I remember the sinking feeling in my gut like it was yesterday. It was a Tuesday afternoon, and I was eagerly waiting for a call with one of our biggest clients—a call I believed would be about rubber stamping and renewing our contract. Instead, it became the most heart-wrenching 15 minutes of my professional life. "Joe" the client began, her voice measured but carrying a weight of disappointment, "We've decided to go in a different direction."
I froze. My mouth went dry. Our team had poured 7+ years into building this relationship, putting in sleepless nights and countless hours to exceed every expectation. How did we get here?
As the story unfolded, it became devastatingly clear - that somewhere along the line I missed a piece of critical feedback that had been shared by the client to our team. Either I didn’t hear it or overlooked a detail lost amidst layers of communication and buried beneath other “priorities.”
It turns out not only was it solvable but it had become the silent killer of our biggest partnership. The pain was raw and palpable, but it was the subsequent realization that stung even more: this was entirely avoidable.
What don’t you know, that you need to know, right now in your organization? History is riddled with consequences of such blindspots.
Remember the Challenger explosion?
Engineers knew about the potential flaw but were ignored, their concerns silenced in the clamor of hierarchical bureaucracy. Lives were lost because feedback didn't reach the right ears.
Our organizations are like vast, intricate decision-making machines.
With every tick of the clock, your team is making decisions on your behalf.
And every decision we make is only as good as the information it’s based on.
We leaders, no matter how visionary or empathetic, have biases.
We can't see everything although we often believe we do. And even though we think we need to see everything, the reality is we probably don't.
So instead of being everywhere all the time, we lean on asking questions, listening, and then taking action → seems easy, but it’s not.
McKinsey’s data starkly portrays the scene: a mammoth 70% of organizational change initiatives crumble, chiefly due to insufficient internal dialogue and misaligned stakeholder engagement.
The contemporary workspace is inundated with information, but there’s an acute deficiency in discerning the pivotal signals from the mere noise.
Microsoft’s most recent data illuminates a gaping disparity between managerial beliefs and ground realities. While a reassuring 61% of managers profess to empower their workforce with a voice, a mere 37% agree.
Microsoft's research highlights the power of employee engagement and the significance of the feedback flywheel.
When employees feel their voice matters, when their feedback is acknowledged, they don't just work - they care.
They become stakeholders in the vision, not just bystanders.
Bolstering this perspective, Gallup’s research asserts that organizations thriving on employee engagement experience a 21% uptick in profitability.
But how do you get this feedback with hybrid, remote or distributed teams?
Beyond financial ramifications, the ripple effects of communication gaps can be tragic.
I was on the phone with a client this week who just lost their CTO due to this very thing… the whispers went unanswered until they became screams.
Feel familiar? You are not alone.
Drawing a parallel, recall the childhood ‘telephone game’?
Messages passed along, getting distorted, ultimately delivering a convoluted version at the end. Alarmingly, many corporations inadvertently mirror this game, risking monumental stakes. The conventional wisdom has been a top-down, decision-making cascade.
The ones closest to the problems, the frontline workers, are often the last ones consulted for solutions - people like bank tellers, flight attendants and customer service reps.
We've been conditioned to believe decisions and ideas should come from the top echelons in the corner offices.
But imagine inverting this paradigm.
What if solutions emanated from the trenches?
Such a shift doesn't merely influence profitability; it morphs the organizational DNA into one of radical agility, adaptability, and anticipation.
When your employees see their concerns and their insights shaping decisions, it fosters a culture of fairness.
And it's a known fact: employees care more when they feel it's fair.
What if there was a simple way to level the playing field and ensure the voices of those closest to the challenges have a chance to weigh in and are heard?
Enter SHIFT + Latch.
With Latch, feedback doesn't slip through the cracks.
It's channeled, analyzed, and presented in a way that ensures we as leaders are always in the loop, no matter how big or decentralized our teams become.
Latch ensures we hear and can take meaningful action on the insights our teams bring to the table, building a true feedback flywheel.
If you take away anything from my story, let it be this: your teams have the insights to steer the ship clear of icebergs. Make sure you're listening.
Losing our $3MM client was a hard lesson, but it’s not the end of the story… (even though it felt like it at that time)
As we all know, the universe has a sense of humor. Only 3 weeks after this happened, we closed on an acquisition that would be the base platform of what is now Latch.
Funny, right?
As we navigate the tumultuous waters of leadership, it's imperative to ensure every whisper is heard, every piece of feedback acknowledged, and every voice amplified. For in those whispers might lie the key to sustained success and legacy.
SIDE RANT-
Have you ever heard of Dr Mehrabian’s study of the Dynamics of Communication?
He said communication is made up of 3 things: body language, voice quality, and words.
The percentages go like this: body language and voice quality (non verbal) make up 93% of communication meaning words (and the written word only make up 7%). The net: most days we are engaging with only 7% of the message. Yikes!
Leadership, as I often remark, is discerning between fleeting temptations and pivotal opportunities. And in today's dynamic world, the most invaluable opportunity lies in teams that are empowered and inspired.
With only 4+ months left in 2023, you’re probably working like hell to:
✅ finish the year strong,
✅ begin to #plan for #2024,
✅ and create #momentum going into the new year
And if you're like most, you might feel like you're running out of time.
Figuring out how to wrap up a strong year-end, get all the ducks in a row for a new beginning, and not miss the critical steps (like leveraging your team’s insights as a design point for the upcoming year’s strategy) - can feel like a lot. We're here to help.
SHIFT consultants know organizational change and transformation inside and out, and are wizards at unlocking higher levels of engagement and performance - quickly. We serve as an extension of you, an extra set of capable hands, and a confidante and guide to help you traverse through the muck.
We’re kicking off a 4-month accelerator program on September 4th for CEOs / Executives (like you) ---> those that are unapologetically bold, fearlessly optimistic, and relentlessly committed to finding easier and more effective ways of elevating, amplifying, and engaging the ones that matter the most - your employees.
As Jay Z says, “May the best of your today’s be the worst of your tomorrows.”
