Want Workers to Share and Discuss Project Communications? Get Them Aroused.

 

How do you motivate project workers to read and discuss project communications? It goes without saying that you want them to keep the conversation going, so you make sure dry messages are replaced by … what? Motivational statements? The latest news? Statements that instill fear in their hearts? Praise for previous work? Clarity about what is to come?

Consider those sections on news sites listing stories that are "most e-mailed." Have you ever thought much about what is behind that statistic? Jonah Berger did. He is an e-mail scientist. OK, an experimental psychologist  who has completed two studies about what gets people to forward messages - that is to share, to stimulate interaction on a topic.

The results of his studies matter to you because they have applicability in your project when it comes to promoting communication (and discussion) through a complex project organization. 

Berger showed that arousal promotes information sharing. People are highly aroused when they are anxious or amused. People have low arousal when they are sad or content. Berger even checked whether people aroused by jogging in place would be more likely to share e-mails. They were.

Here are some ideas how to arouse project workers to share information and discuss it . The communications can be through e-mail, project online discussions, organizational social networking sites, whatever way communication occurs in your project.

• Send surprise announcements (the good kind) with your message.
• Add humor to your messages. People share Dilbert  cartoons because Scott Adams seems to be hiding in their workplace. You know what your workforce is feeling, so you can write something appropriately funny about the situation. Worried about your humor skills? It doesn't have to be you doing the writing in these cases, you can tap someone who has more communications experience  to help. Even Scott Adams has fans sending him work situations that frustrate them.
• Build on any workforce anxiousness in your message. If the workforce is experiencing anxiety, perhaps of upcoming organizational changes or the impact of your project, don't avoid the subject or gloss over it. Use the source of anxiety as a topic of your communications to get people to interact with each other after your communications go out. You are with them, not against them.
• Ask provocative questions in your messages to stir emotions and get a response. You don't have to be a shock jock to hit a nerve to get people to respond. Merely challenge conventions or question whether obstacles are  as really as bad as they seem.
• Use a conference call to energize through amusement or anxiousness, then send a follow-up e-mail you want discussed.

It will be impractical to require workers to jog in place prior to reading your communications, but give it a shot and let us know what happens.