Ever get the idea that there is a serious disconnect somewhere between the execs and the individual contributors? I suspected as such about 13 years back--what the execs were saying and the directors were implementing were two different things. If the execs had been paying attention downward rather than outward, they would have noticed.
So, when I was invited to an "exec communication meeting" which was sort of a 10 ICs/first level managers get to talk to the exec staff, I introduced the game of "chase the meme".
The rules are simple. An exec, in this case the EVP of HR stated a new policy that was then supposed to be communicated down through the ranks. The dtae it hit the dept meetings would be reported back to the EVP, and if the meme didn't work its way through in 8 weeks, that would be reported as well.
In this case, the meme was "spend your employee relations budget", because we had directors and dept managers who were attempting to win the "good dog" award by not spending the money. This wasn't a big chunk of money--about $150 for each cost center per quarter, but when the company is doing quarterly layoffs and re-orgs, keeping the people you want to keep ought to be a pretty large priority. Your meme can be something as simple as "have a quarterly meeting and serve a snack"--anything that's easily trackable.
Lucky for me, and unknownst to the EVP of HR, I had an MBA study buddy on his staff. She let me know when the announcement was made. I enlisted some more MBA buddies and told them to let me know when the meme made its appearance.
What happened? The meme made it through 20% of the time within the 8 week time period. I kept track and found that was it--if the meme didn't make it by 8 weeks, it wasn't going to. The HR people did their work--they announced it at every director level staff meeting--it just wasn't implemented.
I reported this back to the EVP of HR, was thanked, and not a damn thing happened.
Think about it--if something this simple and innocuous isn't being passed along, what else from the exec level isn't making it to the employees? Corporate strategy, perhaps?
Posted by lsefton at September 22, 2003 09:32 PM