Communicating at Best Trust Bank: An example case study

Best Trust has grown to one of the world’s top 25 banks by building on its broad name recognition and reputation for integrity. Its 73,000-employee workforce spans 47 countries.

One of those employees is Paul Wysinsky, who in the 1980s took an entry-level job as a bank teller. Paul developed a record of accomplishment in satisfying customers, working efficiently, and cooperating well with others on his team. He took business courses during the evening, earned a master’s degree, and worked his way up through middle management positions. Twenty years later, he was offered a vice president’s job in the human resources division, responsible for recruiting and retaining Best Trust’s employees in Houston, Texas. Paul tackled the new responsibilities so well that he was soon promoted to HR.

The nature of Paul’s work communications changed considerably as he rose through the ranks. When Paul was a teller, his favorite responsibility was greeting customers and listening to their needs and concerns. When customers were upset about a problem, he would initially get nervous, but with experience, he became an expert at listening attentively, helping the customer find the best possible solution, and speaking in a respectful tone that always soothed any frayed nerves.

Now that Paul is an executive vice president, he rarely talks with Best Trust’s customers, and more of his communications are structured and formal. Although he cares about attracting, motivating, and retaining employees in all positions, he knows he cannot have a dialogue with 73,000 people in dozens of countries. He cannot even have personal conversations with all the HR employees — Best Trust has more than 800 of them, including several at each facility.

Consequently, Paul looks for a variety of ways to communicate. He meets weekly with all the department and functional heads involved in formulating strategy. The meeting’s agenda includes reviewing HR issues such as leadership development, succession planning, diversity management, and employee satisfaction. Paul is well prepared because he meets at least weekly with each of the managers who report directly to him. In these one-on-one meetings, Paul and the manager review progress on the issues handled by that manager. Paul also uses these meetings to learn what challenges the manager is facing so he can offer coaching and encouragement.

Talking on one to employees can feel like an escape from one of the chief annoyances of his job: poorly written messages from many of the bank’s middle managers. Best Trust has excelled at finding people with strong analytic and customer service skills, but many of these people stumble at presenting an idea or summarizing their progress in emails and reports. Paul feels intense time pressure, and if he gets a suggestion but cannot figure out the main idea in the first couple of sentences, he simply passes it to one of his managers for a follow-up. Paul suspects that innovative ideas and real problems are being missed. Rambling reports and long-winded presentations loaded with jargon seem to have become a norm at Best Trust, and Paul is thinking about adding a new training program to improve writing and communication skills.

To report news about the bank’s policies, benefits, and other initiatives, Paul uses a variety of media. He gives presentations at events like employee recognition gatherings and branches around the world. Four times a year, he records a video that is posted on the bank’s intranet. Also on the intranet, Paul leads regular town hall meetings, a live video feed that allows employees to post questions and ideas, which Paul and other executives answer in real-time.

Paul also has a complete set of policy concerns related to employee Internet use, such as whether to allow employees to access social media and how closely to monitor blogs and other public information for company-related posts. When Paul thinks about it, he realizes that his communication skills have barely grown as fast as the communication demands of his work.

How has the media richness of Paul’s communications changed since the days when he was a teller? Why do you think he misses communicating on one with customers?

Media Richness Some communication channels convey more information than others. The amount of information a medium conveys is called media richness. The more information or cues a medium sends to the receiver, the richer the medium is.

In the early days when Paul was a teller, he would communicate face-to-face with the bank’s customers, which was the richest media. The richest media are more personal than technological, provide quick feedback, allow lots of descriptive language, and send several types of cues.

Over the years as Paul rose through the ranks and became an executive vice-president, he rarely talks with Best Trust’s customers, and more of his communications are structured and formal. Some of the media information is received through written messages from mid-level managers through emails and reports (fewer rich media).

To report news about the bank’s policies, benefits, and other initiatives, Paul uses a variety of media. He gives presentations at events like employee recognition gatherings and branches around the world. Four times a year, he records a video that is posted on the bank’s intranet. Also on the intranet, Paul leads regular town hall meetings, a live video feed that allows employees to post questions and ideas, which Paul and other executives answer in real-time.

Paul misses communicating one-on-one with customers because it offers a variety of cues in addition to words: tone of voice, facial expression, body language, and other nonverbal signals. It also allows more descriptive language than, say, an email does. In addition, it affords more opportunity for the receiver to give feedback to and ask questions of the sender, turning one-way into two-way communication. This helped Paul develop a record of accomplishment of satisfying customers and working efficiently.

What sender and receiver skills are described in this case? Which ones need improvement? Offer suggestions for improving the weak skills.

Sender skills described here writing, language, and communication or presentation. The receiver skills described here are listening and reflection.

As described above, sender skills need improvement. Poorly written messages from many of the bank’s middle managers pose a problem for Paul. Many of these people stumble at presenting an idea or summarizing their progress in emails and reports. Paul suspects if he gets a suggestion and he cannot figure out the main idea in the first couple of sentences, real problems are being overlooked. This can be attributed to the sender’s poor written and communication skills.

Rambling reports and long-winded presentations loaded with jargon seem to have become a norm at Best Trust, and Paul is thinking about adding a new training program to improve writing and communication skills.

Steps for improving weak sender skills:

Presentation and persuasion skills

• The most powerful and persuasive messages are simple and informative, are told with stories and anecdotes, and convey excitement.63 People are more likely to remember and buy into your message if you express it as a story that is simple, surprising, concrete, and credible and that includes emotional content.

Writing skills

• You want people to find your writing readable and interesting.
• Strive for clarity, organization, readability, and brevity. Brevity is much appreciated by readers who are overloaded with things to read.
• Help email recipients manage the flood of information by providing specific subject lines, putting your main point at the beginning of the message, limiting paragraphs to five lines or less, and avoiding sarcasm or caustic humor (which can be misinterpreted, especially when readers are scanning messages in a hurry).

Language

• Simplicity usually helps.
• Whether speaking or writing, you should consider the receiver’s background — cultural as well as technical — and adjust your language accordingly. When you are receiving, do not assume that your understanding is the same as the speaker’s intentions.

How might Paul improve upward communication and the communication culture more generally at Best Trust?

Upward communication is information that flows from lower to higher levels in the organization’s hierarchy.

Good upward communication is important for several reasons.

• First, managers learn what is going on. Management gains a more accurate picture of subordinates’ work, accomplishments, problems, plans, attitudes, and ideas.
• Second, employees gain from the opportunity to communicate upward. People can relieve some of their frustrations and gain a stronger sense of participation in the enterprise.
• Third, effective upward communication facilitates downward communication as good listening becomes a two-way street.

Improving upward communication at Best Trust

• Paul and other executives could have an open-door policy and encourage people to use it. An announced open-door policy must truly be open-door. Ideally, people trust their bosses and know that they will not hold a grudge against whoever delivers negative information.
• Have lunch or coffee with employees, and use surveys.
• Institute a suggestion program or hold town hall meetings. They can ask for advice, make informal plant visits, really think about, and respond to employee suggestions, and distribute summaries of innovative ideas and practices inspired by employee ideas and actions.
• Paul can also practice MBWA (management by wandering around). That term refers simply to getting out of the office, walking around, and talking frequently and informally with employees.
• For employees, a useful consideration for improving communication is exercising voice — speaking up with good intentions about work-related issues, rather than remaining silent. Managers should truly listen and learn, not punish the messenger for being honest, and act on valid ideas.