In another Culture Tip, we discussed why people gossip in the workplace. We then received a number of requests to help resolve gossip in the workplace.

Here's four ways to reduce gossip in the workplace:

1. Keep your employees in the know

• Be transparent.  Constantly communicate where the organization is headed and the opportunities, challenges and obstacles that occur on your way there.  Don’t have people wonder, guess or assume what’s going on – all of this leads to gossip.
• Be ferociously consistent in your communication and your actions.  Secrets, unwritten rules, hypocrisy and uncommunicated motives are a surefire way to have employees wonder if they know the whole truth.
• We also highly suggest open book management.   The first step consists of sharing the financials with your team in a way that enables them to understand the implications of certain decisions and choices as well as how they can personally impact the bottom line.  This culture tip outlines my favorite way to share financials.
• Lastly, make sure your team members know where they stand. Acknowledge and appreciate good work. Also acknowledge and guide when someone isn't meeting expectations. When people feel insecure, they will gossip to seek validation.

2. Whenever possible and 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 it and not to use it.

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 fun like 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 on a Friday afternoon in which folks share real life personal stories – “you wouldn’t believe what my brother and I did when we were little…”
• 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.