Making open door policies work

Open-door policies implies that leaders encourage practitioners to come into their office at any time to discuss any issues or concerns. This can be effective, as the leader will be seen as accessible and an open flow of communication will be encouraged.

You will also be more aware of day-to-day problems and able to resolve minor issues before they escalate. Nonetheless, an open-door policy must be well defined, otherwise you may spend a lot of your time listening to concerns without people reaching solutions autonomously.

Without boundaries and guidelines, you may also unwittingly develop a culture of dependency, where practitioners are reluctant to solve problems themselves. Alternatively, they may be reluctant to bother you with their problems, especially if they think you are busy.

The steps provided below should help you reap the benefits of open communication while minimising the disadvantages:

• Set boundaries by managing expectations of your availability: For example, an open door means people are free to drop in, a closed door means you are unavailable. Before they come to you with a problem, you could ask people to work through some preliminary issues. For example:

(a) How would they express the problem in a few sentences?

(b) Does it affect only them, or others too?

(c) Can they think of two or three options that might solve the problem?

• Listen carefully: Let people speak without being interrupted by phones, email or others dropping in. Use mindful listening techniques (see KFP2 Sense of Appreciation). To make sure you have fully understood the problem, summarise what you think the worker has said. Drive the conversation from a problem focus to a solution that is generated by the employee themselves (see c above); if necessary, schedule a follow-up meeting rather than a vague request to ‘stop by at any time’.

• Be aware of time: If possible, try to solve any issue the first time to avoid affecting your own productivity. More complex problems, and those involving other people, will probably need you to schedule a meeting.