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How to Design an
Internal Communication Strategy
by Bob Selden, Director of the National Learning Institute
When people are faced with
uncertainty – not knowing what is happening and why – they become
de-motivated. In this environment, security becomes an important
issue for them and many may lose their natural energy and drive to
succeed. So, in the extreme, the lack of information can affect
people’s motivation.
I would argue that internal
communication is more important than external. In addition to its
motivational impact, communication also has an important informing
function. When people know what’s happening with the organisation,
they are able to answer customer’s questions honestly. If they know
what’s happening and they feel secure, they are in a better position
(and frame of mind) to provide feedback to management on how
strategies are impacting the client.
Is communication important?
- How many of your managers would rate
“communication” as the most important managerial activity?
The Eight Key Principles for
Developing and Implementing an
Effective Internal Communication Strategy
1.
Ensure the CEO is the Champion
of Communication and the
Champion Communicator!
Top management’s attitude and
behaviour influences the behaviour of other managers in the
organisation. Often top management and particularly the CEO, are
focussed on achieving good financial results And that’s
important. However, in many cases, while “communicating with the
troops” is described as important, reality doesn’t always match the
rhetoric. Can we justify communication? When asked about the ROI
on communication, one senior executive said:
“Enormous! We can move faster, jump
higher, dive deeper and come up drier than anybody else in the
business. When we hang a left, everyone goes left. It gives us an
enormous ability to work as a team. Other companies in our industry
have yet to work that out/”
The rules for the CEO?
-
Communicate frequently and in
person
-
Be willing to address
challenging questions
-
Listen carefully – deal with the
concerns
-
Respond quickly to sensitive
topics
As a CEO:
People need to feel they belong.
They need an icon. The CEO should fill this role.
2.
Match actions and words
Actions speak louder than words.
People will judge your performance, not on what you say, but what
you do. Organisations who sprout values such as “Our people are our
greatest asset”, then lay-off staff at the first major downturn in
the economy, are sending very mixed messages.
3.
Ensure your communication is
two-way
If an organisation is serious about
internal communication, then it should devote as much time and
resources to upward communication as it does to downward
communication.
Staff opinion surveys are often quoted as one way of providing
upward feedback. They do provide upward feedback, but it depends on
how well this feedback is managed. The most often quoted comment
from employees about their lack of faith in surveys is that “nothing
ever happens as a result”.
4.
Place emphasis on face-to-face
communication
There’s a saying that goes “It’s not
what you say, but the way that you say it”. This has a ring of
truth to it, particularly when a CEO is addressing the staff. As
one employee said recently (about a CEO'’s address to the staff):
“I didn’t
understand a lot of what he said, but it did give me the chance to
take the measure of the man, to look him in the eye, ask some
questions and see how he responded”
On the other hand, what you say is
also important. For example a CEO needs to talk about the “big
picture”, the “future” and in broad terms about how the
organisation is progressing when addressing the front line staff.
Whereas, when talking with his/her senior managers, he/she needs to
not only talk about the big picture and the future, but specifics
on current and projected performance.
For all managers in organisations,
face-to-face communication is one of the most important facets of
management. As one manager put it:
“You get
to be seen as a person who understands what’s happening, someone who
is cognisant of other’s feelings, someone who doesn’t have all the
answers but is willing to listen and learn. Someone who has a
vision so that his/her people will say ‘I’ll give this person a go.
He/she seem to have an interest in me. I’ll see how it goes’”
Face-to-face communication does not
obviate the need for other forms of communication. Yet other forms
of communication cannot substitute for face-to-face.
5.
Ensure responsibility for
communication is shared
Communication (downward,
horizontally and upward) must be the responsibility of all managers,
not just the CEO. Staff need to be encouraged and supported to
accept the responsibility for upward and horizontal communication.
For example, a manager’s
responsibility is not to be an expert in all aspects of every
corporate issue, but he/she must be able to explain why decisions
have been made and how they will affect his/her people.
To test the “communication
responsibility” level in your organisation, can you answer the
following questions positively?
-
Do all your Position
Descriptions have “communication:” as a key responsibility?
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Do your managerial performance
agreements or contracts include “communication” as a KRA?
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Are managers recognised for
communicating well and counselled or penalised for not
communicating?
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Are staff at all levels
encouraged and supported to give critical upward feedback?
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Does your organisation see
training as one of your key communication channels?
6.
Deal with the “bad” news as well
as the “good”
We often communicate only the good
news in an organisation, but it is equally important to communicate
the bad news. Bad news comes in many forms, for example:
In a study of 10 organisations* that
were selected for survey because of their record in excellent
internal communication, the one which had the highest bad news/good
news ratio, also had the highest staff satisfaction levels and had
very good economic performance. Why might this be so?
These results can be explained by
the two psychological phenomena, reciprocity and disclosure.
Reciprocity suggests that if you do something for me, then I’ll do
something for you. Disclosure from one person encourages openness
from the other – people are prepared to discuss both their successes
and failures Management being equally candid about good and bad
news, sets the example for staff to do likewise. In this
organisation, staff were held responsible for telling management
about problems – communicating bad news was culturally valued and
institutionally supported. As one manager explained:
“When bad
news is candidly reported, an environment is created in which good
news is more believable.”
7.
Serve the audience’s needs as
well as your own
Often we think of the message as
“Now hear this! We want you to know . . .” From a sender’s
perspective, this is important. However, if communication is going
to be effective we also need to answer the receiver’s request “This
is what we need to know . . . “
8.
Design your communication
strategy to suit your organisation
Communication is a PROCESS
not a PRODUCT. Newsletters, memos, videos,
publications, meetings, team-briefings, the intranet, may all have
an important part to play in your organisation’s communication
strategy. Be sure that you understand why each is being used, ie.
what will it cover and what will it achieve?
In designing your strategy, apply
the following groundrules.
Rule 1: Ensure all communication
includes not only WHAT is happening
but also WHY and HOW.
Rule 2: Be timely – communicate what
can be communicated immediately. Don’t wait to cross all the “t’s”
and dot all the “i’s”
Rule 3: Link the big picture with
the little picture. Ensure that people understand how the big
picture affects them and their jobs.
Rule 4: Don’t tell people how they
should feel about the news (avoid statements such as “this is
exciting for us all …”) Communicate the “who, what, when, why and
how” and let people make up their own minds about how they
feel.
Rule 5: Match the message to the
medium. e.g. face-to-face is good for people issues, whereas the
intranet and email is totally inappropriate. If the message is
likely to affect people emotionally, the only medium should be
face-to-face. If this is impossible, then a fallback is the phone
or video & audio hook-up – NEVER email or intranet.
Rule 6: Build a feedback loop into
your strategy. Actively encourage people to provide upward and
horizontal feedback.
Conclusion
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Internal communication is a critical management process, not a set of products.
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Effective communication
practices should be consistent under all organisational
circumstances.
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Every manager is a
communicator. Every staff member is a communicator.
.Let me finish with a recent example
of one local CEO’s (James) first internal communication ….
James
took over as the new Plant Manager for a bio tech factory where he
would be managing approximately 400 people. Prior to his arrival,
there was an “Ask Gavin” (Gavin was the previous Plant Manager)
column on the site intranet where employees could pose their
questions and get answers – they could either give their name or
remain anonymous.
On the
surface, this sounded like a good idea. However, nothing
substitutes for face to face communication and people rarely use
such vehicles to ask the difficult questions and if they do, they
almost never give their name. One of the first changes James made,
was to change the title of this communication channel to “Ask
Management”. Why? In his wanderings around the site, James had got
the distinct impression that his predecessor had ruled as “My way is
the only way” and consequently, the intranet communication channel
was rarely used.
Two weeks
into the job, the monthly site meeting took place where all
employees gathered in the cafeteria to be briefed by management. It
was the expectation at these meetings that new managers would
introduce themselves and give their new colleagues some background
about their experience and work history. When the facilitator
turned to James as the new head of the plant and asked would he like
to introduce himself, James stood up and asked:
“Would Francene Dante please stand up?”
You can
imagine the hushed silence that greeted James! Then, slowly at
first, but then more frantically, Francene’s (who by this stage was
sinking lower into her chair) work colleagues encouraged her to
stand. As she did so, James said:
“Francene, I would like to thank you very much for giving your name
when you asked a question on the intranet Ask Management. I know
you didn’t have to, but I very much appreciate that you did. You
see, I value honesty, integrity and sincerity and I like to be able
to communicate freely with everyone on the site and they should feel
the same about talking with me. So, thank you once again most
sincerely”
“That’s who I am.”
James
then sat down.
What
impact do you think this one action had? I’m sure you would agree,
that most of us as new CEO’s would have done the usual thing at the
site meeting when asked to introduce ourselves and given a brief
overview of our work history and maybe a bit about ourselves as a
person (I know I would have).
But James
immediately set himself apart as a leader rather than a mere manager
(and an excellent communicator) by deciding to take some action that
would demonstrate three of his core values – honesty, sincerity and
integrity.
The old
saying that “actions speak louder than words”, was never truer than
in James’ case – he also wanted to demonstrate that communication is
a two way process and merely talking about it would not have
achieved the results he achieved with his one action.
By the
way, James told me that over the few days following that site
meeting, he got many more people taking the time to talk to him at
lunch in the cafetetia or as he passed their work stations, than he
had in his previous two weeks at the plant. He also got many emails
from people giving their names and apologising for not giving their
names in previous questions to “Ask Management”.
The author, Bob Selden may be
contacted at
bob@nationallearning.com.au
©2006 The National Learning
Institute™. This article may be reprinted for internal
communication and training purposes only, but not for commercial
business or training purposes. All rights reserved by The National
Learning Institute™
*The study referred to in this
article is taken from Organizational Dynamics, Summer 1993
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