"What we have here is a failure to communicate": The Necessity of Communications in a Technology Market.

by Dr. Greg Miles - 5/30/00

You've heard it time and again. The complaints about people not knowing what is going on and being kept in the dark.

Organizational Dynamics: As organizations grow they have a tendency to loose contact with the things that helped them grow. One of the basic losses in a growing organization is communications. When groups are small, the communications is very informal and almost constant. As the groups grow, more structure is put into place to support the growing organization. With more structure comes the requirement for more formal communications. Managers that once were hands-on must now delegate because the responsibilities have grown to the point where one person cannot handle them. And it keeps growing and growing.

Downfalls: The downfall of the growing organization is that if consistency of communications is not implemented up front, the once " in group"(i.e. the ones that knew what was going on) suddenly feel left out. If this occurs, then you run into the chance of starting to loose your key technical and management people that have become the corporate knowledge of the organization. The Information Security business is no different. In some ways it can be worse. Good technical security people are hard to find these days. That makes them more marketable and a lot easier for them to leave, if they so choose. You can't keep everyone from leaving and people leave for different reasons. My suggestion is do everything possible to make them feel valued so they do not go looking for other opportunities.

Recommendations: Again, no magical remedies, but a formula for success through communications would include the following:

1. Informal Team building activities: (lunches, bowling, picnics, cookouts) once a month
2. Formal All Hands Meetings once per month. Get everybody together and let them know what is going on in the organization. Don't try to hide things from them, they will figure it out and be upset with you.
3. Technical Status Reviews every other week (more often if necessary). Gets the technical team and management teams on the same sheet of music.
4. Find opportunities to get around to see people. Understand what they are doing and make them feel valued, recognized and communicated with.
5. Management teams need to hold staff meetings on a weekly basis to assure everyone is on and working from the same plan.

I can say from experience that it is a challenge to keep these kinds of activities going. It is, however, essential for the success of the organization. Strive hard to implement consistency in your communications with people. It is essential for the organization's success.