Did you ever play that game 'telephone' as a child? It's the one where players sit in a circle or stand in a straight line, and whisper a word or phrase into the ear of the person sitting or standing to their right. The last player says the word or phrase out loud so everyone can hear how much it has changed from the first whisper at the beginning of the circle or line. Sometimes the outcome was ridiculously wrong!

Yeah... that was a fun game. It isn't so fun however when this happens at work. But it often does. And when it happens, it costs time and money; it impacts employee morale.

You can picture it, right? The leadership team has a crucial conversation about a new strategy. There's a 'call to action' to cascade that info throughout the organization, but somehow the message that got to the front-line employees was horribly inaccurate. So, when you attempt to engage others to help with execution or support the change ... things fall short of expectations. POPin can help!

Use the below detail to guide your POPin session Titles and Questions.

Start by identifying the key concept/strategy you plan to evaluate or manage with this POPin recipe. Maybe it's something the team has already discussed at a leadership meeting; a topic that was supposed to be cascaded. Or maybe there's an upcoming event where a new strategy will be born.

As a leader, you'll need to be able to share [insert topic—e.g. 'our new go-to-market strategy'] with your respective team. To ensure you are positioned to succeed with this task, please tell me: What is currently unclear?

No sessions launched. Take time to help your direct reports gain the clarity they need based on session 1. Some items presented might go on a 'parking lot' for week five sessions. Based on this work, have your direct reports cascade 'the initial message' to their respective teams.

Now that you've heard about our [insert topic—e.g. 'our new go-to-market strategy'], what is unclear or what would you like to hear more about?

No sessions launched. Take time to help the organization gain the clarity they need based on session 2. Some items presented might go on a 'parking lot' for week 5 sessions.

Now that you've heard more about our [insert topic—e.g. 'our new go-to-market strategy']: What's one thing we must do to enable success as we move into execution?

Now that you've heard more about our [insert topic—e.g. 'our new go-to-market strategy']: Imagine it is next year and our plan failed. Tell me why!

No sessions launched. Assess responses from week five. Use the input gathered for your execution plan and determine questions for week seven.

The questions in week seven move away from crowdsourcing ... and towards crowdsolving!

Do a “Share the How” session on an item identified in session 3 of this recipe. (e.g., "Most of you said that, to be successful with our new go-to-market strategy, we must do better with our digital marketing (than in previous attempts). Based on your experience, what's the most important tactic for accomplishing this?")

Do a “Share the How” session on a risk identified in session 4 of this recipe. (e.g., "Most of you said you could imagine failing with our go-to-market strategy due to time constraints, because this would prohibit successful delivery. Tell me: How should we address this challenge?")

Cascading important information as a leader isn't just about presenting core facts. It's also about providing crystal, clear clarity when people have confusion; it's about building buy-in so employees support the work that needs to get done. POPin can help you do just that. And while this recipe stops at six sessions, we'd suggest you use POPin to 'pulse check' your team consistently.

Use the live Help chat to contact our Client Success Team if you'd like help executing this Success Recipe.