Access Management Journal - March 2009 - (Page 24) CHAA Corner those who don’t. Individuals who are excluded feel disconnected f rom the whole vision of the organization, which diminishes trust and encourages people to further guard their ideas and limit their input. Information bonds people to one another, an important part of positive growth and a sense of community within an organization. Cutting people off f rom access to information is unhealthy for progress, as information should be accessible to everyone. Promote department-wide meetings, encouraging employees to share their information and ideas with the team. Create an after meeting follow-up bulletin that discusses what was said. Much of the important information, however, will not be written. Instead, it comes in chance conversations, briefly mentioned in meetings, in the elevator, or in the lunchroom. Verify the important information and make a point of distributing it to employees. Decide on the type of information and how you should disseminate it: 1. Organizational philosophy is anything related to the long-term mission, vision, or the direction of the organization. This information is very relevant to all employees because it is the “glue” that holds diverse departments of an organization together for a shared purpose. However, it does not need to be presented at the year-end when everyone is swamped with work. Save this information and present the bigger picture on a monthly basis to help staff maintain focus. You may also have a newsletter devoted to initiatives that support the organization’s purpose and vision. 2. Implement operations and procedures. If information relates directly to an employee’s day-to-day job, the sooner she knows about it, the better. If information is important, you need a consistent system to disseminate it efficiently and effectively, possibly through staff meetings, individual coaching, bulletins, or announcements. If the information is critical to the job, then use a feedback or follow-up procedure to ensure it is being incorporated. Develop a channel strictly for sharing critical information so that employees pay attention. 3. Avoid broadcasting incomplete information. Very often managers will hear word of potentially nasty things like mergers or layoffs that would affect staff adversely, information that may be sensitive and still tentative. If you don’t have the full information, you run the risk of putting people on the defensive. Since they don’t have all the pieces of the complete puzzle, they also may rush to false conclusions, which puts you in an awkward situation. Communicate information in a uniform, consistent way to prevent a “leak” of partial facts, rumors, and false conclusions. Refrain from selectively putting some people in the know and not others. 24 Access Management Journal Keep employees well informed of what is going on, why it is happening, and how it affects their job and the organization as a whole. Explain the reason for any change, and how it will better serve management, employees, customers, suppliers, etc. Ask for suggestions and involve everyone as much as possible. Remember that employees are the resource that makes things happen, and therefore it is essential to get their buy-in. A Communication System to Make Information Accessible and Build Trust Managing information may be tricky. While you want to keep people informed, you don’t want to overwhelm them with information they don’t need to know. Presentation is the key. Here is a method to handle and communicate information:
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