We, The Jury

Years ago, while impaneled as a jury member on a medical malpractice case against a practicing obstetrician, I learned an important lesson about people, a lesson applicable to employee relations and communications.

This very complicated medical malpractice case involved a lot of unfamiliar medical jargon from expert witnesses, as well as the physician defendant. I toiled to comprehend and link the various aspects of the case, to sift out the deeper significance of the testimony and separate the truth from the exaggerated. But I was troubled by something else.

Frankly, because I was struggling to make sense of it, I was concerned about the ability of my fellow jurors to comprehend the complex details of the case and pass judgment appropriately. As we retired to the jury’s chamber, it was clear to me that the doctor was innocent and I fully intended to vote that way. But I wondered about the other members of the jury.

In my cynical, college-educated view, I cast a skeptical eye at my fellow jurors. Ironically, while sitting with a panel of my peers in judgment of a doctor, I was instead passing judgment on those very peers.

All but two jurors (myself and a young woman) were blue-collar workers. I assumed they had not been able to follow the details of the case and would likely cast a vote based on the emotions of the case – i.e., that they would find in favor of the plaintiffs because they would identify more with the poor working class woman and her husband (who was newly unemployed) than the (presumably) wealthy doctor, awarding them (and their lawyer) several million insurance company dollars.

Boy, was I ever wrong. It was a quick decision. On our first vote, we, the jury, unanimously found the doctor defendant not guilty.

One jury member suggested it would be inappropriate for us to return to the courtroom immediately, that it would give the appearance that we had been frivolous in our deliberations. So we snacked on donuts and drank coffee while we talked animatedly about the case.

In the subsequent discussion, the proverbial scales fell from my eyes. Not only had these “rubes” followed the details of the case but some of them picked up angles that I, the sophisticate, had missed.

I chastised myself and felt ashamed for being such a judgmental elitist, for assuming that my professional career choice, coat and tie, and college education endowed me with greater common sense, insight, intelligence, and reasoning ability than these others. And, so I learned an important lesson that has stayed with me ever since, giving me valuable insights into front-line employees.

That was a long time ago. But what I know today is that if there is a central guiding tenet of employee communications, then it is the basic dignity and respect that people in a working environment deserve from their employer, recognition for their innate intelligence and common sense.

Providing employees with relevant and helpful information in a timely manner demonstrates that respect for them as individual contributors. It says that everyone here has a role to play; it says how and what one person contributes to the greater good is just as critical as anyone else in the organization.

In many business circumstances, however, people are not treated that way. Some managers are attuned more to their own rank, experience and educational background in relation to those they regard as their subordinates, and ignore the basic intelligence others have and their desire and ability to contribute. And so they talk down to them, treat them as inferior, and communicate with them accordingly.

Regardless of your rank in the organization – CEO, vice president, or supervisor – you should always operate as though the average employee is eager and fully capable of making important contributions to the organization. He/she is intelligent and possesses common sense built over years of experience both on and off the job. Let them prove otherwise. But until then, you’d be mistaken to assume the opposite.

Communicate to employees as your peers, not as your inferiors. Give them more information than you think they need. Recognize that people aspire to grow within organizations and learn, and that information gives them more insights into the business so they can do that on their own terms.

Don’t make the same mistake I made and misjudge your employees. Don't assume you know what information they want or need, or what they’ll do with what you give them. Don’t assume they won’t understand it or can’t master its complexity. They will see it through their own lens – different than yours – process it, and draw conclusions that may not coincide with your own.

And maybe, just maybe, you might gain a new insight into how better to run the business because you trusted the unique worldview of someone you assumed was your lesser.