FORMAL VS. INFORMAL
When we first teach our portfolio leaders how to be Chief Reminding Officers, I start by asking them to tell me about how they communicate with their team.
I always hear the same thing.
Most executives spend the majority of their time thinking about formal communication channels – the town halls, company newsletters, and other structured opportunities they use to broadcast information.
While formal communication channels are important, they have two major disadvantages: They happen infrequently, and they are one-way. There are only so many town halls to script and all-company emails to copy-edit. And these ways of communicating can only do so much. They simply inform – they don’t create dialogue.
Informal communication opportunities - impromptu discussions during meetings, 1:1s, and hallway (or these days, Zoom) conversations - happen much more often. The problem is, leaders worry too much about using these channels to reinforce company strategy, culture, or direction. They overthink it. Rather than risk saying the wrong thing or dive into a group discussion they’re unprepared to have, they play it safe, keep quiet, and lose the opportunity to link their everyday interaction with their teams back to “what matters most” for the company right now.
When I point this out, the excuse often sounds like this: “Well, we’ve already told the team what we’re focused on - we spent half of our all-hands meeting on it last month.”
OK. Sure, you’ve said it.
But who heard you?
It’s then that I like to bring up one of my favorite quotes on the art of communication, from author George Bernard Shaw:
“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it’s taken place.”
Leaders are doomed to fulfill this parable when you only use formal communication channels and ignore the less formal, more frequent, and more intimate moments of connection with their teams available to them.
But I’ll warn you: Fully taking advantage of these opportunities means that you better get used to repeating yourself.
Like, a lot.