“We don’t know each other, so we don’t care what we do to each other.”
Those words were spoken by the president of union representing police officers in Falmouth, Mass. He was talking to a reporter for the Cape Cod Times about tensions between town management and rank-and-file officers, but he could have been talking about any number of workplaces anywhere in the world.
Things got so bad in Falmouth that the police chief hired consultants to lead the 66-person department in conflict resolution. Participants identified poor communication between department leaders and patrol officers as the main problem – an issue that could have resulted in the police chief losing his job. Town administrators cut his proposed contract from three years to 18 months and ordered him to resolve the problems.
Patrol officers asked their bosses to be more visible, to communicate more openly, to offer praise for jobs well done, and to come visit the off-shifts from time to time. That doesn’t seem to be a particularly difficult list of demands, but the police officers said it could make a huge difference in their job satisfaction. They also asked for improvements in health care and shift changes, which union reps will address in collective bargaining.
The Falmouth Police Department is not alone in discovering that a lot of problems can be solved by simply improving workplace communication. My business partner and I are wrapping up a communication audit for a large organization that revealed many similar issues. In focus groups and through surveys, rank-and-file employees described a culture of distrust – a problem they say could be helped if leaders would just take the time to be more visible and to communicate openly. The audit led to nearly a dozen specific recommendations for improving communication.
Communicating openly means many things. It includes simple acts such as saying “hello” in the hallways and elevators. (It’s amazing how much a friendly greeting or brief conversation with an executive means to an employee who truly wants to feel a part of the corporate family.) On the other end of the spectrum, it also includes important activities such as explaining the business plan and employees’ roles in executing it, answering questions and hearing people’s concerns and suggestions.
The Falmouth Police Department is considering giving patrol officers access to a new intranet so they have access to more information they need to do their jobs. Of course, an intranet is a wonderfully interactive communication tool, so it could help solve a lot of other problems, too.
