Published in ADVANCE for Speech-Language Pathologists & Audiologists
May 29, 2000
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As the city of North Charleston, SC, approached its 25th anniversary, a major decision was made to invest in the skills of its over 850 employees and their supervisors. The focus of that training would be the development of human relations skills, especially communication.

The city had grown rapidly; and even though some supervisors had received some training and some departments had training programs in place, there had been no consistent effort.

Robert Connella, director of personnel, asked me to submit a training proposal because of my extensive background in developing effective communication skills.

He outlined three problem areas:

* Since supervisors had not received any consistent training, they tended to supervise the way they had been supervised.

* There was poor intra- and interdepartmental communication.

The citizens complained of poor treatment at the hands of many city employees.

Three important decisions were made at the outset that proved to be significant: all employees would receive the training, a cross-section of employees from different departments would be trained together rather than by individual departments, and follow-up sessions would be provided to fine-tune what had been gained.

When I submitted my proposal to Connella and Ray Anderson, executive assistant to Mayor Summery, they suggested I place more emphasis on dealing with difficult people and on the significance of body language.

Department heads were the first to go through the program. While four three-hour sessions had been planned, this time allocation was not adequate; so the program was increased to eight sessions. In addition, they were more reluctant to adopt new behaviors than was previously thought.

Each focus group in the employee ranks was made up of 12 to 15 people. Even though the outline was the same for each group, the amount of time spent on each topic varied depending on the needs of the group. Perhaps the most valuable aspects of the training was video recording role-plays of real situations and having the participants analyze their performance as to whether they were able to soothe or intensify a potentially explosive situation.

The success of the program led to a new decision. Instead of each department conducting its own program of orientation for new employees, there would be a three-day orientation for all new employees, with half a day devoted to basic communication skills development.

“We want to send the message loud and clear from the very beginning that the city is serious about developing better communication skills,” said Anderson.

Connella went on to add half-day sessions on workplace ethics and diversity in the workplace to the orientation. Although there has been some resistance to the program, as expected, the overwhelming response has been positive.

In the beginning only one follow-up session was planned three months after the original eight weeks. This has been expanded to two follow-up sessions, and some employees have requested more.

The response of new hires to their half-day session has been equally enthusiastic.

“I am interested in my future,” said Tracy A. Parker, Sr. “Therefore, I am interested in this.”

“People are not throw aways!” according to Dr. John A. Hamrick, pastor emeritus of Charleston’s First Baptist Church.

“Everyone has assets even those in homeless shelters,” Richard Hendry, program director of the Community Foundation asserts.

Personnel policies at the ten best places to work in America reinforce these concepts, but such enlightened attitudes is not the experience of so many in the workforce.

Discrimination lawsuits of every variety are skyrocketing. Work place violence is surging but some employers act as if workers are there to be abused. Joe Worker died and arrived at the heavenly portals where he was met by St. Peter. “Due to over crowding we have a new policy,” said St. Peter. “New arrivals get to spend three days in heaven and hell before they make a final decision.”

Joe decided to try hell first and St. Peter pushed the down button for the elevator. When the doors opened, it was a wonderful sight. Joe saw many of his friends. Some were laughing and talking. Some were dancing and others were discussing the various golf courses. Joe’s three days zipped by.

When he arrived for his three days in heaven not much was going on.  Angels drifted by on their clouds and others were singing in a great choir. Finally his time was up and St. Peter demanded Joe’s decision. As strange as it may seem. Joe chose hell because most of his friends were there and everything seemed so wonderful.

When the doors opened this time it was the most miserable sight that Joe had ever seen. People were sweating, their clothes were ragged and filthy and they were moaning and complaining.

The devil saw Joe’s consternation and came over. Joe asked, “When I was here three days ago people were having such a wonderful time, what happened?” The devil rubbed his hands together and looked at Joe with a joyful expression . “When you were here before you were a recruit. Today you are staff!”

Unfortunately that is the case in so many places, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The February issue of the Harvard Management Communication Letter in an article about telecommuting states, “The old model was based on supervision. You put your posterior in a chair, and your boss saw to it that you kept it there for 40 hours- or more – per week. With telecommuting the focus shifts from time on task as a measure of worker performance to the quality of the end product. And that takes trust. The boss has to trust that the workers are getting the job done even though she can’t see them.” Further the article states, “When a relationship is based on trust – and results, you can’t micromanage the process.”

Trust is such an important ingredient in an employment relationship, yet it is rarely discussed in management circles. No contract can cover every possible circumstance nor can a supervisor be watchful 100% of the time; therefore, trust is the only solution.  Micromanagement is self defeating since it breeds an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. People usually meet our expectations. Micromanagement diminishes both the manager and the worker.

Set reasonable goals of quality and quantity. Select the right person for the job. Provide the necessary training and resources needed to successfully meet the requirements and get out of the way. Respect your  employees and they will respect you. You must give what you expect to get.