Management in real life: top communicators.

Ah, the power of information! Both research and experience tells us that when employees understand how the business operates, can connect their work to company financials, and know what has to be done for the business to compete, they are likely to be more engaged. Why? Because they have context for what they do each day and the ability to contribute more. That's why some business leaders work so hard to communicate and share information with their employees.

Imagine information flowing through the organization like a warm summer breeze through an open window. Visualize employees working like a team of enthusiastic engineering students in their first concrete canoe competition. How do leaders create this? Let's take a look at some of the best companies in America to find out.

According to the Great Places to Work Institute's picks, most businesses should learn to lighten up and open up. One thing that qualifies a company as a top Institute pick is the kind of work environment that results from its communications practices.

In one small business of 112 employees, everyone reports to the CEO who spends a couple of days every month meeting with each of them in person. Now that's some reporting relationship. Although the Japanese have been working this way for decades, U.S. companies tend to set the limit for direct reports somewhere closer to 10--lower for CEOs--believing that workers can't be managed well if the manager has too many to keep track of. Perhaps the CEO in this company succeeds because he isn't managing, but leading.

Of course, the larger the business the more difficult CEO-to-core worker communication becomes ... at least face-to-face. What does a CEO of business unit leader do when total employees approaches 1,000? Those monthly meetings could eat up the whole month! One CEO has found a way to stay in contact without leaving the office, although he manages to get himself in front of the gang often enough. How does he do it? He's a CEO-blogger! He touches the whole workforce by blogging on company happenings using informal posts that anyone can access.

More common than blogs are frequent all-employee meetings that gives both leaders and employees a chance to share. One business holds open interactive forums each week for both employees and leaders to keep everyone current. Ah interesting twist by another company that holds quarterly all-employee meetings is that they ask non-managers to organize them so information that's important to core workers always gets brought up.

Some organizations need to communicate more often than quarterly or even weekly. Like a football team getting ready for the next play, one company calls team members to a brief "huddle" every morning to address production, service, or administrative problems that need to be resolved right away.

Besides frequency of communications, getting good content like financial results to employees can be a real tooth-puller. But one business takes transparency to the utmost and literally broadcasts its financials to the world posting its business plan on the internet. Updated results are posted a least quarterly. In another business, baring all isn't their cup of tea. Instead, they send financials directly to employees' homes each month along with a letter that explains what they mean.

Even annual planning doesn't have to be an exclusionary experience. What once was a closed-door session among executives in one recognized company is now a roundtable discussion with large numbers of employees. They even put to an employee vote issues that affect the workforce directly. And they're not talking about whether to purchase a new soda machine. In another company, important management decisions are distributed among various committees primarily made up of core employees and senior leaders. Leaders openly share information with team members so that the committees can make the best choices for the business.

Some would look at all of this, shake their heads, and say, "it's a brave new world out there." In reality, what we see are simply leaders responding to customer demand and competitiveness knowing that information in the hands of core workers is power to suceed in the marketplace.

Try it on for fit. If you're a leader in your organization, meet with your leadership team and consider how you might increase the flow of critical business information to core workers with the objective of greater company understanding, capability, and engagement. Explore the practices of organizations described in this article. Determine what would prevent you from adopting these practices and develop a plan for overcoming them. Expand the discussion group to include core workers and solicit their ideas. Consider selecting six to eight non-managerial employees to form a committee charged with organizing and running the next all-employee meeting. Provide some direction in the form of objectives, but allow plenty of room for the committee to develop the agenda and involve core workers as presenters. Be available as a resource or presenter, but don't allow the committee to bounce decisions and other responsibilities back to you. If you're concerned about the meeting becoming a pep rally instead of a high-powered business meeting, provide direction to the committee. Help the committee take ownership for making the meeting successful in building core worker understanding and commitment to the organization's operations, financials, and competitiveness.

If you're not a formal leader, but recognize how greater access to information about the company would increase your ability to contribute, consider having a conversation with your designated leader about making an exception, or change, to a current practice. Be prepared to make a case for improving results as a consequence of the exception. Include co-workers and other departments in the request, if it makes sense to do so.

Kevin Herring is president of Ascent Management Consulting, a firm with expertise in all aspects of organizational behavior. He has worked as a manager and consultant in the manufacturing, mining, service, and utility industries, managing human resources, organization development, and training functions. He has worked with organizations of various sizes from sole proprietors to Fortune 200 companies.

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