Let's imagine there is a small women's wear shopping mall with only 4 employees. They have to be jack of all trades to be able to cover more than 2 different areas of work from MD to marketing, sales as well as modelling. What would happen if a company-wide problem occurred that requires an all-out change across vendor, product and marketing? The problem can be solved relatively easily if the entire members of the company (4 employees) gathered together at a meeting room and put their heads together to find a solution and execute their measures of solution.

 Unlike a small company, the problem becomes a bit more complex when the size of an organization becomes bigger and tasks become departmentalized. That's because there are several organizations that are involved in even one problem interlocked like a cogwheel. Many of the issues require several teams and departments to gather together to find a solution, and they also have an impact on different stakeholders. This is why a bigger organization must contemplate on how to communicate and resolve issues that is appropriate for its size. We will be able to find a clue to this problem if we take a look at the cases of other companies who have thought about this same exact matter before us.

 Townhall meetings, which are called by different names (townhall meeting, all-hands meeting, TGIF, T500, top workshop, etc.) by different companies in Korea and overseas, are held under two main purposes – 1) horizontal communication and 2) solving company-wide issues. With regards to the first purpose, key examples include Google, while an example of the second purpose is KT(Korea Telecoms, one of the largest telephone companies in Korea). Taking a look at these companies will allow us to paint a picture of our own style of townhall meeting.

 Google's TGIF meeting, which stands for "Thank God it's Friday", is a weekly meeting held every Friday since its early days. Google has a unique culture of having the entire members of the company communicate openly with management at these meetings. Employees working at global offices as well as the headquarters in Silicon Valley upload questions online. Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and other key management executives answer questions with the most 'likes.'

 Thanks to Google's efforts in creating a culture of equal communication and reducing the steps in communication, its 'Googley' (or googleyness) value is shared and maintained continuously, connecting the top with the bottom despite the number of employees growing every year. Google's efforts in enabling engaging communication is at the basis of the culture the company is so proud of.

 KT's top workshop solves cross-functional issues by connecting horizontally. The 'top workshop', which began in September 2014, tackled about 3,900 agendas over 5 years with a total of 60,000 participants. KT reports that the workshop achieved meaningful financial results of KRW 387.9billion in sales contribution and more than 120billion in cost savings (as of end of 2017).

 The top workshop has dealt with not only top-down issues, but also many bottom-up issues that came from the challenges faced by customers and frontline teams, such as the issue of 'empowering the call center'. The agenda of 'empowering the call center' was raised because of the challenges faced by the call center that the manual developed to standardize customer handling was actually becoming an obstacle in responding flexibly to different situations. Thanks to this agenda, the top workshop served as an opportunity for employees at the headquarters and the call center to gather together and understand each other's challenges and the purpose of the manual. And they came up with an empowerment solution aligned to the original purpose of improving customer service. This solution led to the results of the number of negative VOCs reduced to a third in 3 years. And KT ranked No. 1 in customer satisfaction surveys in the telecommunications industry. But the key matter to take note is that KT pursued an important value – customer satisfaction – together by connecting several stakeholders.

 Townhall meetings are like the sword of Alexander the Great, who cut through the Gordian Knot – untying a complicated and intertwined problem – by connecting top and bottom and side by side. I hope our townhall meetings serve as venues for sharing company values through bold and open communication and become a solution to challenges faced by many different teams at different ends.

 Over 4 editions, this column has shared the reasons for why we need to continue to think about our way of working and the approaches (4DX, Design Thinking, townhall meeting) led by the Columbus Team this year. These topics may have been textbook topics to some of you, but I hope they were topics worth thinking about to others.

 An organization constantly changes like a living organism. Our way of working must also change accordingly. I support and encourage each and every one of you who are committed to changing our way of working. We ask for your continued support and interest in innovating our way of working led by the Columbus Team. Thank you.