Communicating ambiguity is good

I leave my current employer at the end of June. The re-structure I wrote about previously is progressing and as I predicted my role is being moved up north and I'd rather stay down south.

The merging of the IT functions and it's migration up north has been on the cards for at least 12 months, but until recently it's mostly been rumour and supposition.

In such circumstances, gossip and rumour cause significant strife within a team and my team is no different. We own and run business critical systems so it was imperative that my team continued to perform despite all that they were hearing. I think looking at where we are now, I managed to achieve that. Certainly we're in a better place than many other teams.

To achieve this was all about communicating, treating individuals like adults and taking the risk that people could cope with stuff that wasn't black/white or written in stone. Companies are so often afraid to communicate until something is fully formed, signed off, rubber stamped, but during that sign-off process the vacuum caused by the lack of information is a significant killer or team morale. I filled that void with my own communications and for more than 6 months before the announcement I made sure I communicated regularly with the team so they had as much information as possible.

That was often unverifiable information, but I framed it carefully ensuring they understood that our discussions were private, my views were just views, but informed views and these discussions only possible because we were adults and trusted each other. The part of the meetings where we discussed the latest rumour mill were often the most enlightening and useful parts of the meeting. Bringing it all out in to the open and giving my opinion might seem risky, but instead my team seemed to benefit. They appreciated that their Director was happy to discuss and give his view on things they'd heard and it gave them the opportunity to make better decisions about their future and direction.

So, here's the kicker: People deal with ambiguity in their personal life and they can cope with ambiguity in the workplace as well. Far better to give a forum to that ambiguity and allow it to be discussed than surpress it so it festers and hurts the team. I urge leaders to put faith in their teams and, particularly during difficult times, make room to talk everything through whether it's concrete or ambiguous. Don't be afraid of giving a straight answer or a view of your own. You and your team will benefit.