Change Communications

Replies to a debate posted to Melcrum’s CommsNetwork:
What is the role of strategy in internal communication? Should we leave strategy to the business managers and concentrate on doing what we know how to do, the craft of communicating, well?

Chris Smithers Internal Communications BT Global Services

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Chris,

I think there’s a balance. Don’t expect to contribute to thestrategy if you can’t do the day job, and you can mess up communication pretty thoroughly if you can’t write or speak

• People’s expectations of involvement at work are rising
• ‘Knowledge workers’ need to understand much more, take more decisions themselves (so ’strategy’ is the purpose and direction, not the detailed plans)
• There’s a need to bring larger, more disparate organisations together
• We need to react more quickly to changes
• Businesses are cutting costs by devolving more and more activities to managers
• One of the key drivers of this is the growing importance of service within the mix of what companies deliver, as well as globalisation, consolidation and other trends.

All this makes communication, particularly two-way communication, key.

Keith Hardie
Head of Communication, Premier Travel Inn

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Chris and brethren,

Fair enough. I’ll bite. Ask yourself a couple of basic questions:
What is the purpose of all thoseinternal newsletters and web sites? Why do companies devote scarce resourcesto them?It is not to make people feel good. It is not to win Quill awards. It is notto keep “communicators” employed. None of that is fundamentally important.

Rather, it is to enable the company to succeed in ways it has never succeeded before. Just as you do not buy gasoline for the sake of owning it, but rather because it can take you places, so a company doesn’t publishvnewsletters for the sake of having them, but rather because they can takevthe company places it wants to go.

But the newsletters and web sites are irrelevant by themselves because theydo not operate in a vacuum. They cannot enable the company to succeed unlesstheir messages are consistent with other messages, far more powerful, beingsent by leadership behaviors, programs, policies, day-to-day decisions, anineffable passion for the enterprise, and so much more. That’s the stuffthat employees pay attention to.If we don’t speak up about inconsistent messages, no one will. Theinformation and messages in our publications and web sites must absolutelybe consistent with the reality experienced by employees. If it isn’t, the company cannot change and it cannot succeed.

Thomas J. LeeFounder and CEO, Arceil Leadership Ltd.
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