Transparency and great communication is one of the pillars of a great company culture. But it’s not as simple as sharing everything with everyone — the fact is, there is such a thing as too much information. It can distract and confuse priorities.

So how do you choose what to share, and how should you be sharing it?

Cascading messages is a way to clarify information and messaging at the leadership level of a company, and move it out toward the people who need to know in the most effective way.

Read on for the who, what, when, where, and why of cascading messaging in an organization.

Where cascading messages begin

Company messaging should begin at the top leadership level. There are a variety of messages for which leadership is responsible, including:

• Company policy info/changes: think company holidays, working hours, processes for business expenses, etc.
• Time-sensitive communications: upcoming events, urgent changes to products or services, etc.

• Staffing changes: upcoming employee leave and coverage, reorganization, etc.
• Good news: cascading messages are also a chance to improve morale!

Not everything in every category is appropriate to share out to everyone on every team. For example, imagine you’re running a service business with a hierarchical organization, and your IT department and your frontline service technicians never have any work overlap or collaboration. You probably don’t need to share the news about a service technician’s maternity leave with your IT department, but there are people who will need to know.

So how do you decide what to share, and who to share it with?

Ask the following questions:

• Who does the information affect?
• How will the information impact them?
• What is the bottom line to the organization?

From there, you’ll see a common sense solution to how your message should cascade. In the case of the service technician’s maternity leave:

• Who does the information affect? The service team, and any departments that have close relationships with them, like the sales team.
• How will the information impact them? In the case that you don’t yet have coverage for your technician’s leave, they will need to know — maybe your sales team has fewer slots to book customers until you find coverage, or someone on your leadership team can refer a contractor. If you do have coverage, your service team will need to learn about their new colleague and how they will be expected to support them.
• What is the bottom line to the organization? There will be a change in technician scheduling and personnel, projected to last for about 16 weeks, the length of the technician’s maternity leave.

How to cascade messages through your organization

Now that you know what your cascading message is, who needs to know, and why it’s important to communicate it, you can decide how to send a cascading message through your business.

It’s common for people to want to turn to the ease of asynchronous communication for cascading messages — think the @all in your company chat channel, or the email to the whole company list.

However common it is to communicate this way, we believe it’s a mistake. If there’s something worth sharing, it’s worth ensuring that the message gets across clearly, and doesn’t slip through someone’s overcrowded inbox. There are a few good ways to cascade messages.

Cascading messages in a team meeting

Our team uses a business operating system, which includes consistent weekly meetings for all team members, starting with the leadership team. We run an agenda that includes “Headlines” as one of the agenda items. “Headlines” are pieces of information where the relevant decisions have already been made, and the only question is who else to share the information with. If someone brings information to a meeting and it requires more discussion, we transfer it into the part of the meeting agenda where we discuss our issues.

When we go over the Headlines during the meeting, we make sure everyone understands the message, and decide whether we should send the headlines to any other teams. When a Headline is sent to another team, that means they go over and clarify it during their meeting. 

We like cascading messages from leadership meetings to the relevant teams because when people have live discussion and acknowledgement of a message, in addition to the documentation of the cascading message being a part of the meeting agenda, it is much harder for anything to slip through the cracks.

Cascading messages in a 1:1 meeting

If the Headline only pertains to a couple people, and it doesn’t benefit the team as a whole to communicate it, then it’s a good idea to include it in the 1:1 meeting a manager should be having with their direct report weekly. You can also cascade messages that have already been communicated in a person’s team meeting into their 1:1 meeting as a discussion topic if they have a unique relationship to the information. 

For example, if you have a new hire and have included that as a team Headline, you may also add it as a discussion topic for 1:1 meetings with the person or people who will be helping to train their new colleague.

Cascading messages in an all-hands meeting

If you have a Headline from the leadership team that will impact your entire company, and there will be negative consequences to people finding out at different times, consider holding an all-hands meeting to go over the information.

Common sense will guide you as to whether an all-hands meeting is necessary. If you’re changing your holiday policy to add an additional Friday off prior to a Monday policy, it won’t harm people to learn about it at different times. But if you have some seriously impactful news, like your company is being acquired by a competitor, it’s a good idea to communicate the information as clearly and as close to simultaneously as you can manage. This will help reduce rumors and anxiety that can arise when there are whispers instead of clear communication around big news.

It’s easy and intuitive to cascade messages in Strety

If you don’t have a business operating system and consistency in your meetings and communications, Strety makes it easy for you to get started!

Use intuitive, customizable meeting agendas and agenda templates that automatically update and allow your team to collaborate before you meet. 

Cascading messages in Strety.

When you get to the Headlines section of your agenda, you can easily send Headlines to any and all teams. That Headline will automatically appear in their next meeting agenda, ensuring the right people get the right information.

If you want to test drive better organization and communication, click here for a free trial of Strety. If you want to learn more and get a VIP tour of the product before you dive in, book time with a Strety team member here.

Happy cascading!