The Telephone Game

In today’s world I see so many management companies sending their Regional Managers to Fair Housing or LIHTC trainings without also sending their property managers or site managers on an annual basis. The expectation is that the Regionals will take the information that they heard only once and go back and explain it the exact same way the professional trainer did during their training. This idea is flawed in so many ways, as can be seen even though this short conversation between a management company CFO and CEO:  

CFO: “What happens if we train our employees and then they leave us?”

CEO: “What happens if we don’t train them and they stay?”

Let me put this concept into even greater perspective through a more lengthy real-world illustration.

Let’s say we are in a training discussing Fair Housing’s reasonable accommodations regarding service animal and companion animal issues. Let’s go one step further and say the trainer goes into great detail on the best way to prevent a lawsuit- ask the same questions to everyone, document your process, handle all cases the exact same way. The Regional from your business attending the training has been through Fair Housing training every year for the last 12 years. As he sits through the trainer’s introduction, he feels he is hearing “the same story” from the typical free legal aid attorney that was brought in to train because of budget constraints and the idea that “some training is better than no training at all”.

The trainer begins to work his way through his presentation, while the now disinterested Regional Manager is checking emails on his phone or is answering texts from his maintenance person, one of the several employees who weren’t sent to the training. This disengagement continues through the rest of the day’s training, after which the Regional Manager will return to work with the prime responsibility of conveying the information he received from the trainer to the manager, who will then pass on his interpretation of the information to the maintenance person. At this point you have to ask yourself- what exactly is the maintenance person hearing and does it even resemble any of the information given at the actual training?

This is a prime example of a human tendency illustrated by a group activity called “The Telephone Game”. This concept is best explained in an article by Chad Thiele titled “Lessons Learned from the Telephone Game”:

“In the game, a message is given to the first person in a line of people and then they are instructed to pass the message on by whispering it in the ear of the next person in line. The message goes from person to person until it reaches the end of the line, and that person announces the message to the group. In most cases, the message that is announced to the group is significantly different from the message that was originally given to the first person in the line.

While the game is amusing, it also teaches us an important lesson that people often forget.  The lesson, as you probably have already figured out, is that information that you receive via word of mouth is not always accurate. In fact, if you don’t receive information directly from the source, there is a good chance that at least part of the message is incorrect.

The Telephone Game illustrates how quickly a message can be altered even when passed from person to person in a relatively short line. The problem is as people relay a message from one person to another, the message often gets distorted, sometimes so much so that the intent of the original message is completely lost. What is left is an inaccurate statement that could actually do harm to the reputation of the person or business that is being talked about.”

Thinking back to accessibility, it is an established fact and also a logical conclusion that providing ALL of your employees Fair Housing training on an annual basis is just good business. The money you spend on a per person cost will total out to a lot less than your first (of many) phone calls to your attorney trying to defend your employee who was poorly trained. It is also important to mention here that, during the discovery process, any good attorney worth their salt will ask your employee if he receives Fair Housing training and how often and by whom. Your attorney appreciates the reality that not all training is created equal. The extent to which training can influence learning, behavior change, performance, and profitability depends largely on how it has been designed and delivered. The last thing your attorney wants to hear is that you chose the cheap option for training and only sent management-level employees to sit through the actual trainer-led sessions.

Don’t entrust the success of your business to your personnel’s abilities to play “The Telephone Game”. Equally equip ALL your people with the tools they need to ensure Fair Housing compliance. 

This article by Mark English appeared in the November/December 2019 Edition of CARH News.