In another Culture Tip, we shared four reasons why people gossip in the workplace.

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Now here's four ways to reduce gossip in the workplace:

1. Keep your employees in the know

• Share the journey.  Consistently communicate where the organization is headed and the opportunities and challenges along the way. Don’t have people wonder, guess or assume what’s going on – all of this leads to gossip.
• Be transparent.  Secrets, unwritten rules and uncommunicated motives are a surefire way to have team members wonder if they know the whole truth.
• Consider open book management.   The first step in open book management consists of sharing the financials with your team in a way that empowers them to understand the financial implications of certain decisions as well as how they can individually support the financial health of the organization.  This culture tip outlines my favorite way to share financials.
• Lastly, make sure your team members know where they stand. Be clear on a regularly basis if they are or are not meeting expectations. When people feel insecure about their performance or place on the team, they will gossip to seek validation.

2. Whenever appropriate, include team members in decision making.

• Seek team member input and feedback before and during any significant organizational change.
• Take team members suggestions and concerns seriously and make sure to complete the information loop as far as communicating chosen actions/considerations taken as a result of their input.
• Collaboration is an incredible tool for having team members feel like they belong – however there are times to use collaboration and not to use collaboration.

3. Provide real opportunities for people to connect, share, and learn about one another.

• One of the easiest and most natural ways to go about this is to provide opportunities for cross-functional teams of people to work together on projects.
• However if project work isn’t realistic in your organization, consider something like a May Madness foosball tournament in which those who don’t often get to work together are teamed up.
• Another opportunity is to create a monthly story jam in which team members share real life personal stories.
• Lastly, you can also create one on one opportunities for people to have lunch together or participate in Speed Connecting to get past surface conversations

4. Promptly address team members who are not performing.

• Uncover the root behind why the person is not performing.  Is it a question of character or competency? Or is there a personal issue at hand that has the person underperforming?
• Check out our Close the Gap Framework to support you in supporting this person is getting from where they are now to where you need them to be.
• If you're looking to support your leadership or management team in addressing team members who are not performing, check out our Empowering Accountability workshop.

Here's to reducing gossip in your organization!