Why I Turned My "Office Hours" into a Live "Podcast"

You know this, deeply - it’s that special kind of dread that settles in at 8:58 AM.

You’ve done the “right” thing. You’ve blocked the time on your calendar. You’ve labeled it “Office Hours - Open Door”. You’ve invited the entire organization - maybe 300, 500, or even 1,000+ people. You log in two minutes early, adjusting your camera, ready to be the accessible, transparent leader the books tell you to be.

And then... silence.

You stare at a grid of black boxes. Maybe one brave soul uncomfortably unmutes to ask about the new cafeteria vendor. But mostly, it’s just you and the crickets. You sit there for 15 minutes, sipping coffee, until you awkwardly end the call early, telling yourself, “Well, I guess the team is happy. If they had big issues, they’d ask”.

I used to tell myself that lie, too.

I sat in those empty Zoom rooms, mistaking silence for contentment. But after a few too many of these “ghost town” sessions, I realized the uncomfortable truth.

Silence isn’t a sign of clarity. It’s usually a sign of fear, confusion, or disconnection.

I realized I wasn’t running an “Open Door”; I was running an empty waiting room. And in a remote-first, high-velocity world, a waiting room is a failure of leadership.

So, I decided to burn the format down. I stopped hosting “Office Hours” and started hosting a “Podcast.”

The “Ivory Tower”

We tend to think of the “Ivory Tower” as an ego problem - leaders who refuse to come down to the front lines. But I’ve found that most leaders want to connect. The problem isn’t intent; it’s physics.

There is a concept I call Information Decay.

Research and experience both show that strategic context degrades by roughly 50% every time it passes through a layer of management. By the time your crystal-clear vision statement moves from the Board Room to the VP, to the Director, to the Manager, and finally to the Junior Engineer, it has become a game of “Telephone”.

The nuance is stripped away. The “why” is lost. The engineer doesn’t hear the strategy; they hear a ticket number.

This creates a massive disconnect. The people who need the context the most - the ones building the product - are the furthest from it. And yet, we expect them to come to us and ask the perfect clarifying question in a room full of 500 people?

Now, realistically - who wants to be the junior employee who raises their hand in front of the VP and says, “I don’t understand the strategy”? No one. That’s not an opportunity; that’s a risk.

Expecting the team to drive the agenda is a failure of empathy. It places the burden of bravery on them.

I realized it was my job to lift that burden. I needed to stop waiting for questions and start broadcasting the signal.

From “Availability” to “The Broadcast”

The pivot was simple but profound. I stopped asking, “Does anyone have questions?” and started saying, “Here is what you need/want to know”.

I began treating this weekly slot not as a meeting, but as a live production. I adopted the rigor of a content creator - the best of Warner Bros. Discovery.

1. Consistency is Trust

Just like your favorite YouTuber or Podcaster, I show up at the same time, on the same channel, every single week. Rain or shine. Crisis or calm. (Granted, some times it gets really challenging to run a show at 30,000 feet)

This builds a “muscle” of reliability. In times of uncertainty, the simple fact that the team knows I will be there on Friday mornings creates a psychological anchor. The reliability is the message.

2. The “Opt-In” Paradox

This is critical: Attendance is strictly optional. No roll call. No guilt trips.

There’s a twist here. If I have to mandate you to be there, my content isn’t good enough. The goal is to make the signal so high-value, so honest, and so clarifying that missing the meeting feels like a competitive disadvantage. I want people to tune in because they’re afraid of missing the truth, not because they’re afraid of missing a check-in.

3. The “Must-Watch” Factor

Now, here’s the controversial part: I don’t record these sessions.

By not recording it, we create urgency - a “you had to be there” moment. This shifts the dynamic from corporate obligation to live podcast.

But here’s the real unlock: It activates the network. When the meeting ends, attendees become broadcasters. They return to their teams saying, “Did you hear what was said about the AI/ML Committee?” This bypasses “Telephone Game” distortion because the primary signal was strong, and it empowers the middle layer to own the message.

The Facts, The Assumptions, and “The Read”

Now, you can’t just ramble for 30 minutes. That’s a hostage situation, not a broadcast.

Especially in times of high anxiety - company separation, merger rumors, reorgs, market shifts, AI disruption - the team craves stability. But as leaders, we often can’t promise stability. The world is too volatile.

What we can offer is clarity.

I structure every single podcast around a specific 3-Bucket Framework. This allows me to be radically transparent without being reckless.

Bucket 1: The Facts

“Here is what we know for sure”. This is the raw news. The revenue numbers. The signed contracts. The departure of a leader. No spin. No sugarcoating. Just the baseline reality that we all share.

Bucket 2: The Assumptions

“Here is what we don’t know, but here is the assumptions that I’m making”. This is the vulnerable part. This is where I admit that I don’t have a crystal ball. I might say, “We don’t know if this AI trend will stick, but we are assuming it will, so we are shifting priorities”. This separates the signal from the guess. It invites the team to understand the risk profile of our strategy.

Bucket 3: The Read

“Here is how I personally see it, and how I read it”. This is the subjective interpretation. It’s where I humanize the data. “I read this market shift as a massive opportunity for us, not a threat, because of X, Y, and Z”.

This framework does something powerful. It doesn’t just give the team orders; it teaches them how I think. It democratizes context. It allows a senior engineer to make a micro-decision on Thursday afternoon that aligns with my strategy, simply because they understand my logic stream from Friday morning.

Now The Interaction - Engineering Psychological Safety

But what about the engagement? How do we solve the “Silent Room”?

I realized that people aren’t afraid of the answers; they are afraid of the asking. They are afraid of being seen as the one asking the tough question.

So, I adopted a “Long time listener, First time caller” approach. (*cough*, *cough* Creamer)

I stopped taking live questions only. Instead, I collect them all week via anonymous tools (MS/Google Forms). This removes the fear of attribution.

And I read each one of them out loud before I get to the 3 buckets.

The moment a leader reads the “quiet part” out loud and answers it honestly - using the Facts/Assumptions/Read framework - the fear in the room evaporates. You prove, instantly, that this channel is a safe space for truth. You prove that you respect them enough to treat them like adults.

The Challenge for You

Leadership isn’t just about making decisions. It is about making sure those decisions are understood, internalized, and trusted by the people who have to execute them.

If you are a leader sitting in silence, waiting for your team to ask you what’s going on, you are failing them. You are letting the vacuum of information be filled with anxiety and rumors.

So, here is my question to you:

Look at your calendar for next week. Are you running an empty waiting room, or are you hosting a show your team actually wants to tune into?

Turn on the mic. Broadcast the signal. The silence is louder than you think.

#Leadership #Communication #RemoteWork #Management #Transparency #TeamCulture #Strategy #InternalComms