Communication disconnects between senior management and employees of a major manufacturer were cited as the cause of several hundred consumer deaths in the last couple years.
Just let that sink in.
It wasn’t a flaw in the product design or the result of inferior materials. Deaths weren’t attributed to technology pushing the envelope of scientific advancement or operator error. People died because of poor communication between management and employees.
Sure, this is an extreme case, but it could happen anywhere. Do you work in a company without communication challenges?
We often pay lip service to the importance of communication within organizations. Volumes have been written on organizational and internal communication. We are living through a shift in human resources that places greater emphasis on soft skills like interpersonal communication and team spirit.
At the senior executive level, you can find millions of hours of content devoted to leadership skills that highlight the importance of communication. There are communication models, tips, and best practices. Hundreds of professionals tour the country talking to thousands of managers about communication style and how to facilitate better communication within their teams.
But the fundamental impact of clear communication really hits home when it is officially and publicly connected to the end of human life.
The Safety Culture
Taglines are something we love to use in marketing. We take one ideal aspect of the product or service and elevate it to bring it front-of-mind for consumers. Adding taglines about the safety culture is a great marketing move that will probably help recruit more talent. Everyone wants to work in an environment where management prioritizes worker safety.
But taglines don’t run production lines, and creating safety takes more than just saying so.
For every company that feels the need to tout its safety record, there is an unsafe work environment. The emphasis on safety comes from a need to do better. Enter change management.
Change management is a complex discipline, not to be undertaken by marketers alone. Change has to happen at the operations level before marketing tries to put its lipstick on.
The Chicken or The Egg
I don’t know what went wrong; I wasn’t there. I can only speculate.
The disconnect is often between the regulatory and moral need to prioritize safety, and the pressing need to meet production schedules. Without a culture of safety, bad things happen. Not meeting the production schedules begins a downward spiral of economies of scale.
Do you want it right, or do you want it fast? The right answer, both, is seldom an option.
The value of communication was clearly underestimated. It’s not just about how you speak to your employees or how they speak to you. It is about how you encourage them, reward them even, to speak up when there is a problem. And then, how do you listen to them?
A new communication model and some meetings about company values are not going to solve the problems for this manufacturer. It would be naive to think otherwise. The incident can serve as an illustration, though, of what could happen when you don’t get the communication right, and a reminder that communication matters.
