The company knew they had to do something. Customer satisfaction ratings were dropping, employee turnover was rising, and nobody wanted to talk about morale. Serious competition was looming. A group of leaders were appointed to do something about the situation and to do it fast. Meeting after meeting produced idea after idea. Consultants were hired, and a final decision was reached.

“We’ll create a video that tells everyone why they should be happy that they work here,” they decided. “We’ll prove that the future’s bright by showing our grandly produced video to everyone. Spare no expense,” they said. “Just get it done.”

So, the script was written, the actors were hired, and the locations scouted. Production began and money was spent. The final version was shown to the executive team and they beamed at each other. This would do it; things would change now. After all, they had spared no expense.

Employees were ushered into the meeting room and given plastic cups filled with sparkling grape juice. The lights dimmed and the video began. The music was powerful and the videography impressive. The leaders sitting in the front of the room led the applause and raised their glasses in a toast to the renewed commitment they were certain everyone in attendance felt. People filed out of the room talking about their weekend plans. That’s when I heard one of the participants say, “I can’t believe they’re trying to get us to put our hats back on with that crap!” No one else seemed to hear his comment. Curious, I followed him out of the building and asked, “What hat?”

“Oh,” he replied offhandedly, “When I first started, fifteen years ago, we all had hats with the company’s name and logo. I was like most guys; we wore them all the time. We wanted everyone to know where we worked. We were proud to work here. I haven’t worn my hat for a long time.”

Many organizations, in an attempt to improve morale, spend dollars, time, and energy externally and forget that morale is an inside job. Please don’t ask consultants to help you improve morale in your organization. Start by asking this question yourself of the people on your team, really listen to the answers, and go to work.

I can’t remember exactly where I heard it for the first time, but I do remember the general circumstances. There was a group of us seated around a table. Flipcharts covered the walls, and markers and half-used Post-it notepads littered the table. Our work had progressed nicely up until the last agenda item. Our task was to agree on a way to disseminate information on a recent decision. The conversation seemed to go around in circles. Someone took a deep breath, made eye contact with each of us and said, “Do you think it’s likely that we can develop any sort of communication plan by continuing to pool our ignorance about how this decision was made?” What a wonderful question. That’s exactly what we were doing, talking about something we had no real information about or insight into, and yet it took a courageous questioner to point us in the right direction. We adjourned the meeting and went out to do our homework. We couldn’t talk about a decision until we understood it. Asking How could we communicate management decisions more effectively? can save you from expending effort based on ignorance.

Wanting to provide helpful context for a management decision isn’t enough. You have to discover what communication format will send your message most effectively. Communication based on a one-size-fits-all philosophy is wrong more often than it is right. Communication delivered one time, in one way, will never satisfy people’s needs to understand. Asking this question will help you determine an effective communication strategy. Asking it over time and monitoring the changing answers will help you (and others in your organization) formulate communication strategies that really add value. Remember, from the customer’s perspective, an interaction with an employee is the basis upon which they judge the organization. Doesn’t it make sense to be sure that all employees - from janitors to senior vice presidents—know and understand what’s going on?

By the way, there is no excuse for not getting your internal communications right. In this day of instant, easy, and inexpensive communications technology, those organizations that don’t do a great job communicating with their teams and employees are, I would bet, experiencing higher than industry average turnover, lower than average morale, and increasing customer complaints. This might be a good time to review how creatively you’re using the communications technology you have and to develop some new strategies to get your key messages and decisions from one end of the organization to the other.