What do we do with what we know? Navigating workplace rough waters to pull together. Competitive rowing crews can't look ahead & must trust the coxswain - a model for communication

In business, and in life, it’s not uncommon to come into possession of sensitive information. Whether we are managing people, processes or assets, leaders and team members are regularly confronted with the question, “What do we do, with what we know?
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This ethical and practical question comes up over and over again.  

I recently had the pleasure of watching elite rowers complete the The Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Massachusetts. These rowers, none of whom face towards the front, all rely on their trusted coxswain, the only one who can actually see where they are going.  Over headsets, the coswain's job is to guide, encourage, pace and disclose. Not all the random activity happening on shore, but anything that is looming ahead, including competitors coming up, clear water, turns, bridges and impediments. During the race, cheering on our team, I was struck by how vital healthy and truly honest communication in the workplace is, where we place the futures of ourselves and our families into the hands of business leadership daily. 

As workers we row hard, pulling together as a team only to the degree that leadership guides and informs effectively. 

We may hear from a friend that a critical path colleague at work is unhappy and interviewing elsewhere. We might read a financial statement from our accounting department, that shows a shorter runway to hit breakeven, higher losses and lower revenue than investors were told. Perhaps a film has a release date that can’t be moved, but watching dailies tell us instantly that the story isn’t ready, there’s no way of hitting the delivery date. We might know about upcoming layoffs and have been instructed to remain quiet so folks don’t quit, before a project is done.

The stress of being in possession of sensitive information can be overwhelming to any employee. Being at the executive or C-Suite level doesn’t necessarily make it easier to thread the needle of confidentiality, as it bumps up against the internal pressure of ethics and community care.

I remember in early March 2020, returning from a film shoot in Brooklyn with a high fever, and rough cough. I had been shooting pickups there for about a week, and by the time I got back to Boston, we were all sick. My family and I went to the local emergency room. We tested negative for the flu and were diagnosed with an undetermined viral infection, sent home but told not to interact with any elder family members. Lockdown hadn’t started yet, and along with everyone else, we had been hearing the rumblings of a global scale public health event. 

I will never forget the ashen look on the face of the ER physician. My adult daughter, (who works in healthcare) and I reflected on the look in his eyes - a flatness, lack of expression, empty, looking way out over us in his mind. It wasn’t fear. It seemed past that point. His words, straight to the point - no emotion. “Go home. Stay inside. It’s going to get worse.” 

There was no further conversation because he clearly wasn’t talking. Looking back, it seemed like he was staring into the future, at the legion of people about to descend on his hospital, and weighing how he would manage. 

It was a personal, intimate, totally horrifying moment, all without words. 

The three of us sat in the examination room in silence, looking at one another over our face masks. We had talked about where we had been in Brooklyn, New York, on set.  Unknown to us, these were the places they were already dispatching the refrigeration trucks to care for the deceased. 

He asked us if we had eaten in any Chinese restaurants, (many) how many people we had interacted with, (dozens). He stood up and shook my hand in silence and then he walked out without saying a word. He was clearly in some sort of state of shock, exhaustion, or trauma. He was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere bad.

In that moment we understood something terrible was about to happen, something that we could not see and could not stop. We went home, ordered food supplies and two days later Covid-19 exploded. My daughter’s senior graduating class from college was removed from campus, she moved in with me, all doors to the outside world closed, roads fell silent and we waited. The previously hidden came out fast.

I got a lot sicker, very fast, then a lot better, thank goodness.

This isn’t a story about Covid. It’s a reflection on how we respond to sensitive or traumatic information in the workplace. Asking questions about where our ethical duty lies. When do we do more harm than good by communicating to people what is going on, people who we can see are standing directly in the line of what is about to hit them?

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A long time ago, I learned some family history that had been buried for a decade. These secrets blew up my family of origin with the trauma of betrayal. I made a decision as a child not to lie and later at work, not to lie to colleagues and my employees. 

This has been very challenging, as most businesses do not operate in the full light of day. It’s common to separate information between the C-Suite and the staff on the assumption that if folks knew about the real challenges to the business, they would either quit, or be too distracted to work effectively.

In my direct experience however, the opposite is true. 

In 35 years of filmmaking, working with all levels of staff and executives, I have consistently experienced that most people are generally fully capable of handling the truth, and making good decisions if they are brought into the decision making process with respect and professional guidance. 

The fear and paranoia that infect a firm, when there’s more going on than meets the eye, is the distraction, not the disclosure of difficult news. 

When the difficult news finally comes out there is usually huge relief because now folks are empowered to make informed decisions. And there is anger, but generally the anger is at the surprise and trauma of having been kept in the dark and disempowered, not at the information itself, but at the dissembling and cover-story that people are fed to keep them working in ignorance.

I understand why executives hide information. They may feel frightened, guilty, unsure of what to do or be legally forbidden to disclose. Sometimes HR or HIPAA regulations require confidentiality, which is right. But the general tendency to assume that staff cannot handle reality is a wrong assumption. It covers up the laziness of leadership who may need to be trained in effective communication skills. It places unnecessary stress on those who have to keep information secret and those who are not informed, but know things are not as they seem. Those who don’t know what is going on, and can’t make a plan for what to do about it but can feel it.

I’m of the opinion that trusting staff and problem solving together, with as much appropriate disclosure as possible, is the right way to create and maintain a healthy workplace. Being able to share with staff, “There are challenges right now that our leadership doesn’t know how to solve, but we are working on it - we will share as much as we legally can, as early as possible”, goes a long way to relieving toxic tension and instilling loyalty and protecting engagement. 

Siloing folks and forbidding discussion of sensitive information is the business norm and a mistake. 

I’m not advocating for careless disclosure or gossip. I’m advocating for really effective training of executives on how to communicate with staff, such that all employees experience respect and empowerment, to make informed decisions for themselves and their families. 

The world is changing fast. Maybe faster than ever. Learning how to communicate effectively and ethically, with authentic respect for the value of all members of a firm, or community is, I think, one of the pillars of success. It’s not easy and requires a commitment to accepting failures along the way. It requires knowledge of the self, and personal awareness.

Building a team who communicates well and safely, a team who will ride out the bumps on the road to success together without the poison of paranoia seems worth it. 

Not all information is meant to be shared. But where there is trust, discretion becomes respected. 

Private is not the same as secret. 

I think people can handle the truth, and if they can’t, maybe it’s better to know that also. 

Sooner rather than later.​