How to Rumor Well

"Understanding rumors means...engaging in the basic human activity of making sense together in a way that is at once more difficult and more deeply gratifying..  It means having a greater appreciation for truth.  Rumor is something that we do as humans together; my hope is this book will help us to rumor well."  (Nicholas DiFonzo, The Watercooler Effect, page 221).

This is a refreshing take on the whole business of rumors in organizations and communities.  I have spent so much time encouraging people to refrain from secondhand communication.  I have noted that such communication is destructive, unproductive, irritating, unethical and unspiritual.  And so in my little parts of the world, people no longer spread rumors.

Right.  It is like spitting upwind in a hurricane.

DiFonzo has a less ambitious and more achievable goal--that we might "rumor well."  In my last post I described his notes about being effective rumor consumers.  In the final chapter of his book, DiFonzo offers his best insights on how to be effective rumor managers.  A brief summary is worth the time for any leader of an organization.

1. Good general communication in the organization serves to moderate uncertainty, reduce anxiety and thus to decrease the volume and temperature of the rumor mill.  "We might say that better formal communication displaces a group's informal efforts to understand a situation" (page 193).

2. When rumors are true, confirm them insofar as they are true.

3. As change happens to an organization, try to predict where the rumors will rise and what concerns they seek to address.  Preparation can make for better and quicker official responses.

4. Develop a norm of transparency.  Ask people in the know, "Are there any rumors floating that you've heard lately?"  Then be willing to address the rumors with honesty, facts and detail.  Larger organizations may need a structure, system or department to collect, process and respond to rumors.  This may be a hotline, web site, or suggestion box.

5. No matter how attractive the "no comment" response is, resist the temptation to use it.  People will make up bad information rather than to settle for no information at all.  This response "tends to heighten uncertainty and is therefore generally counterproductive if the goal is to squelch the scuttlebutt" (page 197).

6. Allow people places, spaces and processes for expressing and working through the normal anxieties of life together.  Create a culture that is tender toward the anxious and shares information without making people feel stupid.

7. DiFonzo advocates "rumor workshops" as a way to train people as responsible rumor consumers and managers.  One of the main emphases of such workshops is to create a fact-checking culture in the constituency and to let members know that most folks will be checking the facts most of the time.  "A rumor manager can lessen the likelihood that potential and actual rumor participants will place faith in a rumor because they have fostered a checking norm and have helped people become more aware of how rumors can be false.  The checking norm," DiFonzo concludes, "goes a long way to making rumor soil less fertile for rumor weeds" (page 204).

8. Refutation is important and can be done well.  First, it must be the truth.  Second, the refutation must be uttered by a trusted source.  Third, the refutation must come early in the life of the rumor in order to be most effective.  Fourth, the refutation has a context that makes the explanation anxiety reducing instead of anxiety producing.  Fifth, the refutation has a clear, detailed explanation with solid evidence.  Sixth, the refutation will give direction as to how the rumor should be dealt with now.

Rumor management is not about information suppression, DiFonzo concludes.  It is about "how we help people make good sense in a situation" (page 192).

I wonder if church judicatory meetings ought to include a rumor workshop as one of the annual breakout sessions?