I tried the "ask anything" method at work and it backfired big time

I manage a team of 8 people at a marketing firm in Austin. Last month I decided to hold an open Q&A session where anyone could ask me anything about the company strategy. First 15 minutes were fine, then someone asked about my salary compared to theirs. I didn't have a good answer and it created this weird tension that's still hanging around. Now I think there's a difference between "ask anything" for casual forums versus professional settings where people have real stakes. Has anyone else found that certain topics just don't work in an open-floor format?

3 comments

3 Comments

caseythompson1mo ago

Smaller check-ins first built way more trust than a big open floor ever did.

amy_west1mo ago

The real issue isn't open floor formats themselves, it's that you tried trust without building it first. Trust is like a savings account you have to deposit into before you can withdraw. If your team already had doubts about pay equity or decision making, that Q&A just gave them a chance to air it out in public. I've seen this happen with new principals who walk in thinking transparency fixes everything, but it backfires because nobody believes the transparency is real yet. You need to build credibility through smaller, everyday actions before you roll out the big "ask me anything" events.

adams.uma1mo ago

Hang on, flip it around for a second. What if the problem isn't that the principal didn't build trust first, but that the team actually had way more trust in each other than in leadership? Like if the front desk crew and the back office have been gossiping for years about pay, that Q&A just confirmed their suspicions in front of everyone. It wasn't a trust deficit with the boss, it was a solidarity moment against the boss.