Open Door Policies: Everyone Has One, But How Many Have One That Actually Works?

HAVE YOU EVER heard a manager ever say that they DON’T have an open door policy?

I haven’t, and I would guess nobody else has either. That’s because it’s one of those platitudes that leaders fall back on because they know that saying you’re always accessible is a lot different than actually BEING accessible.

In other words, a manager who has to tout their open door policy frequently doesn’t do much to make sure it works.

This popped up again last week in a Fast Company article on Why Your “Open-Door” Policy Isn’t Enough. It’s similar to others that I’ve read over the years, such as one in the Harvard Business Review back in 2017 titled The Problem with Saying “My Door Is Always Open.”

It can be hard for employees to speak up

The Fast Company article from May 2024 is very different from HBR ‘s March 2017 version in that the former is based on the experience of the author and sees open-door policies as an important multicultural issue in retaining a diverse workforce.

The HBR article, on the other hand, is based on “a two-year research study, including interviews with over 60 senior executives, workshops, and case studies,” yet it also comes to the same conclusion that Fast Company does.

As FC puts it:

“Simply making a statement like ‘my door is always open’ doesn’t work for everyone, especially if you’re working with people who have been socialized to see leaders as the ones who should make the call. They may expect clear direction from you and feel uncomfortable crossing the line to initiate a point of view.

And although HBR states it a little differently (and from a 2017 perspective), they make a similar observation:

“If you are in an influential position, you have probably said words to the effect of ‘My door is always open.’ You likely meant this declaration very genuinely. You might well feel that you are a pretty approachable sort of person and that others feel comfortable coming to you with their issues and their ideas.

This may be true. But it probably isn’t.

Leaders often have an inflated idea of how easy it is for others to speak honestly to them. Our two-year research study, including interviews with over 60 senior executives, as well as workshops and case studies, illuminates a glaring blind spot: We simply don’t appreciate how risky it can feel for others to speak up.”

Why open door policies don’t work so well

IT’S EASY TO FIND all sorts of stories about workplace “open door” policies, and they run from those that have simplistic advice to research and data driven insights you get from consulting companies or publications like the Harvard Business Review.

They all seem to come back to the basic issue — you can talk about open door policies all day long, but the challenge is getting people to feel comfortable enough to actually walk through that open door and talk about whatever is on their mind.

That’s the big challenge, and it continues to be the No. 1 reason why open door policies just don’t work all that well. And that 2017 HBR article is clear about why that is:

“If we are in a powerful position, we often take power for granted. As a member of a privileged in-group, we forget what it is like to be in the less privileged out-group.

Consider the phrase “My door is always open.’ It contains a number of assumptions. First, people should meet you on your territory, rather than the other way around. Second, you have the luxury of a door. Third, you can choose when to close or open it.

These details are small but important. Organizational systems contain many subtle codes that encourage employees to conform. Perhaps the most obvious, one that breeds considerable cynicism, is when a powerful person tells people to challenge him…and then punishes those who do. …”

Engaging people on their own turf

HERE’S MY TAKE: I’ve managed a lot of people over the years, and yes, I told them all that I had an open door policy.

But my first big challenge with it was when I was hired by a large newspaper company to be Editor of their statewide newspaper in Great Falls, Montana.

The challenge was that this newspaper’s editorial product had been ranked near the bottom of the 100 or so papers that the company owned, and I was brought in to turn things around quickly. On top of that, it was a unionized staff that was almost entirely Montana-born and bred.

I was also a Californian, and a lot of Montanans didn’t like people from the Golden State who brought their California ways with them when they moved in.

It never hurts to say you have an open door policy, but few on my new staff wanted to voluntarily come chat. I wondered — How do I engage people who aren’t all that eager to do so?

Taking it to the people

HERE’S MY ANSWER: If the people won’t come to you, then you gotta go to the people.

My strategy was to get out of my office and sit out on the news desk for an hour or so every day. It was located in the middle of the newsroom and everybody had to walk by to get to the restrooms.

I thought I could work at the news desk like I normally would in my office, but what I quickly found was that although I didn’t get much work done, I did hear a lot of conversations that I would have never heard any other way.

Sometimes I jumped into the conversation, but I mostly listened. Guess what happened? People started talking, asking questions, and generally just wanting to know how I felt about things.

It quickly broke down the barriers  with the staff, and it was one of the things that helped us to be recognized as the company’s most improved newspaper the very next year. I can’t say how much being more accessible to the staff had to do with that, but I’m pretty sure it helped by setting the tone for more open communications.

Another Harvard Business Review article from back in 2010 made this very same point and described it like this:

“The prevailing belief among mangers is that having an open door policy or a suggestion box is enough to encourage employees’ input. But our research shows these aren’t enough, because they’re passive; they require employees to initiate the conversation. So, not only may speaking up be dangerous or futile, workers also see that it requires effort.

We … have found that employees are much more likely to be forthcoming when their input is solicited. Try knocking on their doors or inviting them for a coffee — and work doggedly to convince them it really is okay to speak freely — if you want to hear (them).”

In other words, open door policies can work, but only if managers seek out employees — and not just expect employees to come to them.

Other trends and insights 

And your latest dose of AI news … 

• If AI Can do Your Job, Maybe it Can Also Replace Your CEO (From NYTimes.com)
• Why some AI roles are commanding such high salaries (From HRBrew.com)
• Scarlett Johansson’s AI row has echoes of Silicon Valley’s bad old days (From BBC.com)
• The race to deploy AI and raise skills in Europe and beyond (From McKinsey.com)
• Employers appear more likely to offer interviews, higher pay to those with AI skills, study says (From HRDive.com)

ALSO: You gotta love a website for a book titled Barking Up the Wrong Tree by an author named Eric Barker. That’s why this post titled This Is How To Be A Great Manager: 4 Powerful Secrets From Research really resonated with me. It asked and answered the simple question — what makes great managers different?

ALSO-ALSO: Bill Walton was a great basketball player and broadcaster who wore his many passions on his sleeve, but he was also one of the last great players to be tutored by the late, great UCLA coach John Wooden. Walton died last week at age 71, but Inc. was able to capture a lot of what Bill was about in Bill Walton Was an Exceptional Basketball Player and Broadcaster, But His Legacy Can Be Summed Up With 1 Sentence. It’s well worth a read.

Loyal Readers: I’ve been writing a version of this weekly wrap-up for more than 20 years — from Workforce.com to TLNT.com to Fuel50 and now here on The Skeptical Guy. I’d love to know what you think, so email comments to me at  johnhollon@yahoo.com.