WMBA 6695 Week 7 Talking Points for a Leader Example

Talking Points for Ridgeline's President at the August 2 Drivers' Meeting on the Route Redesign: Three Messages in Priority Order, the Facts Behind Each and Bridge Lines Written Out for the Questions Drivers Will Ask

Student Name

Walden University

WMBA 6695: Communication for Leaders and Managers

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Talking Points for Ridgeline's President at the August 2 Drivers' Meeting on the Route Redesign: Three Messages in Priority Order, the Facts Behind Each and Bridge Lines Written Out for the Questions Drivers Will Ask

Speaker, Audience and Setting

Speaker: Ridgeline's president (the company is the composite Columbus uniform renter used all term). Audience: thirty-one route drivers and four route supervisors, standing in the loading bay at 5:45 a.m. before trucks leave. Time available: ten minutes, and the meeting may be cut short if a truck is late to load. The points below are printed on one card.

Message 1: Nobody's Pay Goes Down, and You Will See Your Route Before It Changes

Say: "Before anything else: nobody's pay goes down because of this. And nobody's route changes until you've seen it and talked it through with your supervisor."

Support, in the president's own knowledge: pay stays whole through September; each driver reviews the draft of his or her own route in late August; no one loses more than four current stops.

Bridge, if asked about pay first: "Your pay stays where it is. What changes is how long your day runs, and for some of you that's the point."

Message 2: Seven Routes Run Past Ten Hours, and That Is Not Fair to Those Drivers

Say: "Some of you are out eleven hours. Some of you are back by one-thirty. That's not because anyone works harder or slower. It's because we added customers to whoever was closest for ten years and never fixed it."

Support: seven routes average more than ten hours; Route 22 averages almost eleven and a half hours; six routes average under eight; most of last year's overtime came from the long routes.

Bridge, if asked "Are you cutting overtime to save money?": "Overtime costs us money, sure. But the drivers on the long routes are the ones asking me for this. I'd rather you were home."

Message 3: Your Supervisor Rides With You in August, Because You Know the Route Better Than Any Program

Say: "In August your supervisor is going to ride with you for one day. Show them everything: the dock that's only open before seven, the customer who wants you at the back door. That goes into the new routes."

Support: one ride-along per driver in August; the software comes after the routes are redrawn, not before.

Bridge, if asked about 2019: "You're right, the program we tried in 2019 didn't work. It didn't know what you know. This time you tell us first, and the program works from that."

Likely Questions and Lines Ready for Them

"Will I lose my customers?" Line: "Most of you keep most of your stops. Nobody loses more than four, and if a customer matters to you, tell your supervisor on the ride-along."

"What if I don't like my new route?" Line: "Tell us before it starts. You'll see it in late August, and there's time to fix it."

"Is somebody getting laid off?" Line: "No. Same thirty-one routes, same thirty-one drivers."

Why the Points Are Built This Way (for the course, not for the card)

The order follows what drivers will worry about first. Bordia et al. (2004) distinguished uncertainty about the organization's direction from uncertainty about how a change affects one's own job, and found that uncertainty during change was associated with poorer outcomes for employees. Pay and route ownership are the job-level questions, so they come first, where they will be heard even if the meeting is cut to three minutes.

Each line was read aloud and shortened until it fit one breath. The written version of message 2 originally said "route imbalance accumulated through incremental customer additions"; spoken, that became "we added customers to whoever was closest." Supporting facts are limited to ones the president knows without notes, such as Route 22's eleven-hour days, which its driver has raised with him twice this year. A figure he would have to read off the card, such as the overtime cost in dollars, was left out; drivers would hear it as the real reason for the change.

The bridge lines are full sentences because a speaker under pressure cannot invent wording on the spot, and an instruction such as "redirect to fairness" gives him nothing to say. The 2019 bridge concedes the failure first. Schweiger and DeNisi (1991) found in a field experiment that employees who received realistic, ongoing communication after a merger announcement showed fewer harmful effects than employees at a plant that received limited information. Admitting a known failure is part of being realistic with people who remember it.

Finally, the setting decided the channel. Daft and Lengel (1986) argued that face-to-face communication carries more cues and allows immediate feedback, which suits news people may take in different ways. A route change is exactly that kind of message, so it is delivered in person by the president, with the written details following from each supervisor.

References

Bordia, P., Hobman, E., Jones, E., Gallois, C., & Callan, V. J. (2004). Uncertainty during organizational change: Types, consequences, and management strategies. Journal of Business and Psychology, 18(4), 507-532. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOBU.0000028449.99127.f7

Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science, 32(5), 554-571. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.32.5.554

Schweiger, D. M., & DeNisi, A. S. (1991). Communication with employees following a merger: A longitudinal field experiment. Academy of Management Journal, 34(1), 110-135. https://doi.org/10.2307/256304