I do a relatively frequent amount of public speaking, with one of most consistently requested topics being—no surprise—Strategic Leadership Communication. My presentation on the subject, titled, “Five Simple Rules: What Leaders Need To Know About Strategic And Effective Communication, But Don’t Ask Until It’s Too Late,” makes its most basic point early on in the presentation. And in a very simple manner. After a series of mostly visual slides, I move onto a slide that is blank. The audience sees a pitch-black screen.
When the “non-slide” comes up, I look at the audience and act like I think there’s a visual up there, pausing for about 20 seconds. (20 seconds may seem short in the abstract, but try to stop talking in the middle of a conversation for 20 seconds and you’ll see that it can feel like an eternity.)
It may sound like I’m trying to be clever and “one-up” the audience, but in truth, I don’t fool anybody. Nor am I trying to. Because the punch line isn’t the blank slide. It’s the one that follows. It’s where I ask people in the audience what they were thinking during the silence, and provide some possible answers on the slide, like, “I’m too sophisticated for these kinds of gimmicks. Just make your point,” or, depending on the time of day, “When’s lunch?” or “I could use another cup of coffee!”
Sometimes, based on the list on the slide, we’ll vote to find the most common thoughts people had during the silence. It’s usually pretty obvious; most get that the blank slide was intentional. The key point, though, isn’t what any individual or group thought, but that everyone has some thought. None of them went into a Zen blank slate.
They all filled in the silence with some explanation that tried to make sense of it. The resulting insight: communication doesn’t end when you’re silent, it just lets others create your message! And during times of uncertainty in organizations, the messages people create and then project into the silence are most likely to reflect their doubts, fears and anxieties, not what you hope they’ll think. And quite often their message may not accord at all with the facts or reality of the situation.
The salience of this for those senior leaders who keep on delaying communication because they’re “not ready,” is obvious: communication is going on whether or not you’re ready, only others are creating your messages for you! I’ve actually seen cases where, by the time the most senior leader got around to saying something in the midst of an uncertain situation, no one believed them, because the fear-based rumor that passed for communication had become everyone’s perceived reality.
Of course, it’s a lot easier in my role as consultant to tell other people that they need to communicate into the silence (even if it’s only to say you have nothing to communicate,) than do it myself. This is especially true in the blogosphere, where quantity, even more than quality, is necessary if one is to have even the faintest hope of “top of mind” awareness.
This was all brought home to me this week. After a fairly long, blogless stretch, due mainly to an intense work period, I received a bunch of notes from readers, colleagues, etc., inquiring if I was okay. Was something was wrong? Was I ill?
They were filling in the silence of my blog with their concerns about a worse case scenario for me. (By the way, thanks to those of you who checked in; everything’s fine!)
I hate to prove myself right by being wrong, but there it is. The lesson to me: between the relatively long, deeply thought out and researched entries, it’s important to continue the conversation. Even with short, simple notes. Like this one.
Okay. Done.
Strategic Leadership Communication 
I especially support your comment that communication continues whether the leader enters the conversation or not. Many managers and leaders tend to want to wait to communicate until they have “all the facts.” What they seem not to realize is that the grape vine is always active. And as you said, people are making decisions and perceiving what is going on with the information they have at the time. It is especially important in times of crisis for management of an organization to share what they know…right now. But attorneys are nearly always on the defensive, not wanting anything said that could get the organization in trouble legallly. As a corporate problem solver, I always got to know the attorneys to help them understand that it is important to speak out early and often during crises. You only have to remember the Valdez oil spill and the Gulf of Mexico oil rig accident for examples of companies trying to hide their mistakes. It almost never works. As you say, “Silence is NOT golden.”
Thanks for the great post, Barry. It’s a good reminder that people will fill in gaps of information with their own imagination — and our imaginations are usually focused on the worst case scenario!
Illysa and Jack, thanks for the positive and insightful comments. Rationally, most executives can buy the argument for the necessity of communication. But viscerally, it is not often compelling, especially in situations that are not well defined, where things aren’t settled, or, as you put it Jack, they don’t have “all the facts.” Ergo, the logic behind my description of what might seem to be a silly or at least superficial “gotcha” exercise around silence. It’s an attempt to create an “aha” moment that will stick because it’s emotionally resonant. Without that, it’s all too easily just you and the lawyers.
You are spot on in your presentation. In my lengthy experience dealing with management and business owners, failure to act is always more troublesome than saying the wrong thing. Saying nothing is absolutely the worst thing you can do! It would seem that after all this time, with 24-hr news cycles, and with all the new communication vehicles we are drowning in, that managers would have learned the basic message you promote: Silence is Not Golden.
Apparently the importance of communicating with the various stakeholders still doesn’t receive the emphasis it should in business and leadership education programs. I am dumbfounded that the same issues I was addressing back in the dark ages –in the mid-1970s, are still the same issues communications and public relations professionals face today! Seems the message has to be repeated for each new generation; nobody seems to learn it on their own.
Thanks for addressing this topic.
Barry, This post (and your Blog, in general) will be a staple in the EMBA classes I teach! Currently, we spend some time on the fact that–for Managers/Leaders–silence is not synonymous with agreement…with this post, you’ve given me another way to make the point. MANY Thanks!!!
This is a great article. I often use a communications example in my presentations that demosntrates the impact of rumour through the grapevine when there is no senior level communication (silence) to counter that rumour. This has a profound impact on those individuals who are seeking some form of positive communication from on-high that dispels the rumours already out there in an organisation. Unfortunately once the “rumour mill” is in full swing the impact of any “official” communication tends to fall on deaf ears and it becomes a situation that is not easily retrieved, if at all.