I resisted the Netflix bandwagon for a long time, despite being the only person not in on the conversations about hit series like the Crown, Emily in Paris, and Bridgeton. I finally gave in to feelings of Fear of Missing Out and indulged in a subscription. And I got hooked on all of the shows. The premise of Bridgerton is particularly intriguing. Aristocratic Britain in the 1800s is enthralled by gossip about matchmaking amongst their esteemed families. An initially anonymous individual, writing under the pseudonym Lady Whistledown, feeds titillating stories and inuendo to willing readers. The writer makes a sizable fortune feeding the upper-class love of gossip, but eventually learns the hard lesson to use their writing for good, rather than destruction, revenge or harm. Would that this lesson could be learned by everyone.
Bridgerton has modern day relevance in many ways. Every society, organization or group has informal communication channels for the spread of information, gossip if you will, by those with informal power and influence. Informal communication channels can play a positive role in a group when used with integrity. They can serve as a glue to connect people with each other through shared stories and a shared understanding of what is happening amongst them.
When used negatively, however, as Lady Whistledown discovered, informal communication channels can have devastating effects on a group of people, large or small. What does this have to do with change in education organizations? The deliberate spreading of incorrect information about change through a Gossip Machine is a tried-and-true strategy for obstructing and derailing change by those who feel threatened or have another personal agenda. Instead of using their talents and experience to help the organization move forward with change, change obstructionists apply their time and energy to deliberately feeding their Gossip Machine with negative misinformation about the change and those leading it. As in the fictional Bridgerton, the misinformation spreads so quickly that it is almost impossible to keep up with getting correct information about the change out there.
Those who are threatened by change feed one particular type of misinformation into their Gossip Machine—misinformation that generates fear. They are strategic fear mongers. The more afraid every employee becomes of the change, the greater the likelihood the change will be obstructed or derailed. And people become afraid not based on facts being presented to them but on the emotional impact of the misinformation.
If you hear a story from a Gossip Machine in your education organization as it is undergoing change, take the time to fact check what you hear. Just as you teach your learners to evaluate information and sources in whatever subject they are studying, evaluate the information you are being given. Ask yourself these questions:
- Who is the information from?
- How likely is it that this person actually knows the truth of the situation?
- How can you check the veracity of the information being circulated?
- What is their agenda in spreading the information via their Gossip Machine?
The last question above is the most important one. Everyone who uses a Gossip Machine to spread misinformation has an agenda. Find out what that agenda is and decide if you want to participate in it.
If you are tasked with leading change in your education organization, factor the potential for Gossip Machines into your change plan. Build a communications plan deliberately aimed at counteracting misinformation that could be spread through a Gossip Machine. Identify those in your organization most likely to create and feed a Gossip Machine. And identify what employees are most likely to be afraid of with respect to the change and design messaging to specifically address those fears.
Don’t let a Gossip Machine in your education organization, and those driving it, win out over change that your organization desperately needs in order to remain competitive, innovative and viable.