce around a new sense of direction. What they forget, however, is that there is rarely a “coming together” of a workforce in truly committed sense without some involvement in the definition of that direction input into the jigsaw puzzle that will emerge as the picture of the future business.
This involvement is not meant to be permission seeking or some business version of democracy. What it should be is a means by which people at many levels can input ideas, voice reactions, and share opportunities, fears, and questions. If this occurs leaders will find their organizations ultimately much more committed, feeling less as if they have been simply directed and more as if they have genuinely been part of a dialog in forging a path to the future.
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