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The 3 Words Killing Your Team's Execution · Speak In Flow

• 0:02
  Melinda Lee: Welcome to the Speak and Flow podcast, the Legacy Growth Series. Today, we are on our second episode of the series. In our last one, we talked about how teams are working so hard and still miss their growth targets.
• 0:18
  Melinda Lee: And the importance of being crystal clear of what truly matters, and communicating that constantly, clearly, over and over again.
• 0:29
  Melinda Lee: And yet, sometimes as a leader, even when you are doing that, you might find that people think that they know the priorities, it sounds like they're aligned, but then they go to do the work, and then communication breaks down.
• 0:43
  Melinda Lee: things are not getting accomplished, they're misaligned. And so that is the topic that we're going to talk about today. How we think that they're aligned, but they're not. And so joining me today is an expert. She is Eileen Wickstead. She is the principal of Wickstead and Company, which provides clients with strategic communication, crisis communications, for leaders who are experiencing high-risk
• 1:07
  Melinda Lee: And low frequency events.
• 1:10
  Melinda Lee: Which really impact both the market share and also their reputation.
• 1:16
  Melinda Lee: Joining me is Eileen. Let's welcome Eileen. Hi, Eileen!
• 1:20
  Eileen Wixted: Melinda, hi, it's so nice to see you, and it's great to be with you and your audience. Thank you for the invitation.
• 1:27
  Melinda Lee: Thank you so much. This is the second time that you've been with the Speak and Flow podcast. I really value your experience and what you do, and so I'm so glad to dive in today about aligning our teams. And before we get into that.
• 1:41
  Melinda Lee: Let's set the context. There is a busy leader out there, CEO or executive, who have stopped to listen to this podcast.
• 1:49
  Melinda Lee: And he or she or this person takes into consideration all the things that you're about to teach them around crisis communication, strategic communication. What do you hope could change in their life?
• 2:03
  Eileen Wixted: My hope is that leaders recognize that if they want to have a high-performing team.
• 2:12
  Eileen Wixted: that high-performing team must have a high-performing communication culture. And so, what I mean by that is, you have to be able to be good, strong, effective communicators. You have to be clear, right? Brene Brown says, clear is kind.
• 2:28
  Melinda Lee: You have to…
• 2:29
  Eileen Wixted: be able to be clear. And the challenge today is because everybody is moving at warp speed, we tend to resolve or solve a business issue, then we communicate. And then…
• 2:42
  Eileen Wixted: people didn't understand fully, so now we communicate again, and then we have to communicate again and recalibrate, and we waste a lot of time, energy, and effort communicating when we don't put communication really at the center of what we're doing. And so.
• 2:59
  Melinda Lee: Most…
• 3:00
  Eileen Wixted: leaders are leading their teams through some sort of element of change, or a high-risk, low-frequency event, like a plant closure, or let's say there's going to be, you know, a significant rule change, or a, you know, the discontinuation of a product line. I'm thinking in insurance right now.
• 3:20
  Eileen Wixted: And so, those are significant, And so.
• 3:23
  Eileen Wixted: as you make the decision about what we're going to do, you spend time. I mean, you go through it, you say, okay, what's the… what's the business rationale, and…
• 3:33
  Eileen Wixted: Why are we losing money, and what's our solution, and what do we need to do differently? And now you've come to this decision.
• 3:40
  Eileen Wixted: At that moment in time, you then have to begin developing a communication plan.
• 3:46
  Eileen Wixted: to communicate that decision. And it really begins with understanding what are the four corners of what the problem was, right? Let's say, let's say slow sales, let's say, lack of profitability.
• 4:02
  Eileen Wixted: and then we're putting a solution in place, let's say we are discontinuing that line, then what does that mean? So, we have to have, we have to have an understanding of what is the problem.
• 4:14
  Eileen Wixted: And then what is the solution? Because when you then communicate to your audience, you want them to be able to understand your thinking.
• 4:22
  Eileen Wixted: Right? Reason why?
• 4:24
  Eileen Wixted: And then how they're moving forward, and what does that mean to them? And…
• 4:29
  Eileen Wixted: Frequently, what happens is everybody's decided in the conference room, hey, listen, we're going to… we're going to terminate this one line. That's going to impact X amount of policyholders. It's going to impact two team members. All right, now we're going to go communicate.
• 4:46
  Eileen Wixted: And you need to pause and stop. And so, my… my most significant message today to any leader who is tuning in is this.
• 4:58
  Eileen Wixted: High-performing teams have a high-performing communication culture, cadence, and processes.
• 5:06
  Eileen Wixted: You cannot have one without the other. You can make really great business decisions, but if you don't know how to communicate them, they will never get implemented. You will never have the growth, you will never have the change that you really need, and that's your job as a leader. And so, sometimes.
• 5:24
  Eileen Wixted: you know, I find that leaders will make time to have a discussion with the legal team, right? The attorneys, or HR, or regulatory, or compliance. You need to give communication the exact same seat at the table.
• 5:40
  Eileen Wixted: and the amount of time and attention to put that plan together, and then when you're prepared, then your communication is cascaded in a certain frequency. It's layered. You have not only written and verbal communication, you may end up having
• 5:58
  Eileen Wixted: Videos, you might have a town hall meeting, you might have a variety of different things, and you
• 6:02
  Eileen Wixted: really, really well. So when people leave, they understand that
• 6:07
  Eileen Wixted: Why the decision was made, what the solution requires of them, and what they need to do moving forward.
• 6:14
  Melinda Lee: Yeah. Yeah, no, I really appreciate it, and this is why I had you come back the second time around, because I always learn so much, and I really appreciate the planning and acknowledging that these leaders, when they really do this well from the beginning, the ripple effect that it can have, and also the time saved, because the importance of
• 6:38
  Melinda Lee: Preparation and planning and all the things that need to happen so that the communication is effective.
• 6:44
  Melinda Lee: And so, I'm really excited to dive in, because I think that a lot of people…
• 6:49
  Melinda Lee: don't take this opportunity to plan, and then they wonder, why are my teams not aligned? What is happening? And then, so… so to give people context for the audience, you obviously know what you're talking about. Can you share with them more about your company, a little bit more, and then also what excites you about what you're doing, so, there's more context for the audience?
• 7:13
  Eileen Wixted: You bet. So, I, I came into the PR, strategic communications, and crisis management role, after a career in television news. So, I worked in the media, I was a reporter and anchor, and moved around the country doing that. And I think that really sets up
• 7:29
  Eileen Wixted: And really, it allowed me to hone my skills in a couple different ways, because as a reporter or an anchor, you have to be able to quickly assess a situation, you have to be able to take the complex and make it simple. That's hard to do. And you have to be able to do two things. Ask questions.
• 7:49
  Eileen Wixted: Right? And we ask questions a lot of times to build understanding, and then become a good listener. You have to become a really good listener. And I think that's really important as I started my company a couple decades ago. And, we are a team of 23 plus.
• 8:06
  Eileen Wixted: And we are a strategic communications crisis management and communication training firm. And we work in key sectors, so energy, healthcare, agribusiness, technology, manufacturing, and then other high-profile others, right? So, sadly, we've done
• 8:24
  Eileen Wixted: school shootings,
• 8:26
  Melinda Lee: Mmm.
• 8:27
  Eileen Wixted: Mass casualty, so we do a lot of that sort of work, but really the sectors that we really focus in on are the energy, healthcare, technology.
• 8:38
  Eileen Wixted: technology, manufacturing, and agribusiness. And, so we have… we have deep expertise, and that's important to us, but what really excites me is.
• 8:50
  Melinda Lee: Yes.
• 8:52
  Eileen Wixted: People… People talk about communication
• 8:56
  Eileen Wixted: as a soft skill. And I will work with them, and they'll be like, yeah, you know, I'm, you know, I'm the youngest of… I was the youngest of four, and I was the quiet one, and, you know, my brother Jimmy, he was the funny one.
• 9:13
  Eileen Wixted: You know, now I'm a leader, and all, you know, all those other sorts of things. And they think somehow that
• 9:21
  Eileen Wixted: How they communicate
• 9:23
  Eileen Wixted: you know, how they were born, and just sort of their genetic makeup defines how they communicate. And what excites me is when I'm able to work with them to say, you know what? That may be your starting point, right? That may be your… you may be on the starting line right here, but
• 9:43
  Eileen Wixted: you know, how you were born, your ethnicity, you know, how you grew up, your household, right? The dynamics, the environment. So, like, I'm Italian and Irish, right? So there's…
• 9:56
  Eileen Wixted: A lot of yelling, and a lot of fighting, and a lot of fun that went on in our house, and a lot of laughter. And so, that helped shape and define
• 10:05
  Eileen Wixted: me. But what excites me is when I'm able to work with people, and I'm like, wait a second.
• 10:11
  Eileen Wixted: Communication is not a soft skill.
• 10:14
  Eileen Wixted: It can be hardwired. You can get better.
• 10:18
  Eileen Wixted: I can help you get better. You can be a very compelling and effective communicator, and if, in fact, you are a leader.
• 10:26
  Eileen Wixted: you must become an effective, compelling communicator if you want to continue to go on. And so, that's what really excites me. I'll tell you a quick little story. I, was working with a newly appointed executive.
• 10:40
  Eileen Wixted: And, she, recently joined this, global company, and it's a really great opportunity.
• 10:49
  Eileen Wixted: For her. And as we begin working together, there's gonna be some changes that she has to make, but she's really stepping in and stepping up.
• 10:59
  Eileen Wixted: Into this role. And, she's, really quite introverted, and really, really in some ways, a little demure.
• 11:10
  Eileen Wixted: And so, as we were working together, I said, you know, in today's world, people not only have to be a leader, they have to look and sound like a leader. And I had her go through a couple key exercises, and I said, it's gonna be really… it's gonna feel uncomfortable.
• 11:28
  Eileen Wixted: And I'm going to give you a quote, and it's like a four-sentence quote, and I'm going to have you record it, and I'm going to tell you how I want you to…
• 11:39
  Eileen Wixted: to read it.
• 11:40
  Eileen Wixted: I want you to… I want you to do a cold reading, and then I want you to do a reading where half the room, you think half the room is deaf, so I really want you to… projection, okay? Then I want it to be, like, pleading, right? Emphasis on key words, okay? And then I want you, everywhere there's a comma, I want you to take a pause. Everywhere there's a pyramid, I want you to fully stop, right? So we worked on this, okay?
• 12:06
  Eileen Wixted: And I said, how did you feel? And she said, well, I felt… I felt uncomfortable, and I felt silly, and I… you know, that's not usually how I feel, right? I don't feel… it's not me, right? And I said, when you are a leader.
• 12:20
  Eileen Wixted: It's not about you. It's about the people you lead. So let's take a look at this. And so I played it back. And when I played it back, I said, let's talk about these different ones. And the one where she was projecting, she goes, in my head, I thought I was shouting.
• 12:39
  Eileen Wixted: Excuse me.
• 12:40
  Eileen Wixted: Awesome!
• 12:41
  Melinda Lee: I… Right.
• 12:42
  Eileen Wixted: I appear more in charge, and then with pausing, I appear more reflective, right, and intentional.
• 12:51
  Eileen Wixted: And so I guess what really excites me is helping people see that communication isn't a soft skill.
• 12:58
  Eileen Wixted: It is a hard… it's a hard skill. It's not the music. Like, if we were in school, people would say, oh, communication, it's like music and PE. No, no.
• 13:09
  Eileen Wixted: Communication is like math and science, right? Yes. It is such an important discipline, especially if you're a leader, and you are being held to results.
• 13:19
  Melinda Lee: Well, and I think even more so now with AI, and because unfortunately, I mean, AI is going to take over a lot of those hard skills, the technical skills, and do it so much faster. Not in a way it takes over, but it supports us. It makes… it helps our job, it gets us to do things faster, but then communication, it cannot replace.
• 13:40
  Melinda Lee: Not so much, right? Especially when you're talking one-to-one, and you're dealing with people face-to-face.
• 13:46
  Melinda Lee: And so… so I think communication is that skill, that hard skill that people… it will continue to evolve, and it'll continue to give back.
• 13:55
  Melinda Lee: to you as a leader and help you evolve. And so I really like that story that you shared, because you held a mirror to this leader and to show her, you didn't, you were not screaming, you were actually projecting and sounding like the leader, even though you felt like it. And so I'm going to take it back to teams that
• 14:14
  Melinda Lee: think that they're aligned. So tell me, have you experienced where you've seen teams, they think they're aligned, the commun… the leader spoke the priorities, the, the goals, and they think they're all aligned, but then they go off and they're not.
• 14:29
  Melinda Lee: Like, can you describe moments where that happens?
• 14:35
  Eileen Wixted: Right. So what's really funny about that is that happens more frequently than not.
• 14:41
  Eileen Wixted: And when that happens,
• 14:45
  Eileen Wixted: you know, there's… there's politics, right? I mean, things… there's politics, there's coalition building, there's… there's, confusion, and so if the team is not aligned, how in the world do you expect the company, the rank and file, if you will, right?
• 15:05
  Melinda Lee: shoes.
• 15:05
  Eileen Wixted: to become aligned. That's problematic. And I think it's really important that we're having this discussion in… in… and acknowledge at the same time that we live in a low-trust environment.
• 15:18
  Melinda Lee: Bing.
• 15:19
  Eileen Wixted: Over the past 6 years, if you look at the Edelman Trust Barometer, you see that trust continues to decline.
• 15:26
  Eileen Wixted: Trust in our institutions, trust in media, trust in NGOs, trust in government continues to decline. But one glimmer of hope in this research is that
• 15:39
  Eileen Wixted: employees still trust their leaders, right? Not as much, but they have got higher trust in their leaders, alright?
• 15:47
  Eileen Wixted: And so, when I see a team that's not aligned, and I sit around the table, and I'm like, you know, I'm gonna use a hospital, why does nursing think this is gonna happen? And why does respiratory therapy think this is gonna happen?
• 16:02
  Eileen Wixted: And it really comes down to teams are not aligned because the team members
• 16:10
  Eileen Wixted: feel or believe that they don't have to be aligned. And here's what I mean.
• 16:16
  Melinda Lee: Mmm…
• 16:18
  Eileen Wixted: You don't have to agree.
• 16:20
  Melinda Lee: Right.
• 16:21
  Eileen Wixted: You don't have to agree. Tommy, Charlie, Sally, you don't have to agree, okay? But you're a vice president at this health system.
• 16:30
  Eileen Wixted: We have vetted this, we have researched this. We have now made decision… made a decision on this. So you… you, once again, have explained that you don't agree.
• 16:42
  Eileen Wixted: I have heard you, and now we're going to put away our disagreements, and we are going to become aligned and supportive.
• 16:50
  Eileen Wixted: Of this. And I think what happens is people walk out, and they'll say, okay, well, we're going to… shift differentials are a big deal. That's the payments that you pay nurses, depending upon when they work.
• 17:02
  Eileen Wixted: And a lot of those things are now changing in healthcare. So… so something comes out about shift differentials, and then those leaders are like, yeah, I thought it was a bad idea. Well, I think it's not this, right?
• 17:14
  Eileen Wixted: And they feel, they feel that they can align with their team and say, you know, if it was for me, we would go this way. I raised my hand 3 times. Well, here's the problem. You shouldn't be on the executive team
• 17:29
  Eileen Wixted: It's going to be your behavior, right?
• 17:31
  Eileen Wixted: you're on a team, and your leader should give you enough time to vet, disagree, come back another day, new re… additional research, detail, disagree, vet, debate, all those sorts of things. Yeah. Come back another day, decision is made. Once the decision is made.
• 17:50
  Eileen Wixted: then we align and support around that decision. Now, here is the missing point… here's the missing link to a lot of this.
• 18:00
  Eileen Wixted: A lot of this.
• 18:02
  Eileen Wixted: They'll be like, okay, but then we need a communication companion about what is the narrative around this? What are the four corners on what the problem was we were.
• 18:13
  Melinda Lee: What is…
• 18:14
  Eileen Wixted: Why did we solve it?
• 18:16
  Eileen Wixted: And what is go… what's the impact going to be? Yeah. Right?
• 18:21
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:21
  Eileen Wixted: So, with regard to shift differentials, currently.
• 18:26
  Eileen Wixted: The pay's all over the place, and it's over budget, right? That's the problem. Yeah. So now we're going to eliminate
• 18:33
  Eileen Wixted: the shift differentials for some nurses. That's going to mean that nurses will make less money.
• 18:41
  Eileen Wixted: You gotta own it. You gotta own the ugly. Own that ugly.
• 18:46
  Eileen Wixted: So, how are we going to communicate that?
• 18:49
  Eileen Wixted: We're gonna communicate the fact that our budget is out of line, we compared it to the national standards.
• 18:55
  Eileen Wixted: It… we're paying twice the market share. It's not sustainable. This happened during COVID. It's not sustainable. This is a course correction, and we recognize and acknowledge that for some of our nurses, this means they will have less money in their paychecks.
• 19:11
  Melinda Lee: Right, right. The thing is, okay, yeah, but there's, like, there's twofolds. Like, I hear that… the breakdown. First being that I think sometimes the leaders don't even give the opportunities for the senior leadership to… to… to acknowledge, to debate, to do research.
• 19:29
  Melinda Lee: You know, they just, like you said, in the beginning, they just automatically assume we don't have to align. Maybe there is a new shift differential, and there's not enough communication, so I'm gonna go on one side, and I'm gonna go on the other side.
• 19:41
  Melinda Lee: And then, so, like, the first part of that is, like, the leadership can bring people together and really continue to debate until they all feel like they've been heard, or they've been seeing both sides, and then really come together to make an agreement.
• 19:59
  Melinda Lee: like, that's the first part that I think a lot of people don't… may not get right. Maybe they do it, they think they've done it, right?
• 20:08
  Melinda Lee: And then…
• 20:09
  Eileen Wixted: The reality is, is that sometimes you're not gonna have… you're not gonna reach agreement.
• 20:14
  Eileen Wixted: A really good leader will be like, okay, I've let the air out of the tires.
• 20:18
  Melinda Lee: Yes.
• 20:18
  Eileen Wixted: People have been heard, and they've discussed, but then the other thing, too, is if you're on that leadership team, and you're like, wow, I don't, you know, they didn't agree with me and whatever, and you know what?
• 20:28
  Eileen Wixted: you're not the highest… you're not the highest person here on the food chain, so you… you didn't get the… it's not… you didn't get the authority to make the decision, so once the decision has been made, you gotta fall in line. Yeah. You gotta fall in line.
• 20:43
  Melinda Lee: But there's also a decide, or there's also, like, sorry, there's also, like, hey, let's decide, or I'll let you know how we're gonna make a decision at the end.
• 20:51
  Melinda Lee: I'm gonna hear all of your voices, but I'm gonna be the ultimate decision maker.
• 20:57
  Eileen Wixted: Right, right, and… Because the president or CEO, whatever the… whatever the.
• 21:03
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 21:04
  Eileen Wixted: whatever the top one is, that's ultimately their responsibility. And so, I always… but sometimes with teams, when that doesn't happen, then they go out and start coalition building, right?
• 21:15
  Melinda Lee: Yay!
• 21:16
  Eileen Wixted: He wants to come back.
• 21:17
  Melinda Lee: Right.
• 21:18
  Eileen Wixted: Right. And all this other sort of stuff. And so I think a really interesting point about that is people will come back and they'll be like, people are really upset, I think they're gonna go on social media. Yep. In our communication plan, we've already planned for that, yep.
• 21:33
  Melinda Lee: We knew people were not.
• 21:35
  Eileen Wixted: would not like that. And then, what I always like to ask people… and so, when people came up and complained.
• 21:41
  Eileen Wixted: What did you say?
• 21:44
  Eileen Wixted: How were you able… And they were like, well, you know, I wasn't really for this decision anyway.
• 21:53
  Eileen Wixted: If you're a leader in this organization.
• 21:55
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 21:55
  Eileen Wixted: When you make a decision, you align around that decision.
• 21:58
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 21:59
  Eileen Wixted: Yeah. Then, you carry the flag.
• 22:02
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, correct. As a team, and going… following the communication plan. So that was the second part, is how… how much do these teams have a communication plan, and then carry out the communication plan effectively?
• 22:15
  Eileen Wixted: Right, and sometimes what we do on these really highly sensitive issues.
• 22:21
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 22:21
  Eileen Wixted: I will… I will… we will, we'll test pilot.
• 22:25
  Melinda Lee: Right?
• 22:26
  Eileen Wixted: So, here's the issue, and here's the decision, here's the research that was done, and here's what's gonna happen.
• 22:32
  Eileen Wixted: And then, sometimes you can test pilot that with a couple, you know, with a couple little focus groups, especially if you think
• 22:40
  Eileen Wixted: Especially if you think it's a high-risk decision.
• 22:45
  Eileen Wixted: And then… and then people can…
• 22:48
  Eileen Wixted: You can look at that, and then you can make a change before you roll it out, if that makes sense.
• 22:54
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, but would that… would that… if the… the little small group, would that message get out to other people? How do you contain that, if you test it out?
• 23:03
  Eileen Wixted: Usually…
• 23:03
  Melinda Lee: I don't see.
• 23:04
  Eileen Wixted: Well, usually it's, it's, we've brought you together, right? This is confidential.
• 23:11
  Eileen Wixted: choose not to… not to… not to keep confidentiality, all right, that's going to be on you, but, we are thinking about…
• 23:21
  Eileen Wixted: We have a preliminary plan, too.
• 23:25
  Eileen Wixted: Right, so you put enough in there that this is not… this is not a fait accompli, so if it gets out, it's not that big of a deal.
• 23:35
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 23:35
  Eileen Wixted: Sometimes it helps you. It helps you begin getting really close to have a key understanding. So, for example, today, affordability is such a big issue.
• 23:47
  Melinda Lee: Right?
• 23:48
  Eileen Wixted: People are worried about energy prices, they're worried about food, they're worried about affordability, right? The cost of living has continued to increase, we have inflation.
• 23:58
  Eileen Wixted: Right? There's additional tariffs, there's just, you know, the war, the conflict, everything else. And so, when it comes to making decisions that you are going to
• 24:09
  Eileen Wixted: Change pay.
• 24:11
  Eileen Wixted: Or no raises?
• 24:12
  Melinda Lee: That's right.
• 24:13
  Eileen Wixted: do reductions, those are really great examples of when you can use a focus group to, how is this going to play?
• 24:22
  Eileen Wixted: That makes sense. Yeah.
• 24:23
  Melinda Lee: Yes, oh, completely, and then… and especially if you know it's going to be almost time to get the information out, you can do a little smaller group, and then refine based on what the smaller group
• 24:34
  Melinda Lee: feedback is. And so, can you share more about… because you mentioned, you know, a lot of this communication is high pressure, there's not enough time to prepare. What else, what else can someone do, a leader do, when they have to share a real high risk, sensitive information, but don't have that much time to prepare?
• 24:55
  Eileen Wixted: Right, so there's really two categories, if you will. One is, if you're making a change, right, there's an issue, and you know you've got to make a change with regard to a business decision, I don't know, layoffs, or…
• 25:09
  Melinda Lee: changes.
• 25:09
  Eileen Wixted: A patterns, you have some time, and you can put together a good plan. So, that's the benefit of some time. When you have no time, when you have no time, let's say there's something that,
• 25:24
  Eileen Wixted: was, let's say there was, a workplace accident, or let's say there was just something that occurred, where there was something against your company. So here's, here's the important thing to do.
• 25:39
  Eileen Wixted: Timeliness is important. So there's two things. One is timeliness, and so people are like, I can't say anything soon because I don't know what to say. The very first people I want you to communicate with is your internal, right? We go internal and then external.
• 25:56
  Eileen Wixted: Perfect. So, you bring your leadership together, your team together.
• 26:00
  Eileen Wixted: And your objective in really what I'm going to call Phase 1 is acknowledge. We are aware of this situation. We understand that this has happened. We don't know the four corners, but what we do know is this is happening. We've sent somebody to get more information, we're in contact with XYZ.
• 26:18
  Eileen Wixted: So really, it's acknowledge first, and you do that internally, and you tell them you will update them.
• 26:24
  Eileen Wixted: in 30 minutes, or this new information, and here's where I want you to go for your information, whether it's Slack, or whether you're on a Teams app.
• 26:35
  Melinda Lee: the weather.
• 26:35
  Eileen Wixted: or whatever it may end up being. Right. Or, we're going to update you, and then at 5 o'clock, we're going to do a all-teams call, and you can, you can, you know, you can dial in, or whatever it is. Right. So, the key part is, when things happen rapidly.
• 26:52
  Eileen Wixted: plant a flag that says, we know about this. And the reason why that's important is because then people will know who to come and ask questions to.
• 27:02
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, exactly.
• 27:03
  Eileen Wixted: And you then own it, right? Right. So that's the first…
• 27:07
  Eileen Wixted: Then the second thing is, you have to begin, from a communication standpoint, asking yourself, and I use the pair model. So, pair, P-E-A-R, stands for
• 27:18
  Eileen Wixted: because this is occurring, what impact does it have on people? That's the P. What impact does it have on the environment? That's the E. What impact does it have on any of our assets? Right?
• 27:30
  Eileen Wixted: We've got an issue at a… let's say we have an issue at a hospital. It's not the one we're at right now, it's a different hospital, right? So, is that functioning? Are they still taking patients? What's happening there? Whatever, that kind of stuff. That's assets, right? And then R is reputation.
• 27:49
  Eileen Wixted: Okay.
• 27:50
  Eileen Wixted: So, we quickly begin, and that's what I use. So, here's what we know. What we know at this point in time is fill in the blank. We understand from a people-first perspective, no one has been injured.
• 28:05
  Eileen Wixted: And then you go from there, those sorts of things.
• 28:08
  Melinda Lee: That's what.
• 28:09
  Eileen Wixted: wind up doing. And then the key point is updating people on a regular cadence. And so, of course, you set things up of.
• 28:18
  Eileen Wixted: we're gonna get new information, and then we're gonna have people who are surveilling, right? Social media, monitoring, looking at a variety of other things, so that we can see what's going on out there. Is there something else we need to see, or know, or do, right?
• 28:33
  Eileen Wixted: And so that's what we end up doing, and then it ropes it right back in. But really, the goal and objective, especially when it is a high-risk, low-frequency event.
• 28:43
  Eileen Wixted: And it's not yours, right? So, it happened.
• 28:49
  Eileen Wixted: And… and so you're… you're on the defense.
• 28:53
  Eileen Wixted: have to, A, take ownership.
• 28:56
  Eileen Wixted: Right? By acknowledging we know what's going on, because you want… you want to shape the narrative.
• 29:03
  Eileen Wixted: Yeah. And with AI, with AI, they begin shaping the narrative by everything else that's on there with social media. So, you have to have your voice out there.
• 29:13
  Melinda Lee: I love this, because… and it also just…
• 29:15
  Melinda Lee: dawn on me… I mean, I knew this, but then you're giving them… we're giving them people how to react, or how to be proactive. When a high frequency, high-risk, low-frequency event happens, you're saying, okay, acknowledge the situation, bring the team together, acknowledge the situation, and then talk about the…
• 29:34
  Melinda Lee: talk about when they can get and where they can get the updated information, so people do not start making up their own narratives. We're controlling the narrative. And then talk about the pair. What is the impact to the PEAR? And… but the thing is, that's why we want to have you and continue to, foster and grow this skill set, like, especially as a leader, because it's not…
• 29:57
  Melinda Lee: if, it's, like, when these high-risk, low-frequency events happen. It's like, there's no time for you to develop this skill, especially…
• 30:07
  Melinda Lee: When it just happened, especially when you don't know when it's gonna happen.
• 30:11
  Eileen Wixted: Right, so it's interesting in our business, in our business, there's a lot of different things that we do, of course, but I've noticed that in the last 18 months, our crisis planning and our crisis tabletop drill business
• 30:27
  Eileen Wixted: has increased. And so, people are like, listen, we need a crisis plan. They saw the KISS cam, right? And that was a problem. They saw the situation with Campbell's Soup, right? So there are these rapid response types.
• 30:40
  Melinda Lee: the situation.
• 30:41
  Eileen Wixted: People are like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened, what do I do?
• 30:44
  Melinda Lee: Right.
• 30:45
  Eileen Wixted: people, like, we're not prepared. We're not prepared. That sector of our business has increased, and, you know, the 120-page crisis plans that we did, you know, back in the 2000s, then they went.
• 30:57
  Melinda Lee: No.
• 30:58
  Eileen Wixted: 16 pages, then they went to 45.
• 31:01
  Eileen Wixted: now they're down to 15, right? And it begins with framework. And… and more of what we see, we… I just… we just did this last week, is then we do tabletops. We do tabletops with injects, and we say, okay, now this has happened, and then that…
• 31:18
  Eileen Wixted: team has to debate and discuss.
• 31:22
  Eileen Wixted: And they have to decide, what is the issue? Do they own… is this their issue? Do they own the issue? Is it… is it the ownership? Do they own… what part do they own of that issue? Right? Because…
• 31:36
  Eileen Wixted: Because they may be just… they just may be… akin
• 31:42
  Eileen Wixted: to the situation. So I was thinking about what happened at the Correspondence Dinner, right?
• 31:48
  Eileen Wixted: And so, let's think about if you… if you're the hotel.
• 31:54
  Eileen Wixted: It happened on site.
• 31:57
  Eileen Wixted: But You were not in control.
• 32:00
  Eileen Wixted: But you're gonna have to communicate.
• 32:04
  Eileen Wixted: all your other guests, and so I would imagine, very quickly, they were like, wait a second.
• 32:08
  Eileen Wixted: this… this wasn't our crisis. It's not like we… it's not like we, you know, food poisoning or something. Right. It wasn't like one of our employees, but all of a sudden, we're gonna be drawn into this.
• 32:20
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:22
  Eileen Wixted: And figuring out what is the issue, what part of this issue do we own, right?
• 32:29
  Eileen Wixted: That then dictates what we communicate.
• 32:33
  Eileen Wixted: So, we love to get together very quickly, and we end up in our tabletop drills, because what happens is you will find some people, they want to own everything.
• 32:42
  Eileen Wixted: They want to, okay, this is our problem, they take responsibility.
• 32:45
  Eileen Wixted: They want to write a check. Oh, we're going to cover all expenses.
• 32:49
  Melinda Lee: all that sort of.
• 32:49
  Eileen Wixted: They want to cover everything. Then you've got other people saying, not my problem, we're not even.
• 32:53
  Melinda Lee: Right.
• 32:54
  Eileen Wixted: about it.
• 32:54
  Melinda Lee: Right, right.
• 32:55
  Eileen Wixted: say anything. We're just gonna fly under the radar. And really, it's about making smart decisions so you get into this happy medium that is responsible and respectful.
• 33:06
  Eileen Wixted: And we'll protect your brand and your reputation.
• 33:09
  Melinda Lee: Right, and then being aligned, because… and then agreeing on that, and doing this tabletop practice before, so that when the situation happens, your entire leadership team knows what to do, what to say, what to own, and how to communicate it.
• 33:23
  Melinda Lee: cohesively, and in alignment. That's amazing. That's really good. I love that. And so this starts… this leads me to the last question. I'm learning so much, but this last question is, so, when organizations, companies like this, continue to, think about communication, not just as a soft skill, they install systems for communication.
• 33:45
  Melinda Lee: communicating align, with alignment. Like, what is possible for these companies that do that?
• 33:53
  Eileen Wixted: Those are the high-performing companies, because if you have a high-performing leadership team, which, by the way, begins with their ability
• 34:05
  Eileen Wixted: to communicate well, and that really gets down to what I'm going to call psychological safety, right? So, in their communication, they're respectful.
• 34:14
  Eileen Wixted: They… they appreciate their good listeners, right? They've trained themselves, right? Because you can have the smartest people around the table, but if they don't communicate, they don't listen, then you've got a bunch of independent, really smart people, and you're not going to get that momentum that you can get when everybody is… is really rowing the same way. And so, when I've worked with teams, and it's been great fun.
• 34:39
  Eileen Wixted: Especially as new leadership teams come in, and we begin putting them through some training.
• 34:45
  Eileen Wixted: And very quickly, what they realize is.
• 34:47
  Eileen Wixted: this is a skill that we can learn, and what I… what I've… what I've learned before, and what I'm going to learn now may be two different things, and now I'm just going to commit to getting better. And so, that's one thing. And then the other aspect.
• 35:01
  Eileen Wixted: of, these high-performing teams is they have really great The ability to communicate.
• 35:10
  Eileen Wixted: They have respect for one another.
• 35:12
  Melinda Lee: Thank you.
• 35:13
  Eileen Wixted: And debate and disagree in a respectful way, and then they align.
• 35:19
  Eileen Wixted: all of a sudden, they can change much more rapidly. They can shift their company quickly, and if you think about today's environment, that's a challenge, because think about if you're in manufacturing. Okay, now you're having tariffs, now you're not.
• 35:34
  Eileen Wixted: Now, this product, right, you have to pivot and shift very, very quickly. If you can't communicate that, right, and lead through this time where there's… it's very fluid, and you have to be able to, you know, throttle up and throttle back, all those other sorts of things.
• 35:53
  Melinda Lee: It's my…
• 35:54
  Eileen Wixted: more difficult. And so, high-performing teams have, first and foremost, a really strong, high-performing communication culture, and they tend to be happier
• 36:06
  Eileen Wixted: They tend to be much more clear, they tend to make more money, and they tend to have higher, higher percentage of employees that are retained.
• 36:17
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 36:18
  Eileen Wixted: And their leadership teams stay together longer.
• 36:21
  Melinda Lee: Oh, God, that's so beautiful. And it's, it's, it's beauty… beautiful because it's…
• 36:26
  Melinda Lee: It's complex, but it's also simple in the way that you've talked about how to do this. It's just a matter of taking that time to have an intention around building this leadership team, knowing how to communicate in such a way that, like you said, it makes them happier, they're able to resolve issues, they're able to move forward together.
• 36:45
  Melinda Lee: And then, so also, for the long term, what could this communication culture do for a company and its legacy?
• 36:55
  Eileen Wixted: Well, it will define its legacy, right?
• 36:58
  Eileen Wixted: Because everybody is on the same page, they've got the same message, it cascades down throughout the organization, and that's how people then show up, right? Because they know what's expected of them, and that really then just defines their legacy. One thing I did want to mention is that
• 37:18
  Eileen Wixted: Getting high-performing teams to have a high-performing communication culture.
• 37:25
  Eileen Wixted: Sometimes… sometimes can… can be ugly, can be really challenging.
• 37:31
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah.
• 37:32
  Eileen Wixted: If you've got really high performers all in a room together, you're going to see people interrupt each other all the time. You're going to see different types of communication styles where some people are confrontational.
• 37:46
  Eileen Wixted: And therefore, somebody's intent and the impact may be two different things, so when I work with teams.
• 37:54
  Eileen Wixted: you know, Charlie… Charlie may be very…
• 37:57
  Eileen Wixted: maybe perceived as being very brash, and so other members of the team may feel like he's rude, and so we have to let Charlie know, and Charlie has to be, no, I care, I'm passionate, I love this work. And so, once you begin understanding the motivation of Charlie, and Charlie realizes that
• 38:16
  Eileen Wixted: the way he shows up and his intent may not match his impact, then you can calibrate. You can calibrate, but you want to create that culture where people can
• 38:26
  Eileen Wixted: can,
• 38:28
  Eileen Wixted: can debate and speak their truth, and they can… they can ask questions of one another, because at the end of the day, they want to make the very best business decision to advance their company forward, and they have.
• 38:42
  Melinda Lee: I'm just using.
• 38:42
  Eileen Wixted: And then they've got to build the communication plan that supports that. And that really begins with them first.
• 38:50
  Melinda Lee: Right, right, I agree, I completely agree, and so I love that, and, like, creating that type of environment to have that trust, so that people can work things out, and work out the issues, and… and then, therefore, that's internal, and then so when they're ready to go out to communicate, they're more aligned.
• 39:09
  Melinda Lee: In their messaging.
• 39:12
  Melinda Lee: Eileen, this is so fun, and so wonderful. Thank you so much for your time. I've learned a great deal, and so if there's a leader out there that is dealing with a crisis issue, high risk, low frequency issue, or some type of change that they're going through in their company, and they need some support from you, how can they reach you?
• 39:33
  Eileen Wixted: Well, they can reach us at,
• 39:37
  Eileen Wixted: at our website, right, which is, thinkwickstead, W-I-X-T-E-D dot com, or you can email me at ewickstead
• 39:48
  Eileen Wixted: W-I-X-T-E-D at Think Wickstead, W-I-X-T-E-D dot com. And, or if somebody's just like, hey, you said something and I was curious, I… I… I love to chat with people, because
• 40:03
  Eileen Wixted: One thing that I really… what I really love about what we've been able to do together, and Melinda, you helped foster this, is…
• 40:13
  Eileen Wixted: we grow together, right? We learn from one another. And what we've learned, and COVID really put a fine point on this, that in our industry, what we do really matters. It can make a really big difference. And so we have to continually improve
• 40:31
  Eileen Wixted: what we do, we have to continue to learn, because it's going to make a very big difference in the lives of our employees and others that we serve. So, I'm always up for a good conversation.
• 40:42
  Eileen Wixted: Happy to help, happy to talk to somebody if they're going through something that requires a communication plan, or a sensitive situation, or even a crisis, so…
• 40:54
  Eileen Wixted: wicked.com.
• 40:56
  Melinda Lee: Reach out to Eileen. We really, really appreciate you sharing your expertise, your wisdom today with us. I trust that the audience took away a lot, like I did.
• 41:07
  Eileen Wixted: I hope so, too.
• 41:08
  Melinda Lee: Thank you. Yes, and thank you, audience, for being here. I trust that you have your takeaway for today, and if you've enjoyed this, we talked about what it means to be very str… important, the strategic communication, and the importance of aligning your teams.
• 41:28
  Melinda Lee: And now, for the next episode, we're going to talk more about how to hold each other accountable. Because just because you have direction, you have alignment, sometimes it's still…
• 41:39
  Melinda Lee: things go off, and we want to bring people back by holding each other accountable. That's going to be the next episode. But until then, remember, communicate what matters most consistently, so your people move together.
• 41:53
  Melinda Lee: Thank you so much. Take care. Bye-bye.
• 41:57
  Melinda Lee: Bye, Eileen.
• 41:59
  Eileen Wixted: Hi, Melinda.