There is something wrong with your culture!
Studies are a funny thing: You always have to understand the context before you draw conclusions. A commentary with further impulses for success.
The other day I came across a Study by Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban - two academics from Harvard Business School - who came to the conclusion that people communicate less openly in open-plan offices than in structures with small offices (and more by email instead). The reason seems clear: people don't want to expose themselves to others with what they say.
Here's my diagnosis: If you notice this symptom - that people are afraid to open up in front of their colleagues - we have a real problem with your culture. And open-plan offices simply expose that (much like reducing inventory exposes problems on the shop floor).
Instead of tweaking the symptoms, let's tackle the root causes. Here are the top three reasons when your people are hiding and not communicating openly (no matter the office structure):
- No trust in others. As a leader, you know that when people talk behind others' backs or prefer to write emails rather than address problems openly, we don't have a communication problem, we have a trust problem. No team can achieve top performance without mutual trust. Work on it, preferably with a coach. The good news: Trust can be built in a targeted way.
- No fun. I've experienced this myself for years (at SAP, one of the best employers in Germany and Switzerland): With fun, you get twice as much done in the same amount of time: Even if time is sometimes wasted on jokes and craziness, you end up being much more productive. How much fun do your people have at work?
- No confidence. Those who hide in communication often have low self-confidence. This is something that can be worked on. That is also the responsibility of the leader. By the way, lack of self-confidence is also an important reason why salespeople sell less. You can increase order intake relatively directly by increasing the self-confidence of the sales team.
One thing is clear: working on your culture is worthwhile in any case. The consequences are higher productivity, better results and - not to forget - more fun.
To the author:
Volkmar Völzke is a success maximizer. Book author. Consultant. Coach. Speaker. www.volkmarvoelzke.ch
