Change Communications

1. Keep it short

You know what it feels like to be given a questionnaire that is pages and pages long. I usually have a strong desire to run in the opposite direction.

I have a rule: if possible, no more than 10 questions.

If the questionnaire is too long or complex it can actually produce the opposite of what you are trying to achieve; a frustrated reader will either skip questions or give poor quality answers. A short, simple and clear survey is much more likely to encourage the reader to spend a bit more time on the responses he/she is going to give.

2. Know what you want to find out (and how you want exploit that information)

How can you possibly collect and effectively work with information if you don’t have a very clear idea of what it is you want? It’s like trying to go somewhere with a map but not knowing where you want to get to.

• For each survey: define clear objectives, what is it exactly that you want to learn? Why? What are you going to do with this information?
• For each question: make sure you know how you will interpret the results. How are you going to be able to illustrate what is being said? How will this help you make decisions?

If this planning is done carefully you will avoid the following pitfalls:

• Unquantifiable replies: for example, a quantitive measure (such as a rating of 1-4) may be more appropriate than the traditional open text box. If you have 200 text answers to wade through, or even 20, how can you get an effective idea of the group’s opinions or a trend? Text boxes are good for subjective information and suggestions and should be used sparingly.
• Repetition of the same question in different forms: this is very common in surveys where the objective is not clear. The questions end up being a series of stabs in the dark.

3. Simplify your life

Life is complicated enough. Why complicate it more with Excel spreadsheets, word documents, email exchanges, manual counting of results or - god fobid - paper answers?! Very good, reasonably priced survey and questionnaire tools exist on the Web. Not only does this solve the problem of distributing the survey and collecting the results, most sites also include tools for presenting and/or exporting the data collected. All you need to do is send an URL to your target audience and sit back and watch the data come in.

Here are a couple of places to start:

1. http://www.questionmark.com - a heavy duty solution, good if you need to do a lot of surveys and assessments.
2. http://www.surveymonkey.com - a light-weight option, quick and effective. Good when you need to go quickly.

Alternatively you could try some of the advertisements on the side of this blog… :)

4. Know who you are adressing

What you ask and how you ask it (phrasing) should be adapted to your target audience.

Example: A common mistake is to see the survey from your (management) perspective. You know you need to work out what from your team can take from its current experience (organisation, process etc) and apply to future projects. The mistake is to ask your team this question directly. The team members are not necessarily project managers and will not give you the answeres you require. It is much more effective to ask what worked well and with this information you can decide what would be good for future projects.

5. Make sure you have the required management support and means to act on any findings

Avoid doing a survey just for the sake of being able to say you have done one. By sending a survey you are sending a strong message that you want to listen to the opinions of those being questioned; a survey implies some sort of change. If the survey reveals problems and no action is taken you will de-credibilse yourself.

Furthermore, be as open as possible about the results, findings and actions (even if you don’t have the means to act on all points, at least recognise the issues identified) resulting from the exercise, it will work in your favour and show that the team or organisation is capable of listening and adapting.

And that is really what it is all about, no?

Nicholas Ranken

EDIT 28/8/2006 For guidance on responding to a survey, check out this post on Lee Smith’s Talking Internal Communication