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Dear leader… Mind the gap!

Dear leader, in what world do you live? And is it the same world as your people? When I listen to conversations in organisations, I notice that there is a perceived gap between the top and the work floor almost everywhere. “It seems as if they live in a different world there…’

In a sense, this is an excellent description of what is going on: policymakers and employees live in different realities. In the boardroom, customer satisfaction is a curve that rises or falls as a result of various abstract control factors that they try to influence. Very real, and there are real interests involved. On the work floor, that same customer satisfaction shows as the face of the customer that feels helped and the system failure that ruins everything again. Also very real. You cannot say that one reality is less real than the other. They just sometimes appear to have nothing to do with each other. Facts and developments have a different meaning for employees than they do for directors and policymakers. Both parties have different frames of reference and speak a different language.

Judgement Day

If you do not understand each other’s frame of reference, it is difficult to communicate. I am not religious myself, but I used to try talking to the Jehovah’s Witnesses at my door. They said: ‘But do you not know that on Judgement Day the sheep will be separated from the goats?’ I said: ‘Listen guys: God does not exist, so how can there be a Judgement Day? Do you not have any other arguments that I can actually work with?’ Without a minimum of common ground, you cannot talk.

But how do people get a common frame of reference? The answer is simple: through frequent contact. Put a group of policymakers and employees together for a week and let them talk about the organisation. You will see that, over time, their perceptions of reality move closer together. They start interpreting facts and developments in the same way. Hence, the group forms a common idea of reality that is confirmed and reinforced through their interactions every day.

Don’t be a missionary

The point is: In most organisations, we see that policymakers and managers mostly talk among themselves and, therefore, develop their own perception of reality. People in operational roles do the same, And that is how the separate worlds emerge.

Dear leader, of course, you understand that communication can help bridge this gap. My advice: do not do it like the Jehova’s Witnesses at my door –simply sending information from your own frame of reference, hoping to convince the organisation of your perception of reality.

But what does work? Investing in regular contact between the different organisational levels. A continuous dialogue between managers and employees to discuss: where we stand as an organisation, what we see happening, which development is needed, and what it requires from all of us? In practice, we see that this approach results in the two worlds moving closer together. Employees gain a better understanding of the big picture and strategic priorities become more concrete and relevant to them. Similarly, the policymakers gain more insight into the reality of the ‘work floor’, making the strategy more realistic (and thus more effective).


Dear leader… 
Under this title, we are reissuing a series of 10 classic blogs on leadership communication and change. Michiel van Delden wrote them over the last few years, translating key lessons from these two disciplines to the world of managers. 

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