A Breach of Trust?

As per our Blog Policy - the comments and opinions in this article are those of the author and do not represent the organization.

When I was asked to pinch-hit in the Communications Department there were a couple of internal communication practices/policies that I was determined to improve; the most significant was based on comments from staff focus groups and surveys that indicated your frustration with the lack of communication following safety and facility service incidents within our hospital walls.

I swore that would not happen while Communications served you under my watch!

We had the incident where magnetic door locks failed. I communicated (on behalf of Sr. Leadership) our concern and response within 24 hours to all ROMHC staff.

More recently we had a security breach in the change rooms of the ROMHC Gymnasium. Again, we communicated within two days after getting the details and action plan developed.

Let me add that we also present Staff Forum audio in place of written summaries. You may remember that Communications was criticised for softening, often neglecting the comments in their post-forum documents. Now you hear them as they happened.

I have received very kind feedback on this change of communications culture. But on February 24th I saw my internal email comments in the Ottawa Citizen in an article entitled "A Royal Mess". Our internal communication efforts were used by anti-P3 lobbyists as ammunition to serve their cause toward embarrassing the organization.

Maybe it's just me - but I felt betrayed! Can someone tell me how I can continue being responsive to staff's request for open and responsive communication when we can't trust that our expressions of regret and concern won't end up in the public media?

It's a cultural practice I want to maintain. But if you support the position that anything published internally is public domain and can be re-purposed in the public media, there's no way Leadership can risk being open, sincere, and honest through written communication.

If you are like me and upset that our internal communications appear in public newspapers then I urge you to say so to your labour representatives. Trust involves two sides.

I agreed with staff about the lack of communication through the years. It makes me sad if we can't change that because we can't trust that someone will use it for alternative political exploitation.