The Third Way

The key to good internal communication is said to be two-way dialog, ensuring we are allowing people to ask questions, get answers, contribute to what the company is aiming to achieve and feel that success is in part down to them. We all know that having top-down communication as the only method of information from leaders is not totally desirable from an employee’s point of view, especially for those from Gen Y, Z and whatever’s next in this (somewhat-short-sighted-at-its-creation) alphabet of generational pigeon-holing. But is two-way dialog enough? I suggest that there’s a third dimension, the third way in three-way communication.

Recently, we’ve been discussing an online global communication tool for our parent company, one which will be unprecedented, really, in bringing people and information closer to each other and making inter-company collaboration and global working far easier and at the fingertip length demanded by so many workers in this day and age.

The first version of this platform fell short of expectations and had some teething problems which thwarted its adoption at our company. It was a shame because its intentions were spot on – connect to people around the world, share knowledge, experience and expertise, get answers quickly from international colleagues, and so on. The system did all that and more. BUT (that’s a big ‘but’, fyi), the layout, navigation, site performance and governance were poor. Shame; right target, wrong arrows.

After seeing version 2.0 (yes, it’s really called that), I’m confident that people will be impressed and that adoption will follow.

This is where the third dimension of communication comes in: one-way communication is top-down, broadcast, closed, information-only, etc; two-way opens up conversation and dialog between leaders and employees, encouraging feedback, response and interaction. The third way is about colleagues discussing the issues amongst themselves, without their managers being involved (or it might involve them at lower levels within the organisation).

A select group of us has been asked to be advocates for the new system and spread the love of v2.0. The conversations and influence we have with our peers will be crucial to ensure a wide adoption of the system. When we’re in meetings, emailing colleagues or simply having informal water cooler chats, we are going to be walking, talking adverts for this system.

Which made me think – how can we make sure that we are ‘breeding’ advocates of the business at all times, so that the positive vibe is being passed around in the canteen queue, at the staff gym, in team meetings and on bus journeys home? If we can nail this third way of communicating – lighting fires, as I’ve heard it called – we can increase the effectiveness of our communications exponentially. This isn’t a revelation by any means – Leandro Herrero has written books about what he has coined as viral change. (I recommend “Disruptive Ideas” which has the sub-headline of “10+10+10 = 1000″.)

How much influence can leaders have on these informal peer-to-peer conversations? Seemingly quite a lot if the right people are involved at the right time. I’m not talking about being dishonest or underhanded, trying to ‘brainwash’ people into believing the corporate spin (trust me, that would be worked out VERY quickly by our more-intelligent-than-average workforce); rather that by communicating better with those who have a lot of clout in the workplace and getting their buy-in and trust, there is much to be gained from their infectious impact among their colleagues.

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