Can you share any specific communication techniques or practices that you find helpful in promoting open and honest dialogue within your team or organization?
Sort by:
There are several things i would say are important more generally about communication, which may help towards this goal. Understand that different forums are suitable for different levels of communication, company wide, individual orgs, town halls, small groups and 1:1s. The wider the communication is, the different feedback / openness and honest you may get.
Another thing to note is that what you communicate out isn't necessarily what people will hear. Different people will interpret what you say differently based on their lens, culture, group dynamic etc etc. Don't assume that if you've said it, it will be heard and interpreted in the same way as you intended.
Building a personal network is essential. The more people you know, the better you understand everyone, including those you haven't met yet. This understanding can help anticipate potential stressors or issues within different teams. However, it's also crucial not to avoid hard questions. For instance, layoffs are always a sensitive topic, but you have to be prepared to talk about these hard topics. Being honest with your team, even when you can't share all the details, builds trust. If there are secrets that I can't disclose, I let them know that there are things I can't share due to my position. Honesty, even when it's hard, can earn a team's respect.
Establishing a connection with as many people as possible is crucial. This includes those who aren't my direct reports. By doing so, it helps others understand my collaborative mindset. If I've established a good connection, I feel more comfortable addressing issues directly. For instance, if a conversation didn't go well, I can ask that person how I could have improved it or what they took away from it. I always emphasize that we're all humans, not machines, and it's okay to approach conversations from an emotional standpoint.
One method we've found effective is starting conversations with a personal check-in, asking "how are you as a person?" This approach opens up dialogue and builds trust, as it acknowledges that personal circumstances can impact professional life. We've found that taking a few minutes out of a meeting to acknowledge the person behind the role can significantly improve communication and productivity within our teams.
I host a roundtable where everyone in my organization is invited. No set agenda. A few days beforehand, a link to surveymonkey is sent out asking for questions and areas of interest. We do this every other month for 45 minutes. I show the surveymonkey submissions for all to see and we have a dialogue about those items and anything else that is on anyone's mind.