It was
innocent enough, and my intentions were good. But just the same, I was guilty
of spreading mis-information and there was no way to right the wrong. But after all, it was an April Fool's prank, and here’s
how it all started.
Several
years ago while driving to my office, NPR featured a story about exploding
maple trees. Yep, that’s right- the dangers
of a little known occupational hazard facing the sap gathers of the woods of
Vermont. Seems that due to extreme cold
weather, and a quick warm spring, the pressure of sap had built up, and when
the trees were tapped- kerpow! Interviewed sap collectors reported incidents of
fatalities, maimings and even several people being decapitated when tapping the trees!
Immediately my thoughts were
spinning
Where was
OSHA when you needed them? Why wasn’t
someone doing something about this tragedy? No wonder real maple syrup is so
expensive!
I was incensed
that such an occupational hazard could go on unchecked. So I told everyone I
met about the exploding maple trees in Vermont, and I encouraged folks to
boycott maple syrup as a means to rectify the injustice.
I continued
my social conscious raising efforts until one weekend in late April when I told
a friend who happened to hail from Maine.
Doug asked where I had heard such a story. I answered “NPR, so it must
be true!” Doug told me maple tree sap
dribbles out, and could never build up enough pressure to ‘explode’. Then he
asked, when I heard this ‘news story’. I
told him ‘a few weeks back’. Doug said, “Could
that have been April 1st?”
OMG- I had fallen for an April Fool’s joke, and a great one at
that. We all had a good laugh, until I
realized I had told dozens of others about the exploding trees. Hopefully not too much harm had been done to
maple syrup sales.
Although
NPR is typically a credible source, on April 1st they try to dupe their audience, and I
fell for it. Which taught me a lesson:
rumors get started, often innocently, and can spread like wildfire.
Could this happen in your business?
You
bet. Human resource communication
experts say 70% of employees get their company related information through the
grapevine. And of that, only 20% is accurate, the balance is mis-information,
or simply made up.
Why does
this happen? Well, these same experts
note that employees share stories to build relationships. But they also share ‘information’ to impress
others and feel important. And if the
messenger is perceived as credible (like NPR), most folks (like me) don’t bother
to check the facts.
As a
business owner, and perhaps one who is considering a transition plan, you may
be subject to the exploding maple tree phenomena. After all, your employees
know you won’t stay in the business forever.
And in the absence of any formal communication, they may look for
nuggets of information to fill the void.
But just as the experts warn, most of the data will be flawed. And the more outrageous it is, the more compelling
it is to spread the flawed ‘facts’. And
next thing you know, your employees have you selling the business to a nameless
villain from East Oshkosh who intends to close the place down and move the operations
to northern Siberia.
Outlandish,
perhaps. But so are exploding maple trees.
So as you
contemplate your transition strategy, be honest with your employees. They realize you will eventually be exiting,
and better that you share the when
and how versus their imaginations creating your exit plan for you.
