Suppose you are an executive of an organisation. Then you may find yourself facing difficult challenges. With sometimes unpleasant consequences for your employees. Think, for example, of a reorganisation, divestment of activities or far-reaching cutbacks. An employee meeting is then often the most exciting, but also the most valuable way to make things known. And open for discussion!
Recently, as chairman of the day, I accompanied such a type of employee meeting. A large business service provider had 1,000 employees from around the country gather at AFAS Live. The CEO and two fellow board members presented three course changes within an hour. Afterwards, I facilitated a Q&A in which employees could ask questions to the board.
How do you professionally tackle such a large and strategic meeting?
I am happy to tell you more about that based on my recent experience and on these steps:
- Assemble a core team
- Prepare for form and content
- Deliver audience interaction with attention
Assemble a core team
Leaders are never alone. Surround yourself with people who can help you get the message across as powerfully as possible. For a regular presentation, you may be able to do this yourself, but when interests are big, consider a core team. In the case of my assignment, this consisted of:
- Head of Corporate Communications: The person who knows all the ins and outs of the message, but especially about how best to convey this content. In this case study, this person was assisted by the Internal Communication Manager and an external consultancy.
- Event Manager: The person who can support the message in terms of form in practice with all the things that need to be taken care of in the process. In this case study, this person was supported by numerous external parties: from venue to make-up artist.
- Personal Assistant: The one who can look along in preparation and knows you well as a manager. On style and details, a Personal Assistant can make good contributions!
- Chairman of the day: A professional not connected to one's own organisation exudes the necessary neutrality and can therefore ask questions and make interventions more easily. Audience interaction is key during employee meetings and my experience with it proved valuable.
Prepare for form and content
Together with your communications professionals and possible other board members, determine the content of your message. In the case of bad news, then apply:
... tell what the message to be delivered does to you
Indicate with a timeline where you and your message to be shared have come from. What happened, how were adjustments made along the way and where are we now? Illustrate this with facts: figures, NPS scores and media reports. Also tell how contacts with relevant stakeholders went: think of investors, the works council, accompanying consultancies, politics, industry and interest groups. They are often an important part of the force field. With everything: show appreciation for the enormous effort and commitment of employees during the past period. So even when grades, scores and reactions are moderate or poor: take the role of "nurturing parent" rather than "critical parent".
... underline the sense of urgency
Indicate what happens when you continue on the old foot from here and when you make little or no adjustment. Make the pain palpable. Skipping this step or taking it too fleetingly leads to unnecessary misunderstanding of the actual bad news.
... check in with your participants in the interim
Keep literal and figurative contact. After all, you have the monologue to do to explain important decisions well, but keep your audience on a leash by occasionally stopping and checking that everyone can still keep their attention.
Show that you are looking to connect, encourage a response from the audience. In this presentation, a courageous employee suddenly asked a question about the 'burden' he was experiencing from increasing digitalisation. The CEO listened attentively, acknowledging the problem but also appealing to the employee. What he saw as a burden could be very relevant to a customer. Such a response shows calmness, commitment and empowerment .
... get to the point quickly
Once a report is made, the context is given and the sense of urgency is clear, the key is to deliver the bad news as soon as possible. The longer you wait with this, the more negative the sentiment becomes and the faster employees will drop out. Do this without mincing words and with crystal-clear slides. The remainder of your presentation focuses on how the changes will be made concrete. Again, with a timeline. Keep it as concrete as possible.
... round it off personally and together
You expressed at the outset that you find it difficult to share this message. Therefore, conclude just as empathetically. In doing so, express that you still have full confidence in your team and express the hope that they can eventually rally behind the choices.
A great way is a short story or poem. My client chose that too. With it, you shift the focus from yourself to the work of someone else, who knows how to translate feelings as empathically as possible. Of course, something that is short, suits you well and does not veer into sentiment. That message is your closure.
If your board consists of several people, ask them to come up on stage afterwards: to thank them for thinking through these steps and to 'stand up' together for the choices and, practically: to answer the questions that will come up in the subsequent Q&A.
... practice, practice and dot the i's
Many top entrepreneurs and CEOs I meet do not necessarily always find public speaking very easy. Especially with bad news messages, this quickly makes sense. Acknowledging that about yourself helps to get good coaching in the preliminary stages as well: hire a speaker coach to practice your story, have an external look at the content of your slides. For example, I noticed the word "behavioural change" on one of the slides: this has a negative connotation and with this word in the picture, you lose everyone's attention. The word was rephrased to "embrace change". Details you can easily overlook on your own.
Provide Q&A interaction with attention
The presentation so far has largely been a monologue. But if you want your message to fall well and take root, it requires a follow-up: a Q&A with your audience. Think of it as the water you pour over the sown:
... Ask a multiple-choice question "How do you feel now?"
Let the audience respond anonymously and via their own smartphone live, giving four response options: a smiley smiling, neutral looking, angry looking and one response option indicating "other/other".
Before showing the results on the screen during the staff meeting, I first asked the other executives how it is for them and what they expect or hope the outcome will be. Most of the audience did not react negatively. This was a cue for me to walk into the room and ask for some reactions live. Not getting too personal right away, but by first asking someone, "Did you expect this outcome?". I sensed that while the audience was critical, it was not angry. This also allowed me to get more personal: "What was it like for you yourself to hear this?" I asked someone. Following this, I interviewed a few more employees like this and walked back to the management on stage and asked them to respond to what they heard from the audience. They responded empathetically and also informatively, each time making for a mature and constructive dialogue.
... Provide space for live and digital questions
An independent moderator can help an audience feel freer to ask a question than if a colleague takes on the role of moderator. By exuding safety and securing this in your moderation every time, it invites everyone to safely ask a question. Of course, this is exciting: the use of an audience interaction tool therefore also allowed questions to be asked anonymously. Backstage, the most relevant and most common questions were taken from the multitude of questions. These were displayed on the presentation screen and alternately answered briefly and concisely by the three board members.
... Questions not dealt with
From the very first minute, I indicated that questions could not be addressed, though they would be addressed afterwards. This created a lasting incentive to submit questions via smartphone anyway. Afterwards, the questions were answered in writing and made accessible to everyone on the organisation's intranet. In addition, I also mention that the board members "are of course still at the drinks". And lowering the threshold to still be able to ask your burning question.
... I can use a drink now!
The drink afterwards is one of the best indicators of sentiment. Be there as CEO, mingle with everyone and stay until the end. By doing so, you show yourself to be open and approachable. It is a good time to hear people's reaction. Leave your inner collegial circle for a moment, but mingle with everyone: from intern to manager. A signal that everyone picks up on and is often much appreciated. A gesture that therefore only underlines your story from before.
Your staff meeting. My contribution.
Difficult news and change are never fun. Nevertheless, I dare say the above case study is a textbook example of a good employee meeting. The story was clearly explained, sentiment acknowledged and enough space was given for questions and reactions. The above case study is certainly not the first employee meeting I have chaired as chairman of the day.
Do you also have news to deliver to your team? Merry news is often not difficult to explain, difficult news quickly makes it more difficult. With numerous past cases, I can give you appropriate advice and provide constructive support as a moderator during your meeting. With attention, a focus on what is constructive and, where necessary, a healthy dose of humour and the ability to put things into perspective!
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