Building town hall messaging frameworks to handle tough questions

Town hall meetings are prime opportunities for organizational leaders to put a face to policies and gather key feedback from employees. However, without the right frameworks in place to address the most challenging employee queries, leaders may not be adequately prepared to respond effectively — and that can lead to more confusion than solutions.

“A town hall doesn’t reveal whether employees have questions,” said Kevin Berchou, head of business and enterprise communications at M&T Bank. “It reveals whether leaders are prepared to answer them. The real work happens long before the first hand goes up.”

Here’s how internal communicators can build a step-by-step framework that’ll work in any town hall meeting to take on even the hardest questions. Taken together, these steps form a repeatable process that internal communicators can use for every town hall, regardless of topic or potential tension.

1. Ask leadership to define their desired outcomes Berchou said that he meets with leadership before every town hall with a series of questions to help focus the scope of the event. “What are we trying to do?” Berchou said. “What is the strategic direction of the business? Town halls are rare and valuable touch points. If we don’t anchor them in strategy, you can very quickly fall into the trap of just filling space.”
2. Cluster the questions leaders should anticipate into topic areas. Rather than prepping leaders for dozens of questions that might pop up, Berchou recommends grouping questions by topic area. For instance, the “people cluster” can cover questions about hiring, promotion and staffing changes. Furthermore, internal communicators can subcategorize topics into three buckets:
   • Topics leaders must address
   • Topics leaders can acknowledge exist
   • Topics leaders cannot speculate on.
   • Berchou said that he’s very intentional about topic selection, as they need to serve both the needs of the leader and the audience. “You don’t want to just find topics to cover because you have a meeting,” he told Ragan. “The town hall needs to be in service of our collective priorities, and the Q&A should reinforce that, not pull you off course.”
3. Put together a one-pager for leaders so they can address emotionally charged topics effectively. Berchou said his team provides leaders with a key messages brief to ensure they’re ready to handle hot-button issues seamlessly. “When we were talking about our commercial real estate portfolio, which was in flux for a while, we made sure leaders had a messaging document with some talk-track answers that were fair and balanced,” he said. He added that the earlier communicators let leaders know what topics might lead to employee pushback, the better. “We also signal clearly that these topics are likely to come, so they aren’t caught off guard.”
4. Build language into your framework that celebrates the tough questions. Berchou told Ragan that in the process of building a framework for town halls, he always encourages leaders to face tough questions with a sense of positivity. This helps signal to the employees asking them that the town hall is a dialogue rather than a one-way communication dump. Even a single line acknowledging and appreciating these queries can change the entire tone of a town hall. “It’s a sign that people are engaged and comfortable enough to ask something that might be controversial,” he said. “As a business leader or communicator, you shouldn’t hide from tough questions—you should embrace them.”
5. Do a dry run of the town hall to help leaders get familiar with the dynamics of the meeting. Berchou said that he sets aside a meeting before a town hall to discuss delivery mechanics, as opposed to just content. This helps leaders stay steady, no matter how the topics shift in the meeting. “That kind of preparation makes a big difference when you’re live,” he said.
6. Build language into your framework that celebrates the tough questions. Berchou told Ragan that in the process of building a framework for town halls, he always encourages leaders to face tough questions with a sense of positivity. This helps signal to the employees asking them that the town hall is a dialogue rather than a one-way communication dump. Even a single line acknowledging and appreciating these queries can change the entire tone of a town hall. “It’s a sign that people are engaged and comfortable enough to ask something that might be controversial,” he said. “As a business leader or communicator, you shouldn’t hide from tough questions—you should embrace them.”

When internal communicators are architects of town hall messaging frameworks, leaders can do much more than just weather tough questions. They can reinforce culture and earn trust by answering them with clarity.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications.