#Remote 4: You Should Share Bad and Good News Differently (Here's How)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:09.830 --> 00:00:16.469 No one likes a message from on high. We accept it, perhaps even 2 00:00:16.510 --> 00:00:19.949 believe it, depending on who sent it, but it's hard to like it. 3 00:00:21.539 --> 00:00:27.059 The problem really is gravity. What begins up there must come down here, 4 00:00:27.739 --> 00:00:31.940 but there is no such law for the reverse. You can easily drop 5 00:00:32.020 --> 00:00:36.609 the tablet, the scroll, the papyrus to me, but for me to 6 00:00:36.689 --> 00:00:41.570 write a response and send it back requires ingenuity, some sort of pulley system 7 00:00:41.609 --> 00:00:47.609 or effort, the determination of some hiker. If I simply let the paper 8 00:00:47.689 --> 00:00:52.759 go, you won't get it back. Not even God and all his angels 9 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:58.320 are exempt from this unequal footing. In some cases, I may not care 10 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:03.719 if the message is I have finished what you asked me to do. I 11 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:07.989 am satisfied, but the moment I see a question mark, I'm alerted to 12 00:01:08.069 --> 00:01:14.989 the difficulty of our exchange. Over time, it becomes easier to seed authority 13 00:01:15.109 --> 00:01:19.739 to you. Skepticism comes at a cost. You will do what is best. 14 00:01:19.780 --> 00:01:26.620 It is convenient for me to trust this. The message from on high 15 00:01:26.859 --> 00:01:30.260 is much like the message in a bottle. The idea of it is exciting, 16 00:01:30.819 --> 00:01:36.010 romantic even. There are words in it for my eyes to scour, 17 00:01:36.730 --> 00:01:42.609 words from far away somewhere I've never been. The message has traveled through storms, 18 00:01:42.890 --> 00:01:48.079 seas, perhaps even hands to reach me. Itt here it is at 19 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:53.840 last, and then, all at once, it hits me. I have 20 00:01:53.040 --> 00:02:14.030 absolutely no way to respond. Welcome back to remote, a series on BB 21 00:02:14.150 --> 00:02:17.780 growth about where remote cultures breakdown and how to make them stronger than ever. 22 00:02:19.740 --> 00:02:23.620 My name is Ryan Drotty and I'm the director of culture and people opps it 23 00:02:23.659 --> 00:02:27.780 sweet fish media, which has been a fully remote team for the entirety of 24 00:02:27.860 --> 00:02:31.770 its existence. Today I want to talk about communication in a remote culture. 25 00:02:32.449 --> 00:02:36.889 In particular, will take a look at some of the most effective ways to 26 00:02:37.009 --> 00:02:43.650 differentiate and distribute messages across the organization. Not every message should be circulated the 27 00:02:43.689 --> 00:02:47.560 same way, and it's important to know when and how to communicate each message 28 00:02:47.719 --> 00:02:53.680 in a way that fills gaps and sets everyone's minds at ease, rather than 29 00:02:53.759 --> 00:03:00.669 inviting them to invent their own, sometimes disastrous interpretations of the news. The 30 00:03:00.830 --> 00:03:07.310 greatest blessing of remote teams, freedom, is also its greatest curse. Independence 31 00:03:07.430 --> 00:03:13.539 and isolation are two sides of the same coin. On the last episode of 32 00:03:13.580 --> 00:03:17.500 remote, I talked about how casual conversations at a remote company don't just accidentally 33 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:22.580 happen the way they do in an office. The same is true of heart 34 00:03:22.659 --> 00:03:28.090 to hearts or clearing the air types of conversations, and in office you can 35 00:03:28.090 --> 00:03:34.210 call out meeting room in five not so for remote teams. No matter how 36 00:03:34.370 --> 00:03:38.689 you send out that message, many people will miss it. That means when 37 00:03:38.689 --> 00:03:42.759 you communicate something important, you'll need to do it very, very thoughtfully. 38 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:47.039 Getting the message right the first time is important for any company, but it 39 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:53.120 is especially for distributed companies. In one round of communication you'll need to find 40 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:58.830 a way to do all of the following convey the information in a way that 41 00:03:58.990 --> 00:04:03.990 sticks, give people a chance to respond or ask questions, leave as little 42 00:04:03.990 --> 00:04:10.659 room for interpretation as possible and tell each person how this news affects them. 43 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:15.339 That's a lot to accomplish all at once. It's fairly easy to do one 44 00:04:15.379 --> 00:04:19.899 or two of those things, say convey the information and leave no room for 45 00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:25.970 interpretation, but to do all four you have to put more thought into how 46 00:04:26.170 --> 00:04:31.529 to communicate the message than even the message itself, and the how changes depending 47 00:04:31.569 --> 00:04:36.889 on the nature of the message. Here's what we do at sweetfish. If 48 00:04:36.930 --> 00:04:42.879 the news our leadership team is sharing is positive or exciting, such as a 49 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:48.480 promotion, a completed project or deliverable or a new client. It's entirely appropriate 50 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:54.110 to communicate the news through a one way channel. This might be through an 51 00:04:54.110 --> 00:04:59.350 update video to the whole company or an email or informational all hands meeting. 52 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:03.870 The News is fun to share and there really shouldn't be any significant changes for 53 00:05:03.949 --> 00:05:09.420 anyone involved, so there's no real need to open the floor except to let 54 00:05:09.459 --> 00:05:15.060 people offer congratulations and share their own excitement. You just get to celebrate as 55 00:05:15.100 --> 00:05:19.379 a company. But if the news is negative, sad or emotionally charged, 56 00:05:20.139 --> 00:05:26.329 we try not to announce it informationally. Instead, we get the message out 57 00:05:26.370 --> 00:05:31.209 individually in weekly one on one meetings with managers and their direct reports. Depending 58 00:05:31.209 --> 00:05:34.449 on the urgency of the news, these might even be scheduled as soon as 59 00:05:34.529 --> 00:05:40.879 possible outside of the weekly meeting that's already in place. The idea here, 60 00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:46.519 in theory, is that most good news doesn't require dialog, but bad news 61 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:50.949 very much does. Conveying tough messages through one on one meetings gives the recipient 62 00:05:51.029 --> 00:05:56.910 a chance to process their feelings, ask questions about how things came to be 63 00:05:57.550 --> 00:06:00.790 and learn how the change affects them personally. Instead of just the company as 64 00:06:00.790 --> 00:06:09.500 a whole. Take firing or ephemistically letting someone go. For example, in 65 00:06:09.620 --> 00:06:14.339 a remote team it's especially alarming when someone leaves the company. ERS Let go 66 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:18.529 and a physical office. It's usually more obvious when there's a performance issue on 67 00:06:18.649 --> 00:06:23.889 the team, but on a remote team one day you're bantering with a coworker 68 00:06:24.009 --> 00:06:28.730 on slack and the next they're gone. It's jarring to say the least. 69 00:06:29.930 --> 00:06:34.000 That person's manager may know the conversations with them that have happened behind the scenes 70 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:41.519 for quite some time. You are not part of those conversations. That person's 71 00:06:41.639 --> 00:06:45.720 manager may know the conversations with them that have happened behind the scenes for some 72 00:06:45.879 --> 00:06:49.550 time, but you are not a part of those conversations. So the change 73 00:06:49.589 --> 00:06:54.949 seems out of the blue. Naturally, it may cause some anxiety for the 74 00:06:55.069 --> 00:07:00.629 rest of the team, not knowing exactly how their performance is being evaluated or 75 00:07:00.750 --> 00:07:05.259 the context behind the change. I won't be discussing performance evaluation here, but 76 00:07:05.379 --> 00:07:12.139 the context piece is significant. People want to know what happened and why. 77 00:07:13.420 --> 00:07:16.329 For us, using one on ones for these kinds of announcements is the right 78 00:07:16.529 --> 00:07:21.930 mix of personal but scalable and conveying this type of news is part of the 79 00:07:21.970 --> 00:07:28.449 job responsibility of any manager in our company. I said in theory because we've 80 00:07:28.490 --> 00:07:32.720 screwed this up pretty badly before. We've had people leave or get fired, 81 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:38.519 and we've shared that information through one on one's. So far, so good. 82 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:45.990 The problem is we've assumed that one conversation, one carefully crafted conversation mind 83 00:07:46.069 --> 00:07:50.029 you, was enough. It's not. More on that in just a minute. 84 00:07:50.829 --> 00:07:56.389 A quick word of caution. Sometimes, what seems like positive news to 85 00:07:56.509 --> 00:08:01.060 those sharing it is actually anxiety inducing to those receiving it. Take, for 86 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:05.180 example, the act of hiring someone new from outside the company and putting them 87 00:08:05.220 --> 00:08:11.500 into a role that is less than clearly defined, or announcing a new process 88 00:08:11.579 --> 00:08:15.490 change that will affect people who aren't involved in its design in the first place. 89 00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:18.730 If you're sharing the news, you may be tempted to think of your 90 00:08:18.769 --> 00:08:24.250 own excitement and justification for the change without considering how it will land with the 91 00:08:24.370 --> 00:08:30.600 rest of the team. Having a new executive on the team is nice and 92 00:08:30.759 --> 00:08:35.080 may even be incredible down the line, but in the moment people want to 93 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:39.279 know who this person is, why they were brought in and, most importantly, 94 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:43.230 how their arrival will affect them. One of the problems we've run into 95 00:08:43.389 --> 00:08:48.309 is a leadership team here is putting a lot of thought into how something gets 96 00:08:48.309 --> 00:08:52.350 announced and even sending the message in a considerate way, one on ones, 97 00:08:52.470 --> 00:08:58.899 for example, but limiting the message or just never addressing it again. We've 98 00:09:00.059 --> 00:09:03.980 absolutely been guilty of trying to convey tough news and too positive of a light. 99 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:09.860 Maybe you've done the same, but your people are smart. They know 100 00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:13.289 what's really happening. When someone gets to Moated, they know what the person 101 00:09:13.370 --> 00:09:18.330 moving into a new and better suited role really means. They have a strong 102 00:09:18.529 --> 00:09:26.320 nose for politics or internal PR better to own any mistakes you've made beyond us 103 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:31.879 about what's really happening and let people question your judgment openly. It's much better 104 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:37.279 to hear out angry or confused people than to misinterpret their silence as consent. 105 00:09:37.399 --> 00:09:43.470 Good communication between departments, individuals or levels in an organization might just be measured 106 00:09:43.509 --> 00:09:48.429 by how generously information is shared. If you trust people, I think you 107 00:09:48.509 --> 00:09:52.710 should want to tell them as much as you can. So when you've got 108 00:09:52.710 --> 00:09:56.860 a message to share, instead of asking how much do they need to know, 109 00:09:56.659 --> 00:10:03.059 ask how much can I tell them. Framing your communication positively like this 110 00:10:03.299 --> 00:10:07.889 encourages generosity and empathy. It also keeps people from filling in the blanks that 111 00:10:09.009 --> 00:10:13.730 you leave out. The only real reason to withhold information from anyone else you 112 00:10:13.769 --> 00:10:18.970 work with as if it could harm, disrespect or compromise someone. Beyond that, 113 00:10:18.129 --> 00:10:22.039 I think we owe it to people to tell the truth, let them 114 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:26.720 respond and not be too quick to move on. That last point is important. 115 00:10:28.679 --> 00:10:31.279 We've dropped new WHO's on the team before and sometimes even handled it well 116 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:35.950 at the time, then moved on to other things while some team members still 117 00:10:37.029 --> 00:10:41.710 have then moved on to other things while some team members still have had concerns. 118 00:10:43.990 --> 00:10:48.070 This is a recipe for breaking trust. Now we're trying to take the 119 00:10:48.149 --> 00:10:52.740 temperature of the team through one on one's and provide regular, open forums that 120 00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:58.620 are dialogs instead of information dumps, so we know when questions and concerns linger. 121 00:11:01.139 --> 00:11:03.610 This is particularly true when we make mistakes. As a leadership team, 122 00:11:05.450 --> 00:11:09.570 to apologize and move on and expect others to forgive and forget only rubs salt 123 00:11:09.690 --> 00:11:16.610 in the wound. There's an appropriate level of organizational grieving that must take place 124 00:11:16.129 --> 00:11:22.080 when two parties hurt one another. unfiltered communication is the best and, luckily, 125 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:28.279 the quickest way to move forward together. If I had to some all 126 00:11:28.360 --> 00:11:33.710 this up into something nice and tidy, here's what I'd say. When you 127 00:11:33.950 --> 00:11:39.230 have a message to share in your company, tell the truth, tell it 128 00:11:39.350 --> 00:11:43.389 the way the other person wants to hear it and make sure you know how 129 00:11:43.389 --> 00:11:48.500 they feel about it. Better yet, why not just consider them every step 130 00:11:48.580 --> 00:11:48.940 of the way?