Dear Deafened by the Sound of Silence
Yes, it really does appear like you have a connection problem with your staff. And thank you for getting in touch as this is a problem that is common in our community of people trying to deliver projects and organisational change.
Often when we manage change, we can convince ourselves as a Leadership Team, Project Team or comms and engagement hub that we are doing everything possible to create excitement and engagement around change, only to find it meets deathly silence across the organisation.
One of the tips I would offer is to divide your attention into communications and engagement. As we know, these are different points of focus in communications, be it for a project or otherwise.
From your description, it sounds like you are taking the the steps to provide information to people, but this does not mean that you cannot try new things to improve response rates or take-up. A direct approach can sometimes help, asking staff from a set of options, what information they may want more of in future, or what information they do not think is relevant in regular project comms.
I recognise you refer to problems in gaining any feedback or engagement so let’s move onto this.
Positive change management engagement on a project must always be two-way, open, transparent, offering space for honest feedback even when this is negative.
As with communications, I would recommend you do not abandon your engagement set-up activities, such as the staff network you reference and your suggestion boxes. At any given time, it’s very useful to provide a number of ways to engage with a project and keep all channels open, even they are little used.
I will go out on a limb here and say it is best to approach the staff body with the challenge itself. Invite a focus group to a structured session where you pose the question: “Why do we have such low engagement on projects right now, and how do we improve this?”
This must not be confrontational, and it will need you make an effort to gain trust from people involved in the exercise. It may not be a session that needs to involve your leadership or Project Governance representatives. You could treat it as a Project Team exercise with comms and a small group of stakeholders present.
You may wish to propose reasons why engagement levels are low. E.g., people are busy, or people feel too disempowered to be truly involved in change at you company. Yet do leave lots of space both in any agenda and in the room for their voices to be heard.
If this works, a next step may be to ask a couple of members of this focus group to review and provide feedback on communications themselves. Be brave – it is a great way to show humility: “Look, help us frame these comms in a better way.”
It is worth exploring whether in the past staff have been asked to engage on projects that had poor outcomes, or where views were not heard and translated through the project. And you have also said you have low satisfactions scores in certain areas.
It may be that staff are scared to share views or are tired if they feel those views go unheard. In this scenario it is best to identify some volunteers willing to bridge the gap between the project or company and the staff body – those four brave volunteers you mention.
Then you may find the “softly softly” approach works. Showing staff how you are listening through close working with a few volunteers, and shaping projects based on what people have to say.
Don’t be afraid to gather some of what is being said on the grapevine. Even if some of it may be critical, it remains informative in what you may need to change to gain more traction.
This is not an easy challenge to overcome. You have the learning platform project coming up as an opportunity to start again with the staff around their aspirations for learning.
In summary, keep going and continue to try new things. Treat every step forward as a little victory and do not be hard on your team if you continue for a while to receive silence at the All -Staff session.
Engagement is as much about mutual trust as it is about discussion.
I hope I’ve helped here.
