Ripple Effect
Ten years ago I had the opportunity to work for a small but rapidly growing start-up company. During my first week at work, I attended one of the orientation sessions hosted by one of the company’s top executives. He began to tell the back story of the company and its very dynamic founder. When he had finished his story, he proceeded to ask if we knew why we were doing this type of training? Several people tossed out answers, but none were what he was hoping to hear. Eventually he proclaimed, “The Ripple Effect”. I, like everyone else in the room, was at a loss. Finally, he went on to describe this theory in some detail—it laid out something like this: When companies are founded around the dynamic direction of visionary leaders, the energy and vision of that leader is transferred to everyone that works around them. However a great deal of risk is involved in that as that company grows, that vision and energy—like the ripples that radiate away from a drop of water—gradually dissipates which leaves the people on the outer rim of the ripple disassociated and unengaged with the brand. This relatively simple analogy is one that so often plays out across the globe in almost every business. As the vision and direction of a company’s leaders get buried further and further beneath layers of corporate hierarchy and “flat” corporate communications, the power and energy that accompanies these messages gets lost among the day-to-day reality of people’s worlds. So how do you prevent the Ripple Effect from taking root in your business? In an ideal world, the leaders of a business would be able to take the time to listen to, engage with and interact with all of their employees on a regular basis allowing them to keep the vision a living and viable thing amidst the din of day-to-day business operations. However, due to various restrictions on human cloning this appears to be a bit unrealistic. Or is it? Although a one-on-one meeting may not be physically possible, there certainly are ways in which corporate executives can reach out to their employees in a way that keeps their message strong and viable.- Create a media campaign for your message. If you were trying to sell your message to a customer, you would market it. This should hold true for your employees, too. Create a face and voice for your message and sell them on it.
- Set-up a message missionary. Where do people go when they want to know more about the company’s goals, direction and initiatives? If your answer takes more than an a sentence to explain, then the pond is going calm before your very eyes. You need a resource center that allows your employees to not only find out about your vision and goals but also allows them to ask questions.
- Create small group engagement. Take a little time each month to recognize and interact with your employees. Recognition from a corporate authority figure has a remarkably high perceived value. And the lower you go down the corporate ladder, the greater the impact. This recognition can come in many forms, but it should always be associated with outstanding performance and should come with less pomp and circumstance. The more gritty, honest and authentic it feels, the more power it will take on. Walking unannounced into a department and honoring some unsung employee for what they’ve been working on is the kind of stuff that defines office-folklore-legend and will create a ripple in your organization that is hard to suppress.
- Listen to the people. Giving employees a forum where their ideas can be seen and considered goes a long way toward getting their buy-in. And who knows—harnessing that energy might bear the fruits of innovation.
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