Virginia Tech: Speedy, Complete Communication? Not
Ever since cheerleading from the sidelines, I’ve hated watching football players “pile on,” particularly when my boyfriend lay at the bottom of the heap. The media plays pile-on when catastrophes occur; they bombard those in charge with accusatory questions and issues of woulda, coulda, shoulda. We always hear from those Monday-morning quarterbacks with all the answers that would have prevented the loss, saved the day, turned back the tide—after the fact.
So I hate to join that crowd. I really do.
But we must reconsider the Virginia Tech massacre, when 32 people were killed and 23 others wounded on April 16, 2007, in light of the report that was released this week. In a nutshell, the report hit hardest in two areas: This governor-appointed panel of eight criticizes university officials’ lack of prompt and complete communication.
Speed of communication has become the new measure of quality communication. That was the chief complaint from students and parents at Virginia Tech immediately after the tragedy—and the primary conclusion of the report. After the first two students were shot and killed, two hours was an inordinate amount of time for the school administration to decide to issue a statement to the student body.
A second key communication strategy for leaders is to give complete information. I know. I know. I know. At Virginia Tech, the two issues—speed and completeness—are related. As they often are. That is, many leaders fail to respond quickly to situations—whether crises, questions, or rumors—because they rarely have complete information. Their thinking goes like this: “If I don’t have all the facts, why upset people? I’ll just wait until I get all the facts, have all the answers, or work out the solution, and THEN I’ll explain what happened and how we plan to handle it.” The problem is that in the absence of real information, people fill in the gaps with “what MIGHT be happening.”
Certainly, leaders must weigh the dilemma of giving out information that may alarm people unnecessarily against what may save their lives. Rest assured, if you err in either direction, you’ll be criticized (see paragraph one). But all things considered, it’s far better to “alarm a few people” than to wish you had. Virginia Tech serves as a classic case in point.
The report also cited two components of incomplete information:
1) failure to share information about Cho’s mental instability—the threat he posed to the student body
2) inadequate assumptions about the extent of impending destruction.
Although university officials believed they were prohibited by law from sharing information, the panel determined otherwise. They say there was plenty of leeway to share pertinent information about Cho’s mental state. The report concludes that this incorrect interpretation of the law and unresponsive approach toward Cho resulted in a failure of communication on many levels.
Like the officials at Virginia Tech, leaders in general fail to give complete information for any number of reasons.
“Leave the thinking to us” mentality: On various occasions, leaders may take the stance, “We’ll let you know if something becomes important, so just don’t worry about it.” Great attitude for a parent of a two-year-old. Not so commendable for a VP managing a team of 22 engineers.
Fear of giving bad news and handling negative reactions: Saying as little as possible as late as possible may put off the unpleasant temporarily, but this tactic often backfires. Delay often compounds a problem.
Control: Being the only one “in the know” does put you in a position of power—put often creates animosity, destroys trust, and lowers morale.
Busyness: Some people fail to give complete information (answer questions, send out announcements, inform people about changes/dangers) because they’re too busy putting out fires. They operate seat-of-the-pants routinely and have no procedures in place to handle a crisis situation. Consider some of the natural disasters we’ve seen lately across the country.
Lack of complete and speedy communication had drastic repercussions on April 16, 2007, for 55 people and their families. Certainly, every day at the office is not a do-or-die situation, but we’d all do well to ponder these questions as we delegate, manage, lead: Is my communication quick? Is my communication complete?
(Note: For more information, these are two of the ten key strategies addressed in my book The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know.) www.booherdirect.com
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