Institute of Internal Communication

Steve Nichols takes a look at what we can do to make employees believe the messages they hear from their CEOs. And digs into history for some clues at the same time.

I was wondering the other day why it is that I don’t actually trust many corporate messages. You know, the ones that say manpower is being cut back because it is good for the employees to have fresh challenges. Yeah, right!

Another classic recently was a company that said it was shedding one third of its IT workforce as the projects they were working on had come to an end. Hmm, that’s not what I heard from the IT staff.

You will never achieve good employee engagement by lying through your teeth, especially when everyone knows that you are. If you communicate in that fashion people will never believe a word you say.

So what is the alternative? Well, the truth might help. I have some sympathy with a CEO who says: “Look, we got it wrong. When we made our decision to go ahead with this project five years ago we were convinced it was the right thing to do, but knowing what we know now we shouldn’t have gone ahead and I’m sorry.”

Everyone gets things wrong – some people more than others - but why must we try and cover it up? If your CEO needs convincing that everyone gets it wrong at some stage in their career why not slip them this list:

Famous last words

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
Bill Gates, 1981, referring to the amount of RAM needed for a personal computer. You now need about 1,500 times that amount”

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Often attributed to Thomas John Watson, Sr, president of International Business Machines (IBM) in 1943.

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”
H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

“With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market.”
Business Week, 1958.

“Airplanes are interesting toys, but they have no military value.”
Marshal Ferdinand Foch in 1911.

“This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”
Western Union internal memo, 1876.

“Radio has no future.”
Lord Kelvin, Victorian physicist and President of the Royal Society, c. 1897.

“Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”
Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, October 16, 1929.

Steve is the CiB webmaster, editor of the CiB ezine and runs InfoTech Communications. InfoTech specialises in online communications. Contact Steve at steve@infotechcomms.co.uk.