There are awkward situations in the life of a company when it is very unclear how to proceed. We get some vague hint that we are being sold, there is a big complaint, and we don't know if we will get any work after that, or even COVID was like that, we replanned the rest of the year twice a week with different numbers, knowing that almost anything could happen.
As a leader, you inevitably stress that you don't know what will happen tomorrow, you have to deal with your own uncertainty, anxiety, anger, and disappointment, and on the other hand, you have to do something with the team, because the faster the big gear spins, the faster the smaller ones connected to it spin. But what can it be?
I received a specific answer to this dilemma during a team coaching process from one of my colleagues. The process was created by a team problem, but we also worked on how to handle the company's current situation.
We had been working in an environment with a lack of information for months, we did not know what the owner's plan was for us, we only received the information directly necessary for the work, that too with difficulty and incompleteness, and there was no response to anything beyond that. Neither for me, nor for colleagues from their functional partners. It was a blind flight, and in addition to being very frustrated that they are not treating me as a partner from the headquarters, it was necessary to resolve that the plant could run, since it could even end well, we cannot undermine our future.
During the process, our coach repeatedly reported back to the team that, compared to what was said, the organization is amazingly healthy, the motivation for cooperation and joint problem solving is high, and she does not perceive the expected tension. My colleague reacted like this: I can work calmly because Kati doesn't just walk around worried, she always tells me what is certain, what we do not know, what makes her tense, and what she thinks about the missing topics. So I'm sure that if there was any bad news, she would also tell… Azért tudok nyugodtan dolgozni, mert a Kati nem csak mászkál gondterhelten, hanem mindig elmondja, hogy mit NEM tud. Hogy mi a biztos, miről nincs infó, mitől feszült, és mit gondol a hiányzó témákról. Így biztos vagyok benne, hogy ha valami rossz hír lenne, azt is elmondaná…
I have already had experience with crisis communication in the plant: if I am tense, everyone is tense, and this is bad for the workers and not good for the plant in the long term, so the tension must be resolved through communication. Either by sharing the available sharable information in a digestible form, thus eliminating the uncertainty of "something is being done against us", or by indicating that it is a personal matter, nothing about the plant. And that as long as the bad news is not 100% sure, let's talk about it emphasizing the probability, let's not burden the daily work, the colleagues, and through them their families with tension, but let's prepare them through this that it can be bad.
But how important and valuable it is to say "I don't know" in the organization, gave me a new tool to keep the plant straight even in difficult situations and to reduce unnecessary mental strain. If everyone is well, we can think about what we can do in the given situation.
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