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I attended Marcus Evans 6th Annual Conference on Internal Communications and Employee Engagement in Orlando for Senior Communication and HR professionals. It was an intimate group of fifty or so senior professionals sharing their organizations’ stories. The economy had affected almost every business. Some interesting themes emerged in the two days. There were great discussions about how to make leaders more visible, how to rebuild an organization’s culture, how to create transparency, and even reexamining the employee value proposition.
It was implicit that these themes and many of the associated tactics are central to organizations’ objectives of trying to rebuild trust. In this severe recession, it’s not just politicians and political institutions that Americans don’t trust.
Employees don’t trust their leaders. This lack of trust has bottomed out and according to Edelman’s trust barometer, while still very low, has increased 18% over the past year.
The communicator is central to rebuilding trust. Angelo Ioffreda, Senior Director, Employee Communications of NII Holdings (Nextel Latin American) said the communicator has a unique role within the organization that at times can be in conflict. They are both the voice of the corporation, its brand and culture and they are also the advocate of the employee.
Kraleigh Woodford, head of internal and client communications for UBS America gave really good advice on how to become a better employee advocate. When working with senior leaders, she thinks it is imperative that the communicator ask the really tough questions, not to be afraid to push back and be strong enough to say no.
In order to be a strong communications counselor, Jeffrey Brooke, director of employee communications at the US Government printing office implores communicators to get out of your office to listen and meet with your employees – informally on the shop floor, in the lunch and break rooms as well as formally by conducting engagement surveys and focus groups. Measurement and hard data help him build credibility with leaders.
Listening and feedback was important to almost everyone at the conference and helps the communicator become a more effective employee advocate. It was great to see so many communicators really embracing the spirit of social media. That it isn’t about the bells and whistles or a passing fad but can be a powerful way to create spaces for conversations, connections and communities.
Lisa Gick, VP Employee Relations at Macy’s has created a conversational culture with listening chats, rallies and giving employees tools to recognize each other with their innovative peer to peer “Making Magic Every Day” campaign. Employees can give each other “You did something great today and I noticed” cards and each time they recognize each other they are entered into a prize drawing.
How do you see yourself as a communicator? Corporate spokesperson? Communication counselor? Employee advocate? Or do you create spaces for conversations and dialogue? Contact me – I’d love to know.
I read a blog today http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/i-know-im-doing-this-wrong/ in the Small Business section of The NY Times about an Executive who knows he is part of the problem for the lack of innovation and ingenuity in his company especially coming from his front line employees.
In the blog, the executive states “I don’t recall many instances of their suggesting improvements to the way we work. It seems that change only flows from the top down in this company.”
Maybe I have been lucky, naive or it’s the industries I’ve worked in- PR, Research Training and Technology, but I have never encountered a colleague, a direct report or a manager who wasn’t trying to improve the business. Have you ever encountered a colleague that wasn’t improving their job or the performance of the business?
In the blog, the executive cites an example of an employee who told the executive that he couldn’t sleep and was thinking about a solution to a particular pain point in their business process. The executive “thanked him for his efforts and then showed him what we already had in place — a more sophisticated and useful solution to the problem.”
How should a communicator tackle this? Or should they at all? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I recently attended the National Summit on Strategic Communications at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington DC hosted by the Institute for Public Relations. Price Floyd, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the US Department of Defense, opened the conference and woke everyone up when he shared that Hezbollah has as many information officers as it does war fighters.
Wow, that’s quite disturbing especially when contrasted with Karen Hughes, former Senior George W. Bush Advisor and Senior US State Department official, that the State Department didn’t have anyone focused primarily on reaching out to Arab Media before she joined the State Department. Karen had to fight through red tape and begging Congressional Appropriators to hire two media specialists focusing on Middle East media outlets. Regardless what one thinks about the war(s), it is clear that the West needs to do a much better job communicating with skeptical and sometimes hostile populations.
Continuing on this same theme about the need for communicators, Gary Sheffer, VP of Communication and Public Affairs from GE shared his story about how he and his staff met the Financial Crisis head on. He was bold and he requested and hired Ten New communicators. Gary also scrapped all their contingency communication plans which were quite similar to running a defensive war room. He instead transformed his team into a daily and grueling battle which he could only compare to running a major Presidential Campaign.
With their new talent, they were able to incorporate powerful story telling into their strategic communication. He gave his staff two directives. One, they “must explain big concepts simply to build credibility” and two that “Public Affairs must be central to creating and protecting business opportunities.”
I’d love to hear tips from other communicators on how can you convince senior management that you can be more valuable to the organization if given the resources. I’ve found that communicators are great at telling the organization’s or management’s story but horrible requesting things for themselves. How can you tell you and your department’s story effectively internally to help deliver results?
The Federal Communicators Network and the DC chapter of IABC recently hosted a great workshop entitled, “What’s your story? Using story-based communication tools to engage employees [and other stakeholders].”
Cindy Atlee, Partner at The StoryBranding Group, gave the group valuable insight into the power of stories and the narrative to raise your communication effectiveness. She shared with the group that there are four levels of communication from the least effective to the most effective.
- Descriptors which inform and are based on Facts (Who, What, Where, When and maybe Why)
- Differentiations which promote and focuses on Strengths and Assess Benefits (Why this Matters)
- Connectors whish Inspire and Involve and is based on finding shared values, belief and finding meaning.
- Motivators which move the recipient to Action and Allegiance and is based on a deeper emotional connection.
My communication background is writing AP Style communication which has primarily focused on answering the Five W’s and the How. I find I have very little difficulty communicating using the first two levels- Descriptors and Differentiators, but I have a much tougher time with creating Connections and Motivators.
I know I’d like to tell more powerful stories that inspire, engage and motivate, but I am a poor story teller. So poor, I have difficulties telling the simplest of knock knock jokes. I usually reveal the punch line way too early and my comedic timing is worse than Al Gore’s.
How do you connect and motivate your stakeholders and really get them to participate?
Steven Green and I recently attended the Council of Communication Management’s Annual Conference in Philadelphia for senior communicators. The theme of the conference was “What’s Next?” which took a look into the future. It also included great best practice case studies from industry leaders.
I was honored to be asked to moderate a lively Social Media panel from industry leaders - Day and Zimmerman, Sun Microsystems, GE and Wal-Mart. The panelists were wonderful and one of the biggest takeaways was that you don’t have to implement everything all at once. Take baby steps, tackle the smaller things first and make them successful before moving on.
Wal-Mart wowed the audience with their after hours site that reaches millions of their non wired employees. I think these sites that include benefits, corporate information and possibly work and vacation schedule setting will finally help the communicator successfully engage front line employees. The old and unsuccessful org chart cascade method has been an uphill battle for communicators.
The conference also took a look at the profession and the crucial role communicator will play in the future especially around social networks. It was clear by both the presenters and the attendees that Social Networks are only going to become more important. The communicator’s role will be less about creating and pushing content and more about becoming listening, counseling and becoming the facilitator’s of discussions.
Taking this prediction one step further, I predict that the communicator will need to develop more business acumen skills. I think that the MBA, operation and even finance experience will become required requisite for a communicator to lead a global communication department. As discussions about the business increase at all levels of the organization, I think it will be imperative for the communicator to be able to identify business solutions and opportunities. Technology, like PollStream’s and others, will continue to become refined helping the communicator identify these opportunities in the complex peer to peer discussions . The communicator will need to have the skills to present and make actionable recommendations to senior leaders and executives.
The organizations that embrace this grass roots listening and identifying approach to running a business will gain a significant competitive advantage. So I foresee cultural wars in corporate boardrooms where those that are comfortable with the old Top Down Management approach will fight to hang on to their command and control model while those that leverage the collective wisdom will seize leadership positions where listening is crucial i.e. more General Petraeus and less General Patton.
How do you see our profession and our role evolving in the future? How do Social Networks and building communities play a part?
