A CIA Director had a problem but didn’t know about it. His message wasn’t reaching the bottom of the organization.
Things tend to get twisted as messages rattle down the management chain. Children worldwide play the telephone game in which one child whispers a message to another before she whispers to another until the content is unrecognizable. But it’s not just children. This misinterpretation occurs due to how the human brain hears, processes, stores, reassembles, and then passes on information.
Another reason for garbling is message attenuation or the enfeeblement of a message as it travels down the chain. That brings us back to the CIA Director I mentioned in the first paragraph.
I attended the Director’s Wednesday morning staff meeting at 10:00am. Early that afternoon, I stepped one tier down the chain and documented the Deputy Director of Operation’s (the Spymaster’s) staff meeting.
Later that afternoon, I went down another level to record a division chief’s staff meeting. I discovered that 94 percent of the information dissipated within three levels.
At the time, the Agency was undergoing a “surge” with dramatically increasing workloads. At his 10:00am meeting, the Director spoke at length about the phenomenal job the employees were doing. He said he had seen empty pizza boxes in the hallway over the weekend, which reflected the round-the-clock effort. He highlighted specific units and directorates for remarkable achievements. I thought it was an extraordinarily energizing pep talk.
Later that afternoon, the division chief reported, “The boss says you’re doing a good job.” Just two levels down, the management chain reduced a top leader’s emotionally stirring remarks to an equivocal aside.
So not only do facts get garbled, emotional content gets drained as the message winds its way down to the workforce!
So, what to do?
1. Make it a requirement for subordinates to request feedback.
Neuroscientists recently found that giving and getting feedback is more comfortable and effective if you ask for it. Some companies require employees to ask for feedback periodically. Consider requiring your direct reports to ask you for feedback every week or two.
2. Ask for feedback on getting feedback.
Elicit ideas from your subordinates on how you can get more feedback to help you perform better. After all, it’s easier to ask them for ideas on how to get feedback — feedback mechanisms — than for them to give you feedback.
3. Always use the future tense.
When giving feedback, use the future tense. If you get feedback in the past tense, your brain senses it as blame. When feedback is in the future tense, the brain interprets it as helpful. Here’s an example:
This future-tense tip is a simple way to trick that ever-so-defensive human brain. Feedback based on past events sounds like criticism. Feedback about the future triggers the brain to think you’re giving supportive advice!
© Mike Mears 2025. Used with the author's kind permission.
