One thing that seems to be repeating itself over and over, when we discuss IT-systems, is the uncertainty of their roles in emergencies and exceptional situations. In many cases they are even almost forgotten. And no, I don’t mean data security or backup systems or plans, that has been discussed elsewhere. No the issue here is how important the communication systems really are when people are getting worried or stressed. We tend to forget that proper communication is one of the most important remedies for feelings of insecurity and indecisiveness.
So, you are employed by a company or an organisation and now the Corona (or Covid-19?) virus is affecting the business. But do you, yes you personally, know what you are supposed to do? Do you know what is going on? Or are you just listening to, and spreading the rumours that start to flow on the internal (and external) communication channels? Well, I don’t blame you. In my opinion, in most cases this is due to the leading staff not taking appropriate information actions.
And yes, I do blame the leading people in many organisations and companies for the spreading of rumours, not directly, of course, but by not being proactive. I happen to have insight into two different organisations, where the information handling is also vastly different. In one of the organisations, there is almost no information from the leadership, and when it comes it is often very sparse and even contradictory. In the other organisation, there is a (at least) daily information letter, which contains a lot of information about how to act and react. It also deals with the social issues of working from home (alone) and how to use social media to communicate also socially with your colleagues.
So, can you guess where the discussions go high, and rumours are spread on private message boards? Well, if you guessed on the first one, you are perfectly right. And this is why I think that the leaders of an organisation or a company need to be very proactive in the communication channels. That does of course not mean that you, as a boss, have to write everything about the situation, but you need to make sure that the information coming from you is regular and as informative as possible. Otherwise, you will end up with a very difficult situation in the end.
Keep the information channels used and busy, not with rumors but with facts!!! This is where the information technology can play a very big role in the current times.
This post will be crossposted on my blogs on Publish0x, the Moomindad Blog and the HTO-blog.
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