Rumours

No, not a Fleetwood Mac reference. This post from Trevor has got me thinking. Whilst the report is OK, it assumes that 1. rumours are bad and 2. the key reponse of management to rumours is to squash them.

Whilst there is some very sound advice here (e.g. if you tell the truth regularly then people might trust you more) there is a missed opportunity. Does the nature of the rumours circulating through your organisation tell you anything about values, culture, employee attitudes, etc? Should not be trying to systematically understand what drives rumour patterns in you organisation without being invasive about it?