United States design and environmental firms are too tight-lipped when sharing information with their staff, according to Mark Goodale, a principal in the Massachusetts- based management consulting firm of Zweig- White.
BY PATRICIA WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
United States design and environmental firms are too tight-lipped when sharing information with their staff, according to Mark Goodale, a principal in the Massachusetts- based management consulting firm of Zweig- White.
Only about one-fifth of company leaders share financial performance information firm-wide, says Goodale, the firm’s strategic business planning division leader.
“This inability or unwillingness of firm leaders to share company performance information with all employees indicates a lack of trust that often leads to other company-wide morale problems.”
In a statement, Goodale said employees want to feel “like they are part of something bigger than a collection of individuals, yet company leaders often keep their staff on a need-to-know basis.
“These leaders believe that by controlling information, they control communication throughout their company, but the exact opposite is true. When information about firm performance is not shared, the grapevine takes over.”
“If the company is doing well, the staff often thinks the company is doing much better than it actually is. And if the company falters, the staff often thinks the firm is in dire straits. There’s no context.”
Goodale said open-book management breaks down barriers to communication, short-circuiting the grapevine and helping staff understand how their contributions can affect firm-wide performance.
He has some tips for firms interested in opening up the books:
• Determine which information to share. Firm-wide indicators such as sales, net service revenue, profits or profitability, net multiplier, utilization multiplier, revenue factor, backlog and average collection period should be communicated to the staff. Do not share salary information.
• Distribute the financial performance information. Once a month, send a summary report of this information and a brief statement from the firm leader, regarding what these indicators mean and how they impact the company.
• Address the entire staff on at least a quarterly basis. Follow-up the distribution of the financial performance information with a one-hour, firm-wide meeting to discuss the information and allow participants to ask and answer questions.
ZweigWhite provides management consulting services to design, environmental consulting and construction firms. It is based in the Boston-area community of Natick, with additional offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
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