Do you remember a game called “telephone”?  You know, the one where a group stands in a circle and one person whispers a message into someones the next person’s ear, then they into the next until it gets back to the first person?  The message changes… sometimes folks add in parts on purpose, and sometimes they just mis-understand what they were told.  The end result, however, is the message changes in (hopefully funny!) way.

In the game, that’s the point!  It’s fun to see what happens when multiple people are in the middle since you never really know what will come out the other side.  When you’re at work, however, this communication drift causes a LOT of problems.  This lesson will go over how to identify when you’re in a game of telephone and how to constructively resolve it.

There’s three things you want to do in these situations:

1. Get in direct contact with the person impacted

2. Let the reporter know you’re reaching out the impacted person 

3. Educate both parties on what to do in the future

Step #1 - Connect

Getting in direct contact with the person impacted can be harder than it seems, as sometimes there is more than one person between you and them.  Frequently I see 2, 3 or sometimes more people in the chain, all “helpfully” passing along a message to someone else.  Unfortunately, as our game showed us, each node in communication introduces a chance for an error to be introduced, and the drift from the original message only increases each time it’s passed along.  To help with this, the first question I ask myself when I get a new request, whether it’s an email, instant message or ticket, is “who is this REALLY coming from?”.  For example, if one of my data analytics partners sends in a request to get a new team member setup with access, that new team member is really the person how needs help.  In that case, I’d connect directly with them to understand their needs, versus the perceived needs that are being reported.

Frequently the folks in the middle also don’t fully understand the request; they are, after all, filtering it through their own experience and ideas.  This can result in your understanding of what needs to be done being drastically different from what is needed.  Identifying, and connecting directly with, the originator of the request helps mitigate this risk substantially.

Step #2 - Update

Once I think I’ve identified the person impacted, I’ll connect to them directly, and also let the reporter know what I”m up to.  That second bit is critical; if they are unaware I’m helping they’ll keep coming after me.  Some quick examples:

• If it’s an email - I’ll move the reporter to CC or BCC and email the impacted person directly.

• If it’s an instant message - I’ll either let the reporter know I’ll be in touch with the impacted person, or get both of them in a group message

• If it’s in person - Similarly to an instant message I’ll let the reporter know what I’m up to, then connect with the impact person directly.

Step #3 - Educate

Keep in mind the reporter is just trying to help their colleague out, they’re not intentionally making things harder for you.  This makes these situations great learning opportunities.  As part of your communication, you can let the reporter know how these situations ideally should be handled.  While the exact approach will differ by organization, I prefer for the person impact to be the one to report the issue.  Sometimes this isn’t possible, maybe they’re on vacation or unavailable.  That’s totally OK.  In those situations someone else should report it, but clearly indicate they’re passing along a message and include the impacted person on the email, message or thread.  This makes it significantly easier to follow up, and ensures everyone is aware of where they are.

Some examples of language I’ve used:

Example #1

“Hey Tim, thanks for letting me know Rebecca is having login issues.  I’m going to connect with her directly.  I appreciate you forwarding in her request, but please encourage folks to use our help desk (link here), it makes it a lot easier when they reach out directly”.

Example #2

“Hey Tim, Rebecca let me know you’re having problems running your TPS report.  More than happy to help out, but it would be helpful if you report these directly in the future.”