Page 81 - The Voice of Authority

tion. I finally had to terminate him. I’ve never seen
anyone so shocked. Total shock. Yet, for six months,
we all looked at the numbers, and we all clearly agreed
that those numbers in his department had to change.
I don’t know what he concluded after each of those
six meetings. But evidently, the message wasn’t
clear—that he had to do something to correct the
problem in his region.

As long as communication goes only one way, we tend
to assume that people walk away from a conversation with
the point we thought we made very clearly. Yet that’s a fre-
quent complaint about nonproductive meetings: Attendees
walk out mumbling, “So
what was decided? Are we or
Anyone who isn’t con- are we not going to X . . . ?”
fused here doesn’t really Only the subject changes.
understand what’s going To make sure people
on. walk away with the same
—Nigel Wrench message you intended to
convey, verify by getting
them to react to it in some
fashion. These statements might be helpful to verify that
they heard what you intended: “How do you think this pol-
icy will affect your staff?” “What objections do you think
people in your area might have?” “What are some of the
first steps you’d suggest to make this change reality?”
“How easy (or hard) do you think this will be?” “What
questions do you think we’ll hear in the first 90 days as we
roll out this program?”
Questions like these generate the comments that verify
people really do understand your point. From there, you
know whether to circle back or head home.

Is It Clear? 69