Transcript: How to Develop Meaningful Communication Rhythms to Inspire Your Employees // Jos Snoep, Bible League International

Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast

“How to Develop Meaningful Communication Rhythms to Inspire Your Employees“

May 22, 2023

Jos Snoep

Intro: When you ask employees what they would like to see improved, what's the topic that you know will be on the list? That's right: communication. Communication from leadership. Communication between departments. Communication about what's going on. Well, today, our guest has proven insights to help you develop meaningful communication rhythms that will inspire your employees to new levels of performance.

Welcome: Welcome to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast, your home for open, honest, and insightful conversations to help develop your leadership, your team, and build a flourishing workplace culture.

Al Lopus: Hello, I'm Al Lopus, the co-founder of the Best Christian Workplaces and author of the book Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being. In fact, I’m thrilled to announce that my book is a finalist in the Christian Book Awards for the category of Ministry Resources. You know, I'm passionate about helping Christian leaders, like you, create engaged, flourishing workplaces. And thanks for joining us today.

So how do you communicate effectively with your employees? What communication principles and practices will be most beneficial in achieving your mission? Well, today on the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast, we’ll learn from a seasoned leader about effective communication practices to build trust and energize your team. Listen in to learn how you can grow in healthy communication in your organization.

I'm delighted to welcome Jos Snoep back to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast. Jos is the president and CEO of Bible League International. Bible League International serves the under-resourced church with Bibles and training to transform lives worldwide through God's Word. The global headquarters is just south of Chicago, in Crete, Illinois. Jos joined Bible League International in 2005 as a fundraiser in the Netherlands. He was quickly promoted to the country director role and then executive director for Europe before becoming the president and moving to the United States.

Hello, Jos, and welcome back.

Jos Snoep: Hi, Al. It's so good to be back. Thanks for the opportunity.

Al: Well, let me just say, as we start off, we're thrilled to have you back on the podcast. And the last time you participated with us was we talked about sustainable strategy, which is one of your key strengths. And that was one of our top ten podcasts for the year, out of 52 podcasts. And so congratulations. I appreciate your contribution.

But before we focus on some specific leadership principles, share with us an impact story of the work of Bible League International. And I know your work makes a difference for so many people around the world, and it's hard to have some of these stories bubble up. But I'm sure you've got one that really expresses the transformative power of your work and of the Bible.

Jos: Yeah, that’s great. I love that question, Al, because I think as a ministry, we always have to go back to those people we serve and to really allow their voices to be heard. And I won't mention the name of the country where I had this experience, but we had an opportunity as Bible League to be invited by a local church and do the first training, basically, ever. We sent in a container into this country, with materials, and we had this wonderful opportunity to serve the church over there. And we trained around 100 people from at least 12 denominations. And at the end of that training, this lady stood up. It was an elderly lady. She was born in ‘49, and she just started to share her testimony. And it was great to listen to that. She was explaining how she became a Christian in 2002 and that when we were there—and that was last year, so 2022—that was the first time she got the word of God for herself and the first time that she got trained to actually share the Word of God with others.

And it just reminds you how pivotal our work is and the work of other ministries as well. Those stories just remind me of why God called us into being. And I had a conversation with her after that training, and she was in tears, and she said, “All those 20 years I've been a prayer warrior, and I've prayed for this day. I’m going home now, and I have this prayer room in my house, and I'm going to go in that prayer room, and I'm just going to thank God for His Word, thank God for the training I had today.” And I thought, wow, you know, this is why we do what we do.

Al: Yeah, yeah. What a great story. Yeah. Yeah. Training around the world, yeah.

Well, let’s move on to our topic today. You've been using the Best Christian Workplaces Engagement Survey for a number of years, and your commitment to a healthy, even flourishing workplace culture shows in your results. And one area we'd like to focus on today is healthy communication. That's one of our eight keys to employee engagement. And we know that great communication practices within an organization leads to trust and leadership and retention. And we come back over and over again, this importance of trust and leadership for an organization to move forward. Well, your scores are just really above the sector averages, so we want to talk with you. So how do you do that? So let's start with communication from you and your senior leadership team. That's one way, cascading communication down the organization. So how do you and your senior team decide what needs to be communicated more broadly to your employees, and what are some of the types of communication that fall into this category?

Jos: Yeah. I mean, first of all, the importance of communication is just to acknowledge that with each other is such a key in understanding the impact of communication in your organization. So I think relationship and communication is really embedded, first of all, in our core values and in our philosophies. Our core values talk about building relationships and really investing in people. And those values are worked out further into some of our philosophies in terms of how we look at leadership, how we look at partnership with other ministries around the world. And it's really, communication is a key part of that. So it's embedded in some of those key documents.

I think one of the elements that you read into in there, if you would read through those, is that, you know, it starts with respecting and truly valuing people in the organization, every single person. Our mission or our vision statement is to engage every one in God's Word. And I love that word one in that vision statement because it just expresses the value that we try to put in every individual being part of the ministry. So everybody needs to be deeply valued, and that's why we want to keep them informed of how their contributions play a bigger role and contribute to the larger vision.

So yeah, in that way, communication is always kind of represented and a consideration in everything that we discussed at the leadership table. We actually have a person in our leadership team. She is the EVP of People and Culture, and she's kind of our check in our spirit for this kind of thing. She's always asking the question, how does this impact people, and how do we make sure that people understand? And that's a great asset to have on your leadership team.

Al: Yeah, wow. You know, I'm just struck, Jos, and I appreciate your comments how communication, while it’s part of your core value, it resembles and addresses respect for people and the value of people. So, yeah. Keeping people informed. I do get leaders every once in a while who say, you know, “I don't know about this culture thing. Why do I need to communicate? Why won't people just do what I tell them to do?” And I so appreciate when you talk about the importance of communication, it's a respect and a way of valuing people. Wow, yeah. Thanks.

Well, healthy communication is an area that some organizations struggle with, like the one I just described. So let's give to some practical steps to our listeners. What are some of your rhythms and practices of communication from the senior leadership team to your staff? I think it's important for all of us as leaders. We need to have a regular rhythm of communication. So what have you learned over the years? What's helped to shape your communication with your staff? What are some of your rhythms and processes?

Jos: Yeah, thanks for that question, and that's definitely something to strategically think about. Wondering why we have to communicate shouldn't be our question; our question is, how should we communicate, and how do we build those rhythms in there? And one of the things I started doing, and it was actually around the time of COVID, is a platform called Time with Jos. And it's basically a monthly staff time, an hour long, where I invite our staff to participate in a—and it's a hybrid meeting so remote staff can call in online and a staff in the office can sit in a room—and I will just share about the state of the organization. And I do, sometimes I have organizational updates, but what I also do is I invite people in that have a relationship with the ministry and I interview them in front of staff. So staff really gets an idea of, who am I relating to; what am I thinking; what are some of the bigger strategic pieces?

Another thing that I do in that time is I convey to staff what we discuss in board meetings so that the staff has an idea of, what is the organization's leadership doing? A little detail to that is I offer, I do that twice a day. We work in a global environment, and we know that people live in different time zones. So I offered is the same session in the morning as well as in the evening so that everybody in the organization can actually participate on their time for their convenience. So that's a monthly thing.

We also do that, it's called a focus time. It’s also a monthly thing. It's kind of a similar set up, but that focuses more on ministry impact and employee news. So it's a monthly gathering that is led by our EVP of People and Culture, and she celebrates milestones. It communicates promotions and hiring and also sharing of ministry-impact stories. So those are very valuable times.

The other platform that we have been using is what I call a mission-vision meeting, and it's basically a longer session that I offer to staff in which I go through the strategy of Bible League and some of our initiative, and I tied it to our core values and our mission. And it's not a one-way event. So what we do there is, basically, it's two or three hours, and I do it per small group. So I, basically, have 16 other sessions, and I cover all staff, and it's a great way for me to share but also to hear because I'm asking questions. So it’s wonderful engagement with your staff, really in an intimate session, and I think it's a wonderful and it's just a great investment of my time. So, yeah.

Al: How often do you do that, Jos?

Jos: I do that every two years. It's very time intensive. And so you have to really have a block of, like, two to three months to cover everything. And you know, time is not allowing that to do every year. So I chose it for a two-year rhythm.

Al: No question. Well, that's a huge commitment. Yeah. Congratulations. But every two years, you’re meeting in small groups, with your staff, to talk about mission-vision and to hear from them as to how it’s going. And, boy, does that really keep you in touch with what’s going on.

So that's interesting. A couple of monthly meetings, one is time with you, another is just a focused time with all staff. And then every two years, basically, a listening tour with your employees around the world. Wow, okay. Well, that keeps everybody up to speed, and I know there’s other communication that happens, but that’s, boy, that’s great.

Another important part of communication is how it flows from employees and teams to middle managers and then senior leaders. Now we're talking about communication coming up the organization, not just down. And this feedback loop from employees can help shape decisions and also make employees feel like their views matter, which boosts engagement. And you've already talked about this mission-vision meeting and how that's upward-oriented communication. So what have you learned from your experience about how to encourage and process this kind of communication from employees? Are there regular times when supervisors and other leaders are listening to employees, or is this more of a one-off special-project-basis type of situation?

Jos: Yeah, I think having communication is part of our core value, and the relationships that we are building just is a—but it requires, really, feedback loops and regular communication. So, really, what’s key there is creating an open and personal culture in your organization. That is something that doesn't happen overnight. That is something that needs to be really intentional. We are far from perfect in that. I think that is another thing that we need to acknowledge is that we're always making mistakes in that process, but it's really about organizing intentionally, those moments of Q&A, reflective practices in your organization. Don't assume that people understand and that they know the way and the how.

And, really, the other thing is, opportunities to collaborate, for people to understand different perspectives from different departments. And I would say a key thing in that is consistency. So I said earlier, this doesn't happen. If you do it just once, then it's just a one-time event. So while it happens on project basis, it also really needs to be part of your whole operational philosophy. And staff, I think staff needs to have a certain level of comfort and trust in you in order to be willing to share and to be willing to open. And we all know that trust takes time to build.

Al: It certainly does. And so are there regular patterns? Do you encourage supervisors and employees to have regular meetings, for example?

Jos: Yeah. So part of our leadership philosophy and how we work with our managers is, really, there's a communication expectation. So you become a manager, you become an executive leader in our organization, one of the things we will look at and we will evaluate that with our managers as well as the board is doing with me personally is, how do you communicate? And so there is expectation that managers, first of all, have a serving posture and a humble attitude towards those that they are leading, but then that they also align with our leadership philosophy and that they have rhythms. Like, I have rhythms organizationally in communication, but that they have rhythms of listening to their direct reports. And those are simple things like open-door policy, regular one-on-one meetings with your direct reports. Even if you don't have something to discuss, sit together and listen and care and pay attention to them. And regular team meetings, just so that people feel part of a team, and then they know what's going on. Those are all—they sound like kind of open-door, you know, initiatives, but they're so important.

Al: I trust you’re enjoying our podcast today. We’ll be right back after an important word for leaders.

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Al: Welcome back to my conversation with Bible League International CEO, Jos Snoep.

Yeah. And as you say, rhythms, you know, that's what you're describing is rhythms. But I'm also, so aligning with the leadership philosophy, so that means you’ve got a leadership philosophy. It’s probably written down. Is that right?

Jos: Yes. Yeah. We've developed a leadership philosophy. Basically, we said if this is our mission and vision and this is our environment, you know, working in a global organization with different cultures, that requires certain leadership traits in order to lead well in this organization. And so we've, as a team, we've come up with some of those traits and put them down in a philosophy.

Al: You mentioned serving, being serving oriented, and humble. Are those a couple of those traits that are included?

Jos: Yes, they are. They are in there. And, you know, another one is just the sensitivity to the diversity in our organization; listening and learning to truly understand different perspectives. So those are all things that are described in that philosophy.

Al: Fantastic. Yeah, those are great, great items to have in a philosophy: listening versus talking.

Jos: Yes.

Al: That’s how you learn. You've got to listen in order to learn. Yeah.

Well, you know, in some organizations, the communication link breaks down, you know, when it gets to frontline employees or supervisors, that middle-management part of the organization. And you know, leaders can say, you know, “I'm talking passionately, and it just doesn't get down to the frontline employee.” So as a seasoned leader, what can you share with our listeners about what makes sense and that might make sense in their organization if they've got some broken links of communication? Are there some specific ways that Bible League reinforces communication at the front level? Was there a training that you provide for supervisors on how to foster this healthy-communication approach that we're talking that includes both listening and communicating priorities with employees?

Jos: Yeah. I think one of the things that is really key is that you have to trust your employees. I’m convinced that when people walk in our door, they're not coming to the workplace with the mind of, “Okay. Today I'm going to really mess this place up.” Everyone comes to bring a positive contribution to the organization. So I think in our communication is we need to be trusting our people with information. And as soon as we start to strategize who we tell what, I think we're moving into a very dangerous area, first of all, because now you have to start remembering who you told what. And that's a lot more work. But it also communicates that you don't trust your people. And I think it's important to really have an open attitude towards that.

So the other part is always, I think we always have to kind of assume that our communication is broken. In a way, you're never ready; you’re never done with communication. You never have to assume that everybody knows everything. And so repetition and refreshing is just critically important. And one of those examples in our organization is we're called Bible League. And for us, league has a meaning. There's a significance to that word. And we just learned in our organization there's actually a lot of different perspectives on what that word means. And so we decided, well, we're going to do a session, a training session on that. We're going to go back to what does this mean to us, and let's go back to our staff and explain and engage with them on that term and why it is important to us. So again, it's a term—we've been called Bible League since the beginning, you know, 85 years of ministry, and still, there is room for improvement and to communicate around topics like that.

So go back to the why question often. Why do you use certain terms? That's just really important. And to your question of, you know, do we offer training? Yes. Yeah, we do. So we do have opportunities for our staff and our managers to just be trained and grown, either outside training or mentorship with other leaders in the organization.

Al: Yeah. So league doesn't mean a group of departments that compete with each other internally.

Jos: That's correct. Yeah. That's kind of the notion that we might have with that word. But, you know, I think the league came from the late ‘30s, when the United Nations was still called the League of the Nations. And so it's much more about unity and doing things together.

Al: Yeah. I just wanted to be clear on that. Okay.

Jos: Yeah.

Al: Because that leads right into what I was thinking would be our next question, because one of your core values is unity. Being together in a league in that sense, working in unity. So this value acknowledges that you are a diverse global organization, which you clearly are in many countries around the world, and the description of this value includes some of the communication principles that we were talking about. So in this description, it says, “Our leaders encourage the participation of everyone within this organization, and ensure that all perspectives are heard and respected. Doing so expands our thinking and fuels innovation and creates a stronger, more effective organization.” Oh, I love that. So, yes, share with us an example of how this value of listening and respecting voices—and to a degree, we've talked about it already—but how does this field innovation, either in a new program or a process or perhaps an innovative solution to a persistent issue or problem that you've had?

Jos: Yeah. I really love the core value of unity, and in a certain way, it’s kind of a given because the body of Christ cannot be not united. And we also know, you know, Jesus’ prayer in John 17, where He ties the unity of His disciples to the testimony to the world that He is the Son of God. So there's testimony coming out of it. So it's really, it’s a high call and a high responsibility for us to be united.

One of those areas where I have really experienced beautiful unity is on our board level and engaging with them. And I feel very blessed having a board that is very united and takes it very seriously. And out of that unity, we asked ourselves the question is, like, how can we help others around the world to have that same unity and to build that board leadership that really brings people together and helps them to stay focused on our mission together? So we created a couple of moments of listening and learning with our boards, and we allowed them to really engage with staff and with partners. And I think that has really led to that unity and led them to really think about their role and the impact that they have in the organization.

So where the innovation happens in that story is that they basically said, “Hey, if we experience this right now and we are learning all these things, how are we going to capture that and build that into training for others?” So actually, what rolled out of that process was another philosophy. Here's the word again, but a board philosophy, and it's a description of how boards in our organization globally are enablers of ministry, and what are the values and the characteristics of a board in order to function in unity? And so there’s this beautiful document right now that describes that, and that is, that also leads towards training methods for boards around the world to kind of go through the same process. So you see that as a group of people as united, new things will come out of that and also things that will bless others in our organization. So I believe that this will have a big impact on our identity and our leadership culture throughout the world.

Al: Bring it on and look forward. Maybe that's another podcast for us, Jos, to talk about the board unity. I know there's a lot of leaders who are listening right now saying, “Well, I wish we had a little more of that on our board.” And not only that you're doing it yourself, but you're training others. That's a great thing.

At Bible League International, you've continued to participate in the BCW Employee Engagement Survey year after year. And what's the value, from your perspective, of your organization participating in assessing your workplace culture and employee engagement? What does your team or, really, how does your team implement learning from the Survey at various levels of leadership and management?

Jos: Yeah. Going back to an earlier answer on your first question is it's for ministry, it’s always good to go back to those people that you serve, and staff is one group of those people. And so we want to really create the different feedback loops in our organization that facilitate that listening to our staff. And Best Christian Workplace has been a great partner for us in that process. It's just a great tool, and it's very strategic for us. It's one of our strategic feedback loops.

So what we do is we do it every year, and we announce it to staff ,and we roll out the Survey. And then, once the Survey is done, we directly communicate back to our staff what the results are. But then our EVP of People and Culture is taking a step further. She will sit down with every single team and discuss the results and ask questions to further clarify, to further learn. And she, then, comes with a report to the executive leadership team and discusses what she's learned. And then, we as the leadership team talk about what are the action items that come out of this; what do we need to do to improve?

And then, the last thing is that we also circle it back to our board. So it's actually one of our tools for the board to evaluate, how is the executive leadership team doing with our staff? And they have a wonderful, caring heart for our staff. And this just gives them a clear picture of what's going on on the work floor.

Al: Wow. That's fantastic. Let's look ahead, and the question is, really, what opportunities do you see on the horizon for Bible League International? And maybe as we look at opportunities, what challenges do you see that you're going to face in continuing to live out the mission and vision and these philosophies that we've talked about so far?

Jos: Yeah. As an organization, we really live in a—there's this sense of anticipation of what God is doing through Bible League. He's given us more resources to work with in the last couple of years, and we're very thankful for that. We've been able to really produce a lot more ministry content that we are now rolling out around the world.

So there's just this sense of growing impact through what God is doing through Bible League. And that comes with just a lot of learning and making sure that people understand what's going on. So I would say the biggest challenge in that is a communication challenge, related to our topic. And part of that is we are very excited raising up a new generation of leaders in our organization, not just in the U.S. but also globally, and to really increase their level of representation in Bible League. So there's a lot of training and communication going on and going back to that why question and what is happening and what is your part in that, and why do we value that part? So that's going to be our biggest challenge going forward is to keep that rhythm of communication going and strengthen that so that more people feel that they're engaged and can actually use those resources to see more impact happening for the Kingdom.

Al: I love it. So here's an organization with a flourishing workplace culture, and they are facing the challenge of having more resources, more ministry content, a growing impact, and raising up a new generation of leaders. And that's fantastic. That's great.

Well, Jos, this has been just a great conversation. I appreciate it so much. And again, just been so helpful to talk about healthy communication and how it really is helping your core, which is seeing people transformed around the world with the Word of God. And I appreciate how that's a core value for Bible League International, as you've described. And it's a value that really focuses on the respect and the value of people. And, gosh, isn’t that core, really, to the Christian faith? Appreciate also the rhythms that you talk about, that you've experienced, and that you've put in place, where on a monthly basis, it's Time with Jos. Let's just talk with our president, our international president. It's a hybrid meeting where it's a variety of a format. You interview other people, those that you're working with. You communicate to the results of the board. Yeah. Just an important meeting each month. And then, you have another ministry meeting, a focus meeting, with your staff. And then, every two years you're actually spending and set up two- to three-hour meetings with small groups around the world with your staff. That's really insightful. But, yeah. Just so much to talk about. Keys of the way you've built trust with your employees. And having this attitude—I really love this—as people are coming to the organization, your attitude is that people want to be and want to do good work, and that's a positive, forward-looking attitude. And the communication project is never done because you're always learning something new. There is something new to communicate. But the focus that you've had on unity and how that's just part of the way you operate. So just a whole bunch of really good information that we can take home with us today.

How about one more thing that you'd like to add that we've talked about?

Jos: Yeah. Thanks for that summary. And that point of trust and trusting your people and really believing that they want to contribute, I think, is key in retaining people, and it's also key in getting younger people in the workplace. I think the generation of today is looking at a different type of leadership. I think, traditionally, leadership of the hierarchy and the command from top down, and I'm exaggerating a little bit to make my point here, but I think that is a leadership style that has had its time, in a way, that people are looking to a more participatory style of leadership, creating community. It's a lot of work, it's a lot of communication, and a lot of learning and a lot of falling and stepping up again. But I think it’s an environment where the younger generations really want to be part of. So highly recommended.

Al: They want to engage and be part of the process, don’t they. And, yeah, you've just done a great job of communicating how you do that.

Well, Jos, thanks so much for your contributions today. Most of all, I appreciate your devotion to making the Word of God available in an understandable format to transform people's lives around the world. That's fantastic. And again, thank you for taking your time out today and speaking into the lives of so many listeners.

Jos: Yeah. Well, it's a great honor, and we thank Best Christian Workplace for their partnership with us. We really appreciate your guys’ work, and I've really enjoyed our time together today. So thanks, Al.

Al: Thank you.

Outro: The Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Best Christian Workplaces. If you need support building a flourishing workplace culture, please visit workplaces.org for more information.

We'll see you again next week for more valuable content to help you develop strong leaders and build a flourishing workplace culture.

Al: I’m really excited about our podcast next week with the president of ECPA, the Evangelical Christian Publishing Association, Jeff Crosby. Jeff will talk about his new book, The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts. And I can guarantee this book will be helpful for every Christian leader, so tune in.