Open, even more open…

The President of Centennial Medical Center in Nashville (USA, Tennessee) demonstrated his commitment to the open door policy in a very original way. He took the door of his office off its hinges and hung it in the hall. This beautiful gesture was supposed to show all employees that the company's management had begun to implement the principle of openness in earnest.

And the owner (he is the director) of a Kiev company, with whom the author of these lines managed to communicate, does not have his office at all. And it's not about the lack of space in the office. It's just that the head considers it his duty to spend several hours every day in different departments. Moving from room to room with a laptop under his arm, he thus controls everyone and everything, being absolutely accessible and open to communication.

However, most readers are probably more familiar with a different style of corporate relations – when the time of the head is guarded by two secretaries, and the exit "to the people" is carried out a couple of times a year. Despite this, such a company continues to develop and actively capture new sales markets, and the staff is distinguished by loyalty and complacency.

So which way to choose – to demonstrate closeness to subordinates or to introduce strict subordination? To what extent and in what way should the doors be "opened" in order to avoid the disadvantages and take advantage of the advantages of such a management style?

And talk?"Firstly, everything depends on the personality of the manager himself," says Leonid Chermis, HR consultant at WST–consulting (consulting, recruitment, staff - 9 people).

– He has a significant influence on the formation of corporate culture and chooses the management style that is closer, first of all, to him. Secondly, in order to "open doors", you need, at least, to have them. That is, the company should already go through that stage of growth when everyone is in the same room, the relationship between employees is family-friendly, and everyone can tell the manager everything they think about any occasion. Moreover, the company must go through the stage of formalization of relations, building a hierarchical structure. And only after a certain stage of stable growth and development, accumulation of bureaucratic elements in the management system, there may be a need for measures to optimize the interaction between management and employees."

And indeed, none of the specialists who were engaged in consulting in the field of building an internal communications system remembered a single case when companies that had worked on the market for less than six or seven years and had less than 100-200 staff units applied with such a request.

Of course, in a large company, maintaining informal relationships with employees, even with a strong desire of the head, can become an impossible task. "If a manager constantly communicates, discusses the latest news with colleagues and subordinates, and often gossip, as a rule, he is forced to play the role of an arbitrator and is simply obliged to take part in resolving any conflict that arises between employees. He is often asked for advice, even when the decision can be made by employees on their own. On the one hand, everything looks great. The manager is always up to date with the latest news, is popular with subordinates. But, on the other hand, this approach contradicts the basic principles of the manager's time management. How to set priorities correctly if they are set by your subordinates, based on their own ideas about what a leader should do? How do you find time for planning and analysis if you are constantly busy solving other people's problems? There is also a risk of biased evaluation of the results of employees' activities, when good, even friendly personal relationships prevent the manager from making critical comments, and sometimes even tracking insufficient work efficiency," Olga Shapovalenko, a coach–consultant of the recruiting company Staff Service (staff -20 people), described this situation.

With a reduced formalization of relationships in the company, disordered information flows can cause confusion in the work. But excessive bureaucratization of communication also prevents the manifestation of initiative and leads to the loss of valuable information. "The polar situation, when the head functions as a separate state, also has its pros and cons. The disadvantages of this approach are that the unavailability of leadership significantly reduces the speed and efficiency of decision-making. At the same time, we can talk about the relatively correct work schedule of the top," Olga Shapovalenko believes.

Secure connections"It is not entirely reasonable to limit ourselves to the declared "open door policy" alone," says Viktor Sangalov, HR manager of Forkrest LLC (distribution and sale of automotive paints, oils and auto enamels, staff – 95 people). – Many managers have illusions that any employee can come in at any time and share with them a new amazing idea or suggestion.

Or to report that he is not satisfied. In fact, this happens extremely rarely. Especially in large companies. That is why "feedback" needs to be specially organized and encouraged."

A similar point of view is shared by Jiri Pati, head of the Executive Committee of the Supervisory Board of Home Credit Bank (staff – 3,500 people): "No one, even the most brilliant manager, will be able to make effective decisions without feedback from his employees. There must be people in the company who are responsible for internal communication on an ongoing basis, since this is a continuous process, not a project. In our organization, the Public Relations Department is responsible for internal communication in partnership with the HR Department."

In this regard, the experts interviewed by VD advise, in addition to the most common and well–known methods of communication between employees and management – offer boxes and general meetings - to use other, more sophisticated techniques. So, according to Leonid Chermis, one industrial enterprise has been using the principle of bonuses for innovation proposals since Soviet times. However, this familiar technique did not arouse enthusiasm among the workers. A group of consultants proposed to reconsider the approach to assessing the degree of "usefulness" of proposals, organize a solemn procedure for awarding prizes and make this event regular, which ultimately allowed to achieve the goal: to make the manifestation of initiative not punishable, but encouraged phenomenon.

Step towardsMr. Jiri Pati spoke about the practice of studying the opinions of employees with the help of specially organized research: "This year, for the first time in our group of companies, a study of employee engagement was conducted, which we called "How are you?".

The study was conducted in all companies of the Home Credit Group, which is 14541 employees in 9 companies in 7 countries of the world, and now it will become an annual one." Naturally, such events require time and financial costs, but they are necessary in large companies.

"If the company's management believes that it is time to implement the "open door policy", it is necessary to approach this comprehensively," advises Viktor Sangalov. – This implies that changes should be made to corporate rules, revised schemes of interaction with management. Perhaps you should even organize the office space differently or create an internal communications department. Otherwise, without significant visible and tangible changes, employees who are accustomed to a certain style of communication will ignore this initiative." The implementation of the communication policy of "openness" requires a revision of their own positions and energy costs, primarily from the top management of the company, which should initiate this step and not neglect such ways of obtaining information as face–to-face communication with "mere mortals". "For example, the CEO of one of the major international companies holds a cocktail party with the heads of departments every Friday, at which work and personal issues are discussed. This allows him to "keep his finger on the pulse", to receive reliable information about the state of things in the company's departments," Olga Shapovalenko said.

The top management of another international company not only conducts regular meetings with department managers, but also personally meets with ordinary employees, inviting several dozen of their representatives from different countries to lunch every month. However, according to the interlocutors of "VD", this practice is rather inherent in Western companies, although it could be applicable here. After all, such events allow a top manager to simultaneously solve several tasks: to receive first-hand information, to form employee loyalty to the company, and also, while maintaining the status of a manager, to be open and accessible to subordinates.

Use your brainsAt seminars and trainings dedicated to building an internal communications system in the company, a story is often told about how during the awarding of prizes to "old-timers" who have worked at Ford for a quarter of a century, one of the mechanics said:

"You've been using my hands all this time. But if you were interested in my opinion, you could have used my brains all these years." With the help of such an illustrative example, business coaches push managers to think about their own management style.

Either from below, or from above

According to the American sociologist J. Klista, middle managers, leaving the office of the first person of the enterprise, take out about 40% of the information received, and they pass no more than 30% of the "taken out" to subordinates.

Therefore, in order for the messages of the top management to reach ordinary employees with the least losses and distortions, a variety of methods are used. These are the usual bulletin boards and circulars, general meetings, as well as "fashionable" corporate publications and Intranet internal networks.

As for the communication of employees with senior management, the establishment of an effective communication system "from the bottom up" seems to be an even more difficult task, since no more than 10% of the information circulating in the "grassroots" reaches the authorities. And in order to receive information from employees, management simply needs to be more active. 

Natalia Naumenko, "The Power of Money", November 2007

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru
26.11.2007