Access the essential membership for Modern Managers
Once you have reached a decision, it is vital to communicate it effectively to all relevant groups and individuals. Use this guide to help you plan your approach to communicating your decision. Alternatively, you can use it to coach a team member who might require some support in this area.
When to Use This Guide
Signs that you might need to improve the way you communicate your decisions can include one or all of the following:
- Individuals often seem confused or unconvinced by the reasons behind decisions.
- Announcements of decisions tend to be met with irritation, apathy, or even resentment.
- The rumor mill usually goes into overdrive in the run-up to the announcement of a decision.
- Some individuals or groups know about the decision in advance of others.
- Your announcements do not always reach all your intended recipients.
- When you communicate a decision, others express a desire to have it confirmed or clarified by a more senior manager or from someone closer to their own team.
- Team members seem unsure what their roles and responsibilities are when they are asked to help with the implementation of a decision.
- You receive feedback that your announcements are made too late/early or at an inappropriate time of year (e.g. in the run-up to the festive season when people are often out of the office or on annual leave).
Suggestions
If you have already experienced some of these situations or are keen to avoid them, you may find these suggestions useful when communicating a decision.
Identify Your Audience
First, consider who needs to know about your decision. Ask yourself:
- Who is my target audience? Is it the members of my own team, or employees from a range of teams within the organization?
- Do I have a number of different target audiences? If so, who are they? Why do different groups need to know about the decision? Do they need to know about different things?
If you are announcing your decision in person, try to ensure that everyone in your intended audience is present at the time of your announcement. Email communications should be sent simultaneously to all the appropriate recipients so that everyone receives your message at the same time. Remember that the tone and style of your communication should be appropriate to your audience and to the nature of the announcement.
Announce the Decision Promptly
It is good practice to communicate a decision as soon as possible after it has been reached. This will help you gain your audience’s trust and buy-in and should prevent rumors from circulating. However, on some occasions it might not be appropriate to announce a decision straight away, perhaps because it coincides with another event or development, or because not all of your intended audience is present at the time. In these situations, you should communicate your decision as soon as it is appropriate to do so.
Use the Most Appropriate Communication Method
When it comes to communicating your decision, you will probably have a range of potential methods and channels to choose from in your organization. To help you identify the most appropriate approach to communicating your decision, ask yourself:
- Does this decision require a personal announcement and explanation?
- Do I need to make this announcement urgently?
- Should the announcement be followed up by a letter or by individual or group consultations?
While each situation should be judged on its merits, as a rule, email and other online channels (e.g. instant messenger services) should be used to communicate straightforward, non-critical news. For larger, important decisions, however, it is often more appropriate to hold a face-to-face meeting and for formal decisions, to write a letter.
Plan the Content of Your Announcement
To communicate your decision effectively, it is vital to plan what you are going to say in advance. To do this, consider the following questions:
What do people need to know about this decision? For example:
- Why has the decision been taken?
- How will it affect their roles?
- What will it mean for the organization as a whole?
- Will the decision create additional work or responsibilities for anyone in your audience?
What will people want to know?
- How will the decision affect them personally?
- Are their jobs safe?
- Will they be required to move anywhere or do anything differently?
In addition, it is also a good idea to consider what questions you might be asked after you have made your announcement, and to spend some time planning how you will respond.
Explain your Reasons Clearly
It is vital to explain the reasons behind your decision; this will help employees to understand and buy in to it and should prevent rumors from spreading. Be sure to support your reasons with evidence and objective data (e.g. financial figures, KPIs etc.) whenever you can. To help you construct a compelling and credible argument to support your decision, consider the following questions:
- Why did the decision need to be made in the first place? What problems or issues needed to be addressed?
- What were your objectives (e.g. better customer service, improved productivity, reduced costs)?
- What research did you conduct and what did it reveal?
- Who did you consult as part of the decision-making process?
- What options did you consider? Which did you reject and why? Why was the chosen option identified as the most appropriate? On what evidence did you base this assessment?
- How will this decision benefit the organization and its employees?
- If you are communicating bad news, are there any silver linings you can share with your audience?
When explaining the reasons for your decision, be sure to be as honest as possible. If employees feel you are trustworthy and the information you present is reliable, they will be more likely to accept you as a credible decision-maker, regardless of how senior you are, or how closely you normally work with their team.
Anticipate Likely Outcomes
As part of your preparation, you should spend some time considering what your audience’s general reaction to the decision might be. While you may not always be able to anticipate this, if your decision signals major change or upheaval for employees, they may well be anxious, worried, or even angry about it.
If you are concerned this might be the case, it is vital to be prepared and consider how you should respond. While employees may well react emotionally to news of major changes, it is important to ensure that the discussion does not become heated, and to encourage employees to put forward their views and ask any questions they might have calmly. This may mean asking everyone to take some time to think the issues over independently and suggesting you all meet again at a later date to resume the discussion.
Check your Audience Understands
Once you have made your announcement, you should ensure that everyone understands it. To do this, you may wish to:
- hold a question and answer session at the end of your announcement
- send a follow-up letter or email reminding employees of your key points and outlining some ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ and answers
- set up a ‘questions box’ or bulletin board for employees to submit their questions and comments about the decision
It is also good practice to invite employees to email you directly or speak to you in private if they have any queries.
Clarify Next Actions, Roles and Responsibilities
If you require support or input from others in order to implement your decision, it is important to make this clear in your communication. It is a good idea to meet with these individuals after you have announced your decision to talk through the next actions in more detail and answer any questions they might have. Remember that if you are drafting in support from other teams or departments you should speak to the relevant manager(s) in advance to discuss how much time you can expect their employees to spend fulfilling these additional roles and responsibilities.
Review your Approach
After you have communicated your decision, spend some time reflecting on how effective your approach was and what you might wish to do differently in the future. As you consider this, you may wish to think about:
- how thoroughly you prepared for communicating the decision
- whether the communication channel or method you used was appropriate
- what the audience’s reaction was and how well you responded to it
- whether the information you provided was clear and relevant
- how effectively you responded to employees’ queries or concerns
In addition to this, you may also find it helpful to solicit some feedback from employees about these aspects of your approach to communicating decisions.
