What happened mate? How did it happen? Oh, is that so... Why do you think it happened? Don't you think the reason might have been something else? Anyway, how will it affect me now? Will I loose my job? Will I need to undergo a situation where I will need to counter downsizing? What wrong did I do? Why am I facing such a situation? ... Thoughts thoughts and more thoughts! Irrelevant, irrational, random - but valid!
Dealing with situations of rumor is very tricky. More so, for large organisations. The butterfly effect has a huge impact in the flow of information across the various ears in the organisation. The whole of last night my thoughts were wandering around the ways to handle such situations. It boiled down to - Is being frank and open about the situation an answer to this? Does it give the right message to the individuals without maturity? Will they not start assuming more and eventually take hasty decisions?
Being frank about the situation definitely helps. Just that there needs to be a measurement of frankness. At the business level there may be a lot of decisions which need not be made visible to the team members as it will definitely not make a difference to them. But I feel that the reason behind the decision affecting the people should be associated in our communication of decision to the people across various levels to ensure that the right information is spread to them and they are not bogged down by unnecessary stress. Give them the bigger picture of what things are and ask questions to them which will invoke thoughts in their mind - given a similar situation how would they have handled it if they owned the organisation... things of that sort...
Things do not end here. At the end of the day they will still have the basic question of job security in their minds. It is always better that you as a manager tell out the questions which they may have thought of upfront rather than they coming out with such questions. This always increases the confidence level of the employees as you would showcase the thought process you have in mind and that it is positive and there is a ray of hope. Now the real big question - What if the news if really bad? Do I tell the people directly or do I need to beat around the bush? Another tricky situation - Given an opportunity to do it - I wouldn't beat around the bush giving a false hope. Tell them directly in a way they can accept it - motivate them by giving the perception of it not being the end of the world. Well, it really is not the end of the world folks! We have new challenges and new mornings everyday ...
All you are helping by doing this is - avoiding unnecessary rumors. Lets be frank - will the news not spread from one ear to the other? It is a general human tendency to tell things which are not supposed to be told. No, the industry isn't so matured yet! We have immaturity from the top layer to the bottom most layer... That is the sad state of IT these days...
So, delivering the bad news - be straight forward, practical, give confidence and hope if you have; if you don't have hope, be straight forward again. It seriously doesn't hurt any individual if it is told in the way it has to be told. It is all about understanding the pulse of the group and responding to it...
