32The Grapevine
THIS CHAPTER COULD BE SUBTITLED, “The Most Effective Communication.” Any organization with more than five people has a grapevine. Grapevines come about because people communicate with each other, and people have a great need to know what is going on. If they don’t know, they’ll speculate about what is going on. You will never put an end to the grapevine, so you might as well accept its existence and the fact that its branches reach into all corners of the organization. There is no value in assessing the grapevine as good or bad; it just is. The important thing is to understand how it works so you do not fall victim to it.
Think of the grapevine as a second, and in many cases a more efficient, communication network in your organization. ...
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