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Every company recognizes the importance of good communication, but some topics still remain taboo. These "undiscussables" generally address uncomfortable assumptions or beliefs about how a company does things.
"Sometimes these issues become so deeply rooted in organizational behavior that we're not consciously aware of them anymore," says Michael Baroff, a management consulting with Organization Effectiveness Consulting in Santa Monica, California. "Unfortunately, not discussing them can inhibit performance."
Baroff identifies common undiscussables:
• "Information only flows so far." "Supervisors and mangers often see information as power and withhold it rather than share it with employees," says Baroff. "Sometimes, the result is that employees don't have access to information they need to be fully productive."
Employees don't ask for it because they don't want to challenge the system. Not having it, however, makes them uncomfortable and generates mistrust.
• "How do we do more with less?" Today's supervisors are expected to do more with less, but don't always ask for input in how exactly to meet this challenge. "As a result, supervisors may miss opportunities for coming up with creative ways to manage resources," says Baroff. "Worse yet, they may vie with other departments for resources, reinforcing internal competition rather than cooperation."
• "Work as team (but be evaluated as an individual)." Many companies place employees in teams and expect team members to be creative and problem-solve together. Yet very few evaluate a team member's performance on the basis of how well the team performs or how well employees work on teams. Instead, team members are still assessed and reinforced as individuals.
• "Everyone has an equal say." Yet the underlying belief is that different departments have different rankings. "This is a particularly important issue to address as company's stress interdepartmental collaboration. " says Baroff. "A cross functional team may say that everyone has equal status, but the undiscussable is that the person from a department with a more perceived status may really think and act as it his or her say has a little more weight than another person's say."
• "Quality first" vs. "Time is money." Sometimes, during the first part of the year, companies emphasize quality, but as they come up against time crunches and budget restraints mid-year, they switch to a new focus: time is money. "Playing a new game without discussing it drives everyone crazy, says Baroff. Baroff suggests how to discuss "undiscussables":
1. Create an atmosphere of trust and openness. Begin by having an open door policy, where people can discuss issues without retribution. That way, when you
move to a group situation, people will have some base of trust.
Sometimes, anonymity helps people, too. When holding a group meeting, have participants write down concerns anonymously. These can then be discussed together, without individuals having to take responsibility for surfacing them.
2. Initiate dialogue. Have people sit in a circle or at a round table to facilitate discussion. Set ground rules. Ask people to suspend judgments, so they can easily listen to each other's viewpoints. Assure individuals that anything discussed outside will be attributed to the group, not to individuals.
"The goal is not to jump to new solutions or to defend views, but to explore the complex issues of 'undiscussables,' expose the confusion and consider alternatives," says Baroff. "You can look at taking action at other meetings."
As you talk regularly about these issues, you will develop a norm of surfacing"undiscussables." Doing so may result in some uncomfortable moments, especially at first. Ultimately, however, discussing them generates share understanding and improves performance.
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