Researching an article for ContentWise, the fabulous-online-newsletter-I-write-for-that's-available-free-right-here, I came across a remark that struck me as true.
Commenting on an article about employee town hall meetings on Melcrum's web site, a Patrick Gibbons wrote:
hall" for most employee meetings. The definition has evolved over the
years (into electronic forums, bulletin boards, and others), but the
term "town hall" signifies a forum or place where stakeholders gather
to discuss emerging issues, voice concerns and offer opinions.
Attendees at town halls are supposed to get a vote, which is rarely is
the case in corporate settings.
One of the big challenges we face in internal communications is
managing employee expectations, so it is important to use the most
accurate terms possible. Using terms like town hall, when we really
mean (semi-annual or quarterly) employee meeting, is less than helpful
and may actually create new problems. Other frequently misused
employee-engagement terms include partnering, consulting,
collaborating, and involving.
That's exactly right. We're b.s.ing employees and one another by calling these corporate events "town hall meetings" when they're really nothing of the sort. But especially inside the communication industry, we do need a more descriptive term than "employee meeting" to imply a give and take.
Or do we simply need to reconcile ourselves to the notion that we're probably not going to get really great exchanges between most CEOs and most employee audiences, who are usually too frightened of one another to say much of anything at all, let alone in such a big forum?
As Rachel Maddow likes to self-indulgently say, "Talk me down!"
sometimes we call them “all-hands” meetings–not sure that’s much better…
At the last company I worked for, these “employee meetings” had no give and take whatsoever. They were mandatory, and they meant we HAD to go listen to the CEO talk and that was all. Our supervisors did a head count in order to adequately ream or otherwise punish anyone who didn’t attend; in fact, I’ve seen scheduled leave canceled once one of these sessions was scheduled, because all employees were required to attend.
There’s nothing “town hall” or even “employee” about these. I absolutely hated them. No matter what euphemism you apply, every employee knows what it really means.
What I still don’t really understand is what on earth is the POINT of a gathering like that? There’s more discretion in filing your tax return than in something like that. Argh. You’ve pressed one of my buttons, David. Those things are useless to employees and serve no purpose than to feed the already overblown ego of a CEO.
Joan, yours is a true horror story the likes of which I don’t think I’ve ever quite heard outside a military basse.
I agree, there are two issues with “town halls”:
1. They’re mis-named “town halls,” which creates disappointment on behalf of employees, communicators and the CEO when they come across as ….
2. … boring lectures and financial reviews, or worse, executive-team ham-it-ups.
Minimum ingredients for anything that could live up to the name “town hall”:
• a reasonably healthy corporate culture with employees generally unafraid of authority and eager to share their expertise
• a CEO who’s comfortable mixing it up with people, as the pioneer of the employee town hall, Lee Iaccoca was.
Anybody want to defend town halls? Anybody hold town halls that can defend themselves???
I don’t quite know how it happens that I end up in the “devil’s advocate” position so frequently…perhaps I’m just a contrary curmudgeon, or, more likely I just love a nice lively debate.
Anyway, I actually worked for a company two…or was it three ago? Whatever, I worked for a company once where we had “Town Halls” twice yearly.
This was a large call centre and if you know anything about this type of workplace, it’s a tough job. The customers are mostly unhappy when they call, you’re tied to a phone for your entire shift, and as a communicator it is challenging to share information out, and gather information in, from this type of employee group.
Lucky for me, the management were fairly progressive and open-minded. Being the instigator that I am, I was always out on the floor, in the cafeteria, even in the bathrooms (well, only the women’s) talking to our employees about what they liked and what they didn’t, what worked to make their jobs easier, and what made them want to put their fists through the computer monitors.
I’m sure all the other communicators know this, but it is actually quite surprising how much information you can get from employees when you walk right up and ask them what they think. I had LOTS of stuff that were problems, that I knew SHOULD be asked in the Q&A we always had after the presentations at our Town Hall, but probably wouldn’t be.
Oh, and that’s another thing – we had update presentations from the managers of each of the functional groups who worked in the call centre, or who worked with our employees regularly but were outside the official Call Centre. Our CEO was there, but no diatribe or speech – he was there for Q&A.
So, getting back to Q&A, since I knew a bunch of sore spots that nobody was going to get up and ask, I proposed at one of the Management meetings, that I would write out several of the most “contentious” questions or comments I’d heard, and we would “randomly” pull them out of the Q&A submission box at the meeting and answer them.
I worked with the Manager of whichever group was involved to write an honest answer to the concern in advance that the Manager had time to get comfortable with.
The first time we did this, the looks on the employees faces when we read out questions they never in a million years believed Management would tackle was just priceless!
It took a few more Town Halls of doing this, but eventually, employees actually started to stand up and ask tough questions of Management live. The first time that happened I felt like I was ten-feet tall, because it meant the employees believed that: a) it was safe to ask tough questions, and b) that they would actually get straight answers.
Ultimately, I think “Town Halls” or whatever you call them are like virtually every other aspect of employee communications. If your intent and objective is to create honest, effective two-way communication between your management and your employees, almost any tools and tactics you use will be well received.
If, on the other hand, your objective is to “pretend” you’ve shared information with employees, but you really just want them to shut up, get back to work and leave you alone, well then nothing you do will build an engaged workforce.
Okay, I should add to my criteria:
1. A healthy corporate culture.
2. A CEO with giant ‘nads.
3. Or, if neither of the above, a combination journalist-Machiavelli-saint employee communicator like Kristen Ridley, who I am afraid doesn’t know how rare she is.
This story makes my week, Kristen–reminds me of how effective communicators can be if they are truly into the job–and I intend to summarize it in some detail in the next issue of the Influential Executive newsletter that I edit, if that’s all right with you.
Thanks for this, which I don’t consider counter to anything that’s been said here, really.
You do have to admit that not many town hall meetings are organized by a whirling dervish like your own bad self.
Pshaw! You’re makin’ me blush!! You are welcome to use this story, it really was one of those great moments in a communicator’s career that helps offset “the other stuff”. What can I say? I was younger then and had more energy to be pushy!
BTW – You do realize, of course, that the other people who read your blog and who know me, are all choking to death with laughter over that “saint” thing. Journalist and Machiavelli, I can see – god knows I think I ought to be ruling the world – but “saint”?? Not that I’m not flattered I am!