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August 9, 2006
15 ways to bring value to your company's town hall meetings
Many organizations loosely use the term "town hall" to describe large employee meetings with leadership, but few such meetings actually evoke the back-and-forth interaction typical of true town halls. Yet, due to the potential for their conversational, let's-break-down-the-barriers nature, employee meetings, when used effectively, can be an important part of a comprehensive employee engagement strategy.
While there's no one-size-fits all approach, we've identified 15 tips for helping communicators create a constructive dialogue between audiences and presenters:
1. Pare down the PowerPoint. Corporate America loves its slides, but keep the presentation lean, with supporting visuals and brief bullet points. This forces leaders to look at the audience and talk more informally.
2. Get off the script. It's okay to improvise. Coach senior leaders to talk from the brief points in the deck instead of fully scripted remarks. Any hope of building trust through spontaneity and candor is lost when the presenter sounds over-rehearsed.
3. Expand presenters beyond the core leadership team. Have a project manager present the latest product offering or give a business update alongside the leader sponsoring it. This gives rank-and-file employees exposure and feels more conversational.
4. Set up a mock interview. If you're discussing a dry topic, keep your audience from dozing off by using a talk-show-style interview format, with a member of the communications team "interviewing" the leader.
5. Include a panel discussion. Ask a quiet audience point-blank to offer up questions to the CEO and you'll likely get silence and averted eyes. But include a panel discussion with the leadership team (and even some "regular" employees) casually seated in front of the group, with questions on hand if there are none initially, and you'll encourage conversation. Solicit questions ahead of time and have pens and index cards at each seat in the meeting for employees to submit anonymously.
6. Understand that not everyone will feel comfortable speaking up in a town hall. It's wise to offer other, less public forums for discussion with senior leadership, such as informal lunches, blogs and "fireside chats" with a small group of employees and a leader meeting at a venue outside the office.
7. Use faces. Incorporate images of employees and customers whenever possible. Audiences enjoy watching videos of team events or employees interviewed on camera about their jobs.
8. Get the audience involved. Ask employees' opinions on key business issues and priorities throughout the meeting using interactive polling devices, if available (a show of hands will work, too.) You can also ask fun questions to build community, such as "if our department were a movie, what would it be?" A pharmaceutical company recently sprinkled both light-hearted and business-centered questions throughout a town hall meeting for its finance group; the audience stayed wide awake and later identified the polling as a favorite part of the meeting.
9. Intersperse heavy and light news. They do it on the evening newscast: Keep your audience's attention by alternating performance updates with employee recognition pieces.
10. Combine the town hall with a fun event. After the meeting, host a lunch with seating that's conducive to mingling. Have senior leaders serve the food and then sit at tables with employees, especially those outside their immediate business units. Consider including a raffle or contest during the meeting to encourage participation. Link prizes to a trivia quiz on the company's mission, vision and values or latest product or service offerings.
11. Do something totally unexpected. When appliance manufacturer Whirlpool introduced its strategy aimed at connecting emotionally with appliance customers, it deviated from its logic-grounded traditions. A senior leader performed a mock strip tease before hundreds of employees, revealing an "I love Whirlpool" tee under his shirt and tie. Employees still talk about it fondly. A surprise doesn't have to involve burlesque; what about bringing in an unannounced guest speaker? A celebrity always gets people talking, but a well-respected, retired leader or community figure also works.
12. Send out the agenda ahead of time. Give employees a taste of what they can look forward to at the meeting. And make sure it's something YOU would want to go to!
13. Invite all staff -- but make it mandatory for senior staff. Require senior leaders go to the town hall (even if they're just sitting in the audience) as a way to express a sense of community. Strongly advise them against grumbling about the meeting "taking up valuable time." Also ensure that hourly workers and those in remote locations can participate, either through meetings on the plant floor or videoconferences.
14. Measure. Ask participants to complete a brief (seven questions or less), anonymous survey, printed or electronic, immediately after the meeting. Emphasize that their feedback will directly drive the next town hall agenda and format.
15. Recap the meeting. Send out a brief synopsis of the topics covered, questions asked with corresponding answers and how management intends to act on those questions.
What works for your company? Share your tips and best practices by posting a comment below...we look forward to hearing from you.
Posted by Christopher at 1:34 PM
Comments
Consider doing a "remote" from another part of the world (or country) as part of the Town Hall --which, 1) helps shine the light on what's working in one part of the business, and 2) adds an element of "surprise" to the event.
Posted by: Jason Greenspan at August 15, 2006 1:10 PM
That's a really nice summary of what works well. Thanks.
Posted by: Sandra Loftus at August 16, 2006 2:38 AM
Jason, thanks for your comment -- yes, adding something that's an "element of surprise" could definitely be added to our list of best practices -- whether it's a customer, video or live link from another location, etc.
Posted by: Christopher Hannegan at August 16, 2006 1:44 PM
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| TrackBackAugust 3, 2006
Two new resources to understand blogs
I continue to be surprised at how many folks in communications could benefit from a primer on blogs and their applications -- and thought I would share two newer resources that may be useful.
The first is a book that's been out for a few months called Blog Wild!, written by Andy Wibbels. I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel with Andy earlier this summer on the topic of new communications technologies and was impressed by the clarity with which he explains blogging and what it can do, especially for those of you in smaller businesses.
Another resource that is hot off the press is Blog Rules, written by Nancy Flynn of the ePolicy Institute. Nancy has authored many other useful books on communications etiquette and this one may be the most definitive source on establishing blogging policies and other useful rules of the road that I've yet seen. And it doesn't hurt that yours truly was interviewed for it...(pages 179-184!).
I'd encourage you to check these two resources out so you can then move on to understanding all the other new technologies that are out there -- if you're only now trying to understand blogs, you are in danger of following hopelessly behind my friends.
Posted by Christopher at 11:26 AM