The truth: Are we ready for it?
26th April 2006 by Brad Whitworth
As communicators we always push for open, honest, candid communication. But are we ready for everything it entails … as organizations or as individuals?
Sometimes the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth can be painful. To hear and to deliver. It’s being pushed as a new communications paradigm by Susan Scott in Fierce Conversations. If you transform your conversations the way the author recommends, you’ll “experience positive organizational change, greater effectiveness in everyday interactions, a renewed sense of purpose, and a new way of relating to people at work, at home and in every area of your life.” And we all want all of that.
Some people are ready for that sort of personal or organizational conversation. Look at the impatience of some of the Y-Gen crowd that’s entering the workforce today. They ask, “Why should you and save up our thoughts about my performance for some staged, annual review. Let’s talk about it right now.” They grew up on video games, operate at twitch speed and are ready to handle good and bad news.
Yet many individuals, departments and organizations aren’t ready for the in-your-face, assume-positive-intent information that some of these conversations can deliver.
What about your organization? Is it ready to hold the fierce conversation? What about you? Are you ready? Can you handle the truth?
April 27th, 2006 at 5:09 am
[...] Brad Whitworth over at the IABC employee comms blog points to a new book by Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations. [...]
June 14th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Open, honest, candid communication…sure. But, no, I’m not ready to agree to spur-of-the-moment performance reviews. I can remember trying it a decade ago with a direct report. Never again! My comments weren’t coherent, and I didn’t have the right facts to back up my assertions. The direct report who had asked for the off-the-cuff “performance review” was upset.
This experience is in my “book of learnings” under the heading of, “Things Not to Ever, Ever, Do Again.”
Employees who operate at “twitch speed” — whether due to caffeine, andrenaline or youthful exuberance — can benefit from learning that not all communication has to be immediate. Just ask anyone who has ever fired off a flaming email or instant message, and then prayed that the network would somehow seize up and prevent the message from getting delivered. (My hand is raised.)
June 30th, 2006 at 6:47 am
[...] Small change got rained on with his own .38 (my favourite Waits song, by the way — stunning lyricism almost but not quite matched by the Ireland ‘live’ (not the studio) version of ‘My piano has been drinking’; only equalled by Tom’s mind-numbingly brilliant delivery in ‘Frank’s Wild Years’): Tom Keefe says what every person over the age of 25 has silently prayed for since email and instant messaging emerged as corporate and personal communication tools — that the network would somehow seize up and prevent the message from getting delivered. [...]