1 December 2008
How not to conduct a town-hall meeting
Don't let your CEO "wing it", and ensure debrief sessions take place.
Following part 1 of our town-hall meetings article, 
Veronica Apostolico (pictured, right), director of internal communication, Global Operations at medical devices organization Smith & Nephew discusses what leaders should avoid – and what communicators should do after the meeting.
Remember it's a discussion
Apostolico has several suggestions for giving advice to a leader about areas to avoid when giving a town hall.
- Reading from a script: Town halls are less formal than say, a sales meeting and must never appear scripted.
- “Winging it”: “Some leaders don’t prepare as they should,” Apostolico observes. This means they digress and give a convoluted message.
- Death by PowerPoint: Although visual prompts can help, leaders should not put too much information on their slides. Employees shouldn’t be able to say, “I could have just read this.” Slides aren't talking points, but should illustrate the message. They aren't the message itself.
- Talking at employees: Remember it's a discussion. “It’s meant to be engaging,” Apostolico says. “The leader should be paying attention to the reactions and move along accordingly. They shouldn’t just spew out what they have to say.”
- Bullying to get questions: Some leaders have been known to say, “Don’t you have a question? You must have a question!” They can also be condescending when answering. “No question is a dumb question and they must take everyone’s concerns seriously,” Apostolico says. “Many individuals won’t have had as much time or experience with the topic as the leader.”
- Making up answers: “If you don’t know, say so – and that you’ll find out and get back to them,” she advises. Never lie or try to finesse an answer. Say, “I can’t give you an answer because of this or that reason.”
- Information overload: “Don’t try to fit too much information into one meeting. People can’t retain that much at one time. What do you really want people to remember?” Apostolico asks.
Some leaders don’t prepare as they should. This means they digress and give a convoluted message.
Leader debrief
Communicators should debrief with the leader after the town hall. Go prepared with your survey results and ask for the leader’s feedback on the meeting. Be candid about how you think the meeting went and agree the follow-up actions.
“In the town hall, you may have found that employees didn’t know as much as you thought about a particular topic,” Apostolico says. “What will you do about that? Review the questions asked and agree how to address them.”
After the meeting
Communicators might be so relieved the town hall is over that they want to move on. “But the follow-up is almost more important,” Apostolico says. “There’s so much information in a town hall.
"In Citi’s town hall, for example, people may be in shock as they’re hearing so much information and they don’t really retain it all,” says Apostolico.
To help ensure retention, send out a short survey – immediately afterwards if possible.
Keep it simple with a couple of questions to ensure the message has been received. Use your normal media channels, intranet or email for example, to thank people from the CEO.
Further communication
A message might say the following:
“For those of you able to attend, thank you for coming.
If you weren’t there, these are my key messages....This is what we talked about...These are some follow-ups to the questions I couldn’t answer at the time....”
“Acknowledge and reinforce what was said so people are not trying to interpret it for themselves,” Apostolico says.
Don’t try to fit too much information into one meeting. People can’t retain that much at one time.
A town hall could be a good start for further communication, rather than being an end in itself. Make sure your next town hall is part of the organization’s “neverending story”.
How focus groups can help
Healthcare organization Medavie Blue Cross used focus groups to hone its CEO roadshow content. In the focus sessions, employees scrutinized word choice and terminology.Kelly Hickman, Medavie's director of communication, quoted in Melcrum's How to communicate business strategy to employees said of employees "If they came across a word they didn't understand, and it was one we wanted to use in the presentation, we knew we would have to work around explaining and redefining it."
"We made sure the president talked about every term or concept in the presentation and explained what they meant."
One such word was "efficiency" as one of Medavie's key strategic goals. But it discovered employees had an entirely different perception of the word than the strategy intended. "When you use the word efficiency, employees always think downsizing and layoffs," Hickman says.
So pay attention to word choice during a CEO town hall or roadshow or you may find that employees leave with a completely different "understanding" of the session than you intended.
Say thank you
Also in the Medavie sessions, employees picked up on something that senior leaders had forgotten: employees want to be thanked for their hard work, and for sticking with an organization through change.In each roadshow, the CEO now "stops and spends a few minutes reminding employees that senior management has not forgotten their hard work.
"This is a huge learning exercise for us," concludes Hickman. "Employees pointed out things that we missed or didn't realize."
Roadshow checklist
In Melcrum's Effective communication from the top report, John Clemons, a vice president of communications at Raytheon and former communication consultant shares his checklist of the critical logistical components of executive-employee meetings.
- Decide on the program format – time allotted for presentation, number of speakers and Q&A.
- Prepare the presentation/script.
- Decide on the meeting setup – seating, refreshments, audio-visual equipment, staging and room temperature.
- Delegate on-site support and assistance.
- Develop a template for the employee invitation to the meetings, with request for preliminary questions for executives.
- Organize transportation to and from meeting locations. Make hotel arrangements as needed.
- Prepare briefing books including a minute-by-minute schedule, current presentation, blank pages for notes, details on the location/office/employees visited and preliminary employee questions with suggested responses.
- Prepare presentation handouts (condensed or complete) for every employee.
- Create evaluation forms for each meeting and review/discuss the results with the executive speaker(s).
- Afterwards, write a brief meeting report including evaluation results to executive presenter(s).
To maintain momentum and interest in the events, Clemons also suggests posting the presentation on the company intranet. In addition, he says meetings should be highlighted in internal and electronic publications and video and audio programs to share news, build excitement and establish the program as part of an effective internal communications program.
Have your say
What do you think a leader should avoid when planning and conducting a town-hall meeting, or roadshow? What action do you take following a town hall? How well are town halls positioned within your overall communication strategy?
Recommended resources:
Melcrum report: How to communicate business strategy to employees
Citi’s CEO holds "rallying" town hall
Companies unwilling to invest in employee "wellbeing" programs
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