Writers can find inspiration anywhere. Because I write mainly about workplace environments and company culture, I turn to a fairly conventional source- the business sections of the newspaper. There’s usually something in every issue that gets me wondering. This week a business customs column inspired me to wonder about “what’s not spoken’.
Let me explain. In the column a reader asked what to do about cubicle-mates who participate so loudly on conference calls that he or she is seriously distracted. Thrilled to see a question so directly related to the types of interpersonal challenges I see as an Ombudsman, I raced to read the answer. Boy, I was disappointed.
The author offered these suggestions, which are reasonable but certainly don’t promote communication:
Ask your supervisor to tell everyone to be more aware of noise
Ask your supervisor to relocate you.
Listen to music as a diversion.
You see the problem? None of these strategies encourage collaboration. It’s almost implied that it wouldn’t be appropriate for the reader to make her colleagues aware of the situation or engage them in collaborative problem-solving. I wondered if there was a message in what wasn’t being suggested.
Here’s what I heard as the message: avoid talking = avoid conflict.
By not mentioning talking as an option for resolving things, the author is actually discouraging the use of talking. Talking directly to each other is still one of the best ways to solve problems, I think. Yet, the author chose to ignore that tool, saying “I prefer the path of least resistance whenever possible.’ Guess that means communication is the path of most resistance?
I bet many managers and employees across the country share a similar preference for avoidance and silence. The trouble with that stance is that old, unresolved conflicts eventually resurface, often at the most inopportune moments.
Don’t read me to say I think it’s wrong to ask for help to facilitate communications in sticky situations. I’m only saying that open discussion is a better first option.
Here’s my recommendation to the reader: Talk to each other.
Just like the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The quickest way to end a dispute or disagreement is to talk directly and honestly with those involved. Talk is such an effective yet inexpensive tool I wonder why people don’t do it more often.
Dina Lynch
“The leaders we need are already here.” These magic words come from Margaret Wheatley, co-founder of the Berkana Institute (www.berkana.org). The Institute is a worldwide community of people who recognize the need for change in communities, organizations and nations and who offer their leadership to help resolve the most pressing local problems.
Of leaders, she says, “We define a leader as anyone who wants to help, who is willing to step forward to make a difference in the world. We know that the world is blessed with an abundance of these leaders.”
These are good words to live by in our own organizations too. In yesterday’s model, leaders were singular and appointed. Leaders were at the top of the heap by virtue of title. Others were deemed followers. Leaders were expected to know all the answers and by force of will to get followers somewhere. By virtue of this model leaders held power and followers did what they were told.
Today’s leaders can emerge from any part of an organization. Rather than being given the title, leaders choose for themselves to make a difference and take action to do so. They see themselves not as experts but as learners. Rather than focusing on heroism and control they focus on enabling others to succeed.
This brings us back to Margaret Wheatley. About 15 years ago she began writing about the connection between living organisms and organizations. “Every living thing seeks to create a world in which it can thrive. It does this by creating systems of relationships where all members of the system benefit from their connections,” she wrote. “As the system develops, new capacities emerge from … working together. Looking at what a self-organizing system creates leads to the realization that the system can do for itself what leaders have felt was necessary to do to the systems they control.”
Wheatley urges leaders in self-organizing systems – and, by the way, all organizations are self-organizing — to abandon the fear-based practice of command and control. “We have to ask ourselves, “How much trust do I really have in the people who work here?”
And what is the reward for embracing a more participative approach? “Those leaders…tell of their astonishment,” she says. “They are overwhelmed by the capacity, energy, creativity, commitment and even love that they receive from the people in their organization.”
It sounds like Utopia. Trusting leaders can bring about an astonishing array of positive results. And anyone can be a leader. If, as Wheatley says, “the leaders we need are already here,” what are the attributes of today’s leaders? How can we prepare ourselves to become a leader? How do we step forward and nominate ourselves for the job? Stay tuned.
By Elise Roaf
The number one thing great communicators have in common is they possess a heightened sense of situational and contextual awareness. The best communicators are great listeners and astute in their observations. Great communicators are skilled a reading a person/group by sensing the moods, dynamics, attitudes, values and concerns of those being communicated with. Not only do they read they environment well, but they possess the uncanny ability to adapt their messaging to said environment without missing a beat. The message is not about the messenger; it has nothing to do with messenger; it is however 100% about meeting the needs and the expectations of those you’re communicating with.
So, how do you know when your skills have matured to the point that you’ve become an excellent communicator? The answer is you’ll have reached the point where your interactions with others consistently use the following ten principles:
1. Speak not with a forked tongue: In most cases, people just won’t open up those they don’t trust. When people have a sense a leader is worthy of their trust they will invest time and take risks in ways they would not if their leader had a reputation built upon poor character or lack of integrity. While you can attempt to demand trust, it rarely works. Trust is best created by earning it with right acting, thinking, and decisioning. Keep in mind that people will forgive many things where trust exists, but will rarely forgive anything where trust is absent.
2. Get personal: There is great truth in the axiom that states: “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Classic business theory tells leaders to stay at arms length. I say stay at arms length if you want to remain in the dark receiving only highly sanitized versions of the truth. If you don’t develop meaningful relationships with people you’ll never know what’s really on their mind until it’s too late to do anything about it.
Most importantly, it means letting go of any preconceived notion of finding “the one right way” to communicate change. No “transformation formula” lasts forever. In fact, the best change-communication techniques aren’t found in any single source or strategy. The most effective guidelines evolve in response to a series of questions:
Question #1 – What is the employees’ perspective?
Front-line employees deal regularly with customers and observe first-hand the issues, challenges, and successes of those they serve. The IT department sees advances in technology before the rest of the organization has adapted to the last update. Professionals throughout the company attend association meetings and have access to experts in their field. Your organization has hired the best and the brightest – and your task is to tap their expertise, points of view, and concerns. The first question to ask is: “What do employees think?”
Question #2 – Did you “set the stage” for change?
The best time to discuss the forces of change is well in advance of an organization’s response to them. Everyone in the organization needs a realistic appreciation of the precursors of change and transformation – the impact of globalization, market fluctuations, technological innovations, societal and demographic changes in the customer base, new products/services of competitors, new government and regulatory decisions. And here technology can be a great asset. Although it certainly shouldn’t be the only medium, the intranet can be a timely vehicle for competitive and industry information.
Question #3 – How will you track employee perceptions?
Employee interaction and feedback loops help communicators track the level of workforce comprehension. Whether you supply an email box or a phone number for individuals to ask questions about the change, use online surveys to query a sampling of the workforce, or create Communication Advisory Teams to represent their fellow workers, the greatest advantages come when organizational feedback is gathered immediately after the delivery of an important message.Question #4 – Do you have honest answers to tough questions?
Not only can employees tolerate honest disclosure, they are increasingly demanding it. And when it comes to change, employees want straight answers to these tough questions:
* Will I keep my job?
* How will pay and benefits be affected?
* How will this affect my opportunities for advancement?
* Will I have a new boss?
* What new skills will I need?
* What will be expected of me?
* How will I be trained/supported for the new challenges?
* How will I be measured?
* What are the rewards or consequences?
Question #5 – Can you answer the most important question: What’s in it for them?
There are personal advantages to be found in almost every change, but people may need help discovering what the advantages are. Sometimes employees just need to be guided through a few questions: What are your career goals? What are the skills you would like to learn? What job-related experiences would you like have? In what ways might this change help you to fulfill some of your personal objectives?
Question #6 – Have you narrowed the “say-do” gap?
Organizations send two concurrent sets of messages about change. Formal communication is what companies “say” to employees about the organization and its goals. Informal communication is what the company “does” in terms of rewards, compensation, training, leadership behavior, organizational structure, etc. to demonstrate and support what it says. For today’s skeptical employee audiences, rhetoric without action quickly disintegrates into empty slogans and company propaganda.
Question #7- Who’s vision is it?
Effective communicators understand the power of vision to imbue people with a sense of purpose, direction and energy. But if the vision belongs only to top management, it will never be an effective force for transformation. In the end, people have to feel that the vision belongs to them. The power of a vision comes truly into play only when the employees themselves have had some part in its creation. So the communicator’s role moves from crafting executive speeches to facilitating interactive events.Question #8 – Can you paint the big-little picture?
Vision is the big picture, and it is crucial to the success of the enterprise. But along with the big picture, people also need the little picture so they know where their contribution fits into the corporate strategy. And here’s where first-line supervisors can be the most effective communicators. In face-to-face discussions with their team members, supervisors become a vital link in turning the organizational vision into practical and meaningful actions.
Question #9 – Are you emotionally literate?
People have to understand the rationale for change – the business case, the marketplace reality. But change is more than just the logic behind it. Large-scale organizational change almost invariably triggers the same sequence of emotional reactions — denial, negativity, a choice point, acceptance, and commitment. Communicators who track this emotional process design strategies that help people accept and move through the various stages.
Question #10 – Are you telling stories?
Good stories are more powerful than plain facts. This is not to reject the value in facts, of course, but simply to recognize their limits in influencing people. People make decisions based on what facts mean to them, not on the facts themselves. Stories give facts meaning. Stories resonate with adults in ways that can bring them back to a childlike open-mindedness – and make them less resistant to experimentation and change.
Question #11 – Do you know how change really gets communicated?
Town hall meetings in which senior leaders speak openly about change, great stories that embody the spirit of change, well-designed intranets filled with pertinent information about the forces and progress of change, interactive “transformation sessions” in which a cross-section of the organization co-creates a vision and develops the strategy, online employee surveys that query and monitor a work force as it deals with the nuances of change, icons and symbols and signage that visually reinforce change, and (especially) first-line supervisors who are trained and prepared to engage their direct reports in a dialogue about what change means to them – these are (and will remain) vital tools for communicators. But, as powerful as they are, these are formal communication channels operating within the organizational hierarchy. And a single informal channel, the company grapevine, can undermine them all.In the hallways, around the water cooler or coffee pot, over the telephone, as part of a blog, in rouge web sites, and through e-mail messages, news is exchanged and candid opinions are offered. It is during these “off-line” exchanges and daily conversations that people decide whether or not to support change. Want to dramatically improve the effectiveness of your change communication? Then find ways to identify, involve, and enlist your organization’s social networks and informal opinion leaders.
Question #12 – Are you positioning change as an event or a corporate mindset?
– Carol Kinsey Goman
6-1-05
You must decide – as an organization and as an individual team leader – what spirit you intend to convey with the participation of your employees in social media.
If your intention is for them to be simply mechanical amplification vehicles for a very carefully crafted marketing message, that can work. You’ll likely see some results in terms of absolute reach and volume of short-term message resonance. You will sacrifice a degree of credibility on behalf of your individual representatives and personality and genuineness on behalf of your brand in favor of a consistent, safe(-r) message. You will also likely sacrifice culturally, since your employees will realize they’re part of a marketing machine, not someone who is entrusted to help build and shape a brand.
If your intention is for employees to become individual voices for your organization and unique representatives of your company’s values, personality and diversity, that can work too. You’ll likely see results in terms of trust and affinity for your brand as well as better identification of your advocates, both internal and external. You will sacrifice a certain amount of stability and potential consistency of message in favor of communications that are more unique and individual. You’ll also sacrifice some predictability around outcomes and need to rely on strong education and culture initiatives to guide your teams and hone their own sense of good judgment.
The bottom line: governance and guidance is important. But it’s a means to more scalable social media, not the end.
We’ve said many times here — and will continue to — that social business transformation is far more cultural than it is operational. Getting your employees involved is no different, and your policies and guidelines need to consider not just what you don’t want to happen, but instead what values, vision and intent you want your teams’ social media participation to convey.
Read full article via sideraworks.com
Having worked in internal communication in a variety of organizations since 1997, I’ve seen and heard a lot of myths and aphorisms about “good communication” which, alas, are either untrue or deeply overstated.
Here are eight of the real doozies—I’m sure there are others; if you know of any, pile into the comments below:
Social Media is new
This one is an absolute classic—the idea that employees talk with each other informally and that those informal conversations are important is one that is as old as any organization. The only thing that’s new about social media is the technology—and how it makes this process easier. Word of mouth is timeless.
Treat employees like customers
One of the true “doh” ideas on employee communication, even if it did spawn the “internal marketing” industry in the ‘90s.
Workplace relationships are far richer than the ones employees have with their cereals and even their cars. Workplaces are where employees hold most of their personal relationships, exert much of their personal efforts and energies, and are where they derive most of the resources for the other aspects of their lives.
Employees are much more like citizens than like customers.
Good communication is free
I remember seeing this howler recently on some HR blog somewhere. It somehow places no value on the time involved with preparing, delivering and understanding any message—assuming that employees don’t work for free either. And some good communication really does cost money too.
Employees can’t say no
One of the big myths of internal communication is the assumption that, at the end of the day, the employee is not free to disagree with or resist the messages he or she is being given. I’ve found this particularly prevalent in American companies, who take a directive tone in their communication much more frequently than do European companies. The downside of presenting something as fact to staff who disagree is that can act as a charter for sabotage or at least reinforce resistance. And, despite the best efforts of corporations, resistance has hardly been eliminated from corporate cultures.
Use the disembodied “we”
Nothing smells of bad communication—not to mention resistance to individual accountability—like the use of the disembodied “we” to communicate an organization’s policies, stances, or changes in official behavior. Such use of the “royal ‘We’” can also be highly disempowering and even feed resentment among those who don’t see themselves as part of that “we”. My core writing principle—no quote, no story.
Good communication is all about recognition
Recognition is important—sometimes even critical to employee retention and morale. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that every bit of employee communication needs to be larded up with 25-year service awards for staff at far-away cafeterias. An over-emphasis on recognition in internal communication can get in the way of urgent and strategic messaging. Where possible, keep the recognition machine ring-fenced from more pressing communication activities.
It’s all about the bosses
One online conversation I saw recently discussed the extent to which an over-emphasis on quoting CEOs and senior executives was driving down readership for a certain tool—to the point where the editors stopped quoting senior management entirely. I personally think there needs to be a balance—CEOs and senior executives are effective at setting parameters and policies, but stories from the field are far better at bringing those things to life.
Line Management Cascades are the best form of communication
To many in corporations, the only “real” form of internal communication is the line management cascade—the formal presentation of authorized corporate information by the line manager to his/her staff, to be repeated step by step until the presentation reaches the shop floor unscathed.
But while cascades do an excellent job of reminding people “who’s the boss”, cascades fail on many other grounds. For one thing, they move with bovine velocity, with long gaps between delivery by a boss and by his/her direct reports, magnified over geography and hierarchy.
Secondly, the further they move, the more corrupted their tone and content become—particular when managers omit sections for time reasons (or perhaps, darker motives), or when they add in inappropriate inflections or gestures (air quotes for a new bit of terminology, for instance). Third—while less prevalent perhaps most damning—they inevitably omit information or smooth over gaps or rationales, which then prompt a surge of back-channel communication to get clarifications or seek to clarify through the distribution of rumors.
While, as my colleague Liam Fitzpatrick would say, “internal communication is not rocket science”, I would also argue that it’s neither voodoo nor witchcraft either. Being able to take on clients and bosses who seek to play “communication strategist” and overspecify tools and tactics is one way to help ensure your own effectiveness in these interesting times.
The biggest challenge I find for managers responsible for the employer brand strategy is they don’t understand the science of branding and lack knowledge in branding principle and practices which have been informed by decades of research into how brands grow. I’m going to go over that here, and then get to what you can do to grow your company brand.
Common employer branding mistakes
Some of the most common mistakes I see made by companies include:
- Creating recruitment advertising that doesn’t build or refresh relevant memory structures or associations about what it is like to work for the company
- Viewing employer branding as merely a recruitment strategy or short-term recruitment advertising campaign
- Failing to conduct research with the internal and external audience to determine what makes their employer brand distinctive
- Paying premiums for low-reach media that is sold by money-hungry vendors as “reaching a niche audience”
- Relying on a ranking in “best places to work” surveys as the sole metric for the employer brand strategy
When Should We Measure Communications?
Annual in depth surveys. Engagement and satisfaction surveys are typically carried out annually and can carry additional questions to provide some insights into the effectiveness of communications.
Prior to a specific communications campaign. In order to best understand the impact of communications, it is necessary to measure (awareness, attitudes, knowledge etc) before a campaign.
After a significant communication or campaign. It is important to measure the effectiveness and impact of significant communications programs and initiatives. This allows you to tailor internal communications to make sure they are effective and delivering quantifiable business value.
At intervals to track attitudes. Regular measurement helps communicators to gauge the ever shifting feelings and attitudes within an organization and to tailor messages to make sure they are appropriate to their audiences.
Pulse checks and temperature checks during and after specific events provide an insight into the issues and challenges an organization faces and to gather feedback on specific issues.
At intervals to benchmark and track against KPI’s. Measuring regularly against benchmarks and tracking trends over time provide an early warning of issues that may go undetected until they have escalated further.
What to Measure?
Determining which aspects of communication to measure will depend on the organization’s specific business and communication objectives. A few examples of useful communications measurements include:
How should employees behave as company representatives on social media platforms?
- Transparency. Should employees acting as company agents identify themselves? Should they use their own names? Should they list their job title? Should there be specific rules that apply their use of photographs or avatars?
- Confidentiality. What information are employees allowed to disclose? Is this information already public? If not, does it require specific approvals? Who gives permission for release of non-public information? Is the information of competitive value?
- Financials. How should employees discuss corporate results or financial situation? This is particularly important for publically traded companies where regulatory agencies are involved.
- Copyright. How are intellectual property (aka IP) issues to be handled? What are the internal procedures? To whom should employees address their questions?
- Competitors. Since social media forums tend to be open to the public, how should employees treat competitors and their representatives? Are there specific procedures that they should follow?
How much planning has your organization dedicated in enhancing (or, God forbid, establishing) a creative corporate culture?
First, let’s get a grip on the “creative” in creative corporate culture. Creativity isn’t just for design firms, art studios and elementary craft projects. Creativity and creative thought is necessary for all agencies and communication professionals who seek innovative strategies for their clients. Consider your organization’s best and brightest idea—was there not a light bulb of creativity that popped on (even flickered) that lead you down the path of project righteousness?
It’s also important to recognize that culture comes from the people—it is the people. Think about the individuals within your organization—what are their personalities like? Who are they outside of work? What tickles their fancy? All of these things lend to the culture of your organization, and ultimately your agency’s product. Once we begin tapping into these quirks, culture begins to form.
As daunting as the idea of a creative corporate culture may seem, fear not my fellow PR and marcom professionals. If you are one of the bold and daring to take on the challenge of building said culture in the New Year, here are a few tips for your right brain to digest:
1. Get a desk tchotchke, already. Culture is built by sharing parts of our personality with those around us—what better place for that than your workspace? If your personality could be personified by something small that fits on your desk, what would it be? Find that thing, embrace it and share it!
2. Build a community space. Forget the archaic days of water cooler chats. People like to hang in hip spaces—gather ‘round a Wii, create a community bulletin board or have a reading nook filled with industry related publications. As the saying goes, “if you build it, culture will come.”
3. Play games and buy toys. Incorporate games (and yes, even toys) into traditional office activities. Play a round of Apples to Apples before a staff meeting, or leave baskets of building blocks around the office. Using different parts of the brain is important to creativity and improving the overall quality of our ideas.
4. Find a platform and give back. A surefire way to build corporate culture is engaging team members in charitable activities—it feels good to give back, and when you do it as a group it creates unique bonds and fun memories. Find a kooky charitable activity in your town and make a day of it!
5. Eat, drink and be creative. The easiest way to enhance an organization’s culture is eating together. Consider a monthly potluck where staff can bring their favorite fares for teammates to enjoy. Encourage exotic recipes and fanciful presentations—these always create a buzz around the office.
By the year 2011, the leading edge of the Baby Boom workforce will be 65 years old – eligible for full retirement. And that generation’s collective wisdom will leave with them unless it has been transferred to younger employees. Which in turn makes succession planning and knowledge sharing increasing important to an organization’s financial strategy.
Effective leadership is a crucial source of competitive advantage, and corporations can’t just wait for leaders to arrive, fully developed. Organizations must actively seek out people with leadership potential and find ways to nurture and develop that potential. It takes a serious commitment of both time and resources to do it right. But that is the key to what separates great companies from good companies. Great companies make developing leaders a priority.
Here’s how . . .
The process begins with the early identification of leadership talent, and the realization that under certain circumstances, leadership potential is easy to spot. In an area of complex problems or in times of crisis, there are people who organically rise to the top. They are proactive, reliable, thoughtful, and they automatically take control. These natural leaders speak up – and other people listen to them because they’re providing solutions, not just stating problems.
Joseph Pieroni, president of Sankyo Pharma, notes the emergence of informal leadership in his organization: “Every time we are in a tough situation, people point to the same two or three individuals because we feel confident these ‘leaders’ will go well beyond their area of responsibility – and do whatever is needed.”
Identifying new leaders is something that all current leaders should be responsible for – and that policy is most effective if it starts at the top. CEOs and presidents need to spend time focused on this issue, assessing leadership strengths as well as current and future organizational requirements. And leadership development should start early. Ten or fifteen years before a person is expected to be at their full potential, current management should be discussing how to develop this individual. The most valuable conversation will center on how people use their time: How can their skills be leveraged in new ways? Who needs to know these people? Who should be working with them, coaching and mentoring them? What experiences would be the most advantageous?
Spotting potential leaders is also a smart move for managers who want to advance their own careers. As one savvy leader told me, “The minute I begin a new assignment, I start looking for people who can be groomed as my successor. I know that I won’t be able to take the next step until someone else can take over my current job.”
The head of Ketchum’s brand practice, also the associate director of their New York office, was offered the director position in Atlanta as a way of rounding out her expertise. That was a decision made to advance her career, and looked at from the standpoint of what would add the most value for her. Another example from Ketchum is a director from the San Francisco office who was moved to a leadership role in London so that he could gain international experience.
But leadership development isn’t only about acquiring business skills. It’s also about effective mental preparation. According to Bob Dilenschneider, CEO of The Dilenschneider Group, the key is learning to keep a sense of perspective: “Keeping your balance at all times can be extremely difficult. Since leaders play the game at the highest and lowest levels, they experience the glory of the victories as well as the disappointment of setbacks and failures. The trick is not to let the glory go to your head nor let the disappointments devastate you.”
I agree with Bob. Giving people the freedom to succeed and fail – and the guidance to help them deal with both – may be the best leadership development strategy of all.
What I have below is clearly not exhaustive, but they are the ideas that really resonated with me as a recruiter. Also, as we all know, many vital corporate communications skills are clearly timeless and I’ve tried not to put too much overlap of them here.
Increased Importance Of Ethics And Corporate Social Responsibility Considerations.
The concept of transparency as it pertains to the modern enterprise is relatively new and hugely transformational. Because of current and future technology, our organizations are going to be transparent whether we like it or not. We’re all living, or will shortly be living, in glass houses. As a result, it’s going to be largely up to the top communications leaders within the company to make sure this fact represents an opportunity and not a restriction. The silver lining of the existence of the challenge posed by transparency from the communications person’s point of view is that, if it’s within her purview, it gives her a lot more leverage for influence internally — and should mean even greater access to and cooperation from C-level executives.
Greater Flexibility In Writing And Speaking Style.
My PR friends tell me that in many cases the press isn’t the primary audience for their press releases anymore. More often they’re writing them for the end users, or they’re presenting the information in a short, web friendly video. As a result the savvy communications pro is very careful about balancing the use of conversational-style writing and speaking with the more formal, “professional” style. Use of the proper voice and tone in the company’s various channels of communication is key, and while it’s a task that in and of itself may not be that hard on a case by case basis, we have to remember that it all has to be integrated seamlessly with the overall messaging and marketing activities.
More Metrics And Quantitatively Oriented.
There is clearly debate about the extent to which lead generation and lead nurturing could and should play a role in what PR people are going to be asked to do in the near future, at least as it pertains to their role driving social media initiatives for their companies. What’s really not debatable is that the need to analyze what people do on the web (and how much they do it) will continue to grow. That means looking at numbers, data, statistics — web analytics. There’s no escaping it. Communications experts are going to need to know their stuff here, especially if they want to gain respect and get more influence with top management.
Joseph P. Pieroni, President, Sankyo Pharma
Visioning is a team sport. Today’s most successful leaders guide their organizations through transformation not through command and control, but through a shared purpose and vision. Leaders adopt and communicate a vision of the future that impels people beyond the boundaries and limits of the past. But if the future vision belongs only to top management, it will never be an effective force for change. The power of a vision comes truly into play only when the employees themselves have had some part in its creation.
“We created a vision for the future by engaging everyone in that conversation. Vision facilitators guided the process for the national organization, at each and every affiliate, and among the different constituents — medical directors, clinic directors, educators, etc. Although my views were strongly represented, everyone’s input was considered. The result is a cohesive vision that is owned by the entire organization.”
Gloria Feldt, President, Planned Parenthood Federation
Diversity is crucial to harnessing the full power of collaboration. Experiments at the University of Michigan found that, when challenged with a difficult problem, groups composed of highly adept members performedworse than groups whose members had varying levels of skill and knowledge. The reason for this seemingly odd outcome has to do with the power of diverse thinking. Group members who think alike or are trained in similar disciplines with similar bases of knowledge run the risk of becoming insular in their ideas. Instead of exploring alternatives, a confirmation bias takes over and members tend to reinforce one another’s predisposition. Diversity causes people to consider perspectives and possibilities that would otherwise be ignored.
The following is excerpted from a letter to Marriott managers from the Lodging Director of Diversity:
“We must begin to see diversity as an asset to our business and encourage the special talents and diverse perspectives of each associate to produce quality service of superior value for all of our customers.”
Answer: Location, location, location.
Answer: Communication, communication, communication.
Which is not to say that the top-down cascade communication strategies of the past are sufficient. They’re not. What is taking their place is a broader, more inclusive definition of communication. Here are five ways to add strategic value to your change communications.
1. Don’t just recite the facts – interpret them.
Facts are neutral. People make decisions based on what facts mean to them, not on the data itself. What people really want to know is, “What sense do you make of this? What is the conclusion? What does it mean to us?”
2. Utilize the power of symbolic communication.
There are a thousand ways to communicate symbolically. There are ceremonies, awards, logos, icons, drawings, and metaphors. Best of all, there are real-life leadership behaviors that “speak” volumes.
Folks at BBC still remember when Michael Grade, then controller and now director-general of BBC One, visited the news department one day when they were short-staffed. He pitched in and acted as a junior researcher to cover a shipwreck incident, finding a member of the coast guard to interview. That example raced through the company grapevine to become a positive symbol of corporate culture change.
3. Tell more stories.
Storytelling is an important tool to connect with audiences on an emotional level. In communication terms, storytelling is a “pull” strategy, in which listeners are invited to participate in the experience and to imagine acting in the mental movie that the storyteller is presenting. Stories resonate with adults in ways that can bring them back to a childlike open-mindedness — in which they are less resistant to new and different ideas.
4. Turn first line supervisors into first-rate communicators.
There’s little doubt that one’s direct boss is a crucial link in the change-communication delivery system. Who better to align employee efforts to the change goals? But most first-line supervisor are lacking a key communication element.
While consulting for a utility company in New York, I was observing several supervisors delivering a change message to their teams. As you would expect, there was a great variety of styles and expertise on display: Some managers were glib ad-libbers while others were stilted and read from a script. Some were well liked and others were barely tolerated by the people they managed. But all the supervisors had one weakness in common. Not one of them had the training or skills to turn a monologue into a dialogue.
5. Harvest the grapevine.
Research suggests that up to 70% of all organization information circulates through the grapevine, yet few communicators have taken advantage of the informal channels in their organizations. Gossip moves through people who gravitate into an intermediate position, making connections between individuals and factions. Those who control the gossip flow hold a lot of power.
Further investigations were made, and finally it was discovered that the statue had been sculpted by forgers in Rome. The teams of analysts who did the 14 months of research turned out to be wrong. The historians who relied on their initial hunches were right.
I especially like this story because it aligns so strongly with my research in organizational creativity. Whether they call it a hunch, a gut feeling, or a flash of insight, thousands of successful managers and executives make business decisions using their intuition. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Conrad Hilton are famous examples of executives who relied heavily on intuitive business decisions. A story about Conrad Hilton highlights the value of what was referred to as “one of Connie’s hunches.” There was to be a sealed bid on a New York property. Hilton evaluated its worth at $159,000. and prepared a bid in that amount. He slept that night and upon awakening, the figure $174,000 stood out in his mind. He changed the bid and submitted the higher figure. It won. The next highest bid was $173,000. He subsequently sold the property for several million dollars.
At the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Douglas Dean studied the relationship between intuition and business success. He found that 80 percent of executives whose companies’ profits had more than doubled in the past five years had above average precognitive powers. Management professor Weston Agor of the University of Texas in El Paso found that of the 2,000 managers he tested, higher-level managers had the top scores in intuition. Most of these executives first digested all the relevant information and data available, but when the data was conflicting or incomplete, they relied on intuitive approaches to come to a conclusion.
Computer whiz Allan Huang had puzzled for months over a recurring dream in which two opposing armies of sorcerers’ apprentices carried pails filled with data. Most nights, the two armies marched toward each other but stopped just short of confrontation. Other times they collided, tying themselves into a big red knot. Then one night, something different happened – the armies marched right into each other, but with no collision. Instead, they passed harmlessly through each other like light passing through light.
In all of our brains, there is a powerful subconscious process, which works to sift huge amounts of information, blend data, isolate telling details, and come to astonishingly rapid conclusions. Our job is to better understand that process so we can nurture it, trust it, and use it!
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is the author of nine books including CREATIVITY IN BUSINESS and “THIS ISN’T THE COMPANY I JOINED” — How to Lead in a Business Turned Upside Down. She delivers keynote speeches and seminars to association and business audiences around the world. For more information or to book Carol as a speaker at one of your events, please call: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or visit her website: http://www.CKG.com.
Here’s my view on “leaders.” I believe that everyone can – and should – lead from wherever one is inside an organization, irrespective of level, title, or whether one manages others or not.
To survive today, every organization needs people willing to lead at every level and in every position. What’s more, leading is one way in which everyone can continue to contribute and more importantly grow.
It’s a win-win.
The trick is being able to use your influence to get others to follow you. One can’t be a leader – no matter the definition – without followers.
In what ways do you lead, and how can you get more followers?
Michael Dell simply gets it. He understands that businesses can no longer afford to rest on their laurels while the digital bazaar transforms the world around them. More importantly, however, Dell understands that in order to promote change he must lead by example. No executive has all the solutions to the many questions surrounding the shifting corporate landscape, but at least Dell isn’t afraid to look for the answers.
Using Dell as our model of forward-thinking leadership, I offer these seven traits of what it takes to be an affective social executive. Fidelman has expertly identified the traits of those executives unafraid or incapable of changing with the times, but now it’s time to seek out the antidote.
#1 The Malleable Mind
Think of the “Malleable Mind” as the counter to Fidelman’s “Short Sleeve Fat Tie Executive.” Whereas Fat Tie Execs expect to be sole originators of all ideas, cruelly dictating company agenda from the confines of their office, Malleable Minds value the input of their employees. They aren’t threatened by change—in fact they’re often excited by it, and actively encourage an environment of new ideas and approaches. Malleable Minds recognize that employee initiative and collaboration are essential cornerstones of the social business, and they encourage their workers to utilize social media and discuss new ideas that might improve day-to-day operations. Malleable Minds know that you can’t keep a good idea down for long, and see it as their job to absorb information and help put ideas into motion.
Identifiable Traits – Malleable Minds understand that they’re not the only ones with good ideas. They are unburdened by ego, actively seek feedback on their own initiatives and welcome the opinions of others. They understand that respect is earned not through an iron fist, but through and open mind. They may be the boss, but they do not take their positions for granted.
The number one thing great communicators have in common is they possess a heightened sense of situational and contextual awareness. The best communicators are great listeners and astute in their observations. Great communicators are skilled a reading a person/group by sensing the moods, dynamics, attitudes, values and concerns of those being communicated with. Not only do they read they environment well, but they possess the uncanny ability to adapt their messaging to said environment without missing a beat. The message is not about the messenger; it has nothing to do with messenger; it is however 100% about meeting the needs and the expectations of those you’re communicating with.
So, how do you know when your skills have matured to the point that you’ve become an excellent communicator? The answer is you’ll have reached the point where your interactions with others consistently use the following ten principles:
1. Speak not with a forked tongue: In most cases, people just won’t open up those they don’t trust. When people have a sense a leader is worthy of their trust they will invest time and take risks in ways they would not if their leader had a reputation built upon poor character or lack of integrity. While you can attempt to demand trust, it rarely works. Trust is best created by earning it with right acting, thinking, and decisioning. Keep in mind that people will forgive many things where trust exists, but will rarely forgive anything where trust is absent.
2. Get personal: There is great truth in the axiom that states: “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Classic business theory tells leaders to stay at arms length. I say stay at arms length if you want to remain in the dark receiving only highly sanitized versions of the truth. If you don’t develop meaningful relationships with people you’ll never know what’s really on their mind until it’s too late to do anything about it.
By Elise Roaf
“The leaders we need are already here.” These magic words come from Margaret Wheatley, co-founder of the Berkana Institute (www.berkana.org). The Institute is a worldwide community of people who recognize the need for change in communities, organizations and nations and who offer their leadership to help resolve the most pressing local problems.
Of leaders, she says, “We define a leader as anyone who wants to help, who is willing to step forward to make a difference in the world. We know that the world is blessed with an abundance of these leaders.”
These are good words to live by in our own organizations too. In yesterday’s model, leaders were singular and appointed. Leaders were at the top of the heap by virtue of title. Others were deemed followers. Leaders were expected to know all the answers and by force of will to get followers somewhere. By virtue of this model leaders held power and followers did what they were told.
Today’s leaders can emerge from any part of an organization. Rather than being given the title, leaders choose for themselves to make a difference and take action to do so. They see themselves not as experts but as learners. Rather than focusing on heroism and control they focus on enabling others to succeed.
This brings us back to Margaret Wheatley. About 15 years ago she began writing about the connection between living organisms and organizations. “Every living thing seeks to create a world in which it can thrive. It does this by creating systems of relationships where all members of the system benefit from their connections,” she wrote. “As the system develops, new capacities emerge from … working together. Looking at what a self-organizing system creates leads to the realization that the system can do for itself what leaders have felt was necessary to do to the systems they control.”
Wheatley urges leaders in self-organizing systems – and, by the way, all organizations are self-organizing — to abandon the fear-based practice of command and control. “We have to ask ourselves, “How much trust do I really have in the people who work here?”
And what is the reward for embracing a more participative approach? “Those leaders…tell of their astonishment,” she says. “They are overwhelmed by the capacity, energy, creativity, commitment and even love that they receive from the people in their organization.”
It sounds like Utopia. Trusting leaders can bring about an astonishing array of positive results. And anyone can be a leader. If, as Wheatley says, “the leaders we need are already here,” what are the attributes of today’s leaders? How can we prepare ourselves to become a leader? How do we step forward and nominate ourselves for the job? Stay tuned.
How much planning has your organization dedicated in enhancing (or, God forbid, establishing) a creative corporate culture?
First, let’s get a grip on the “creative” in creative corporate culture. Creativity isn’t just for design firms, art studios and elementary craft projects. Creativity and creative thought is necessary for all agencies and communication professionals who seek innovative strategies for their clients. Consider your organization’s best and brightest idea—was there not a light bulb of creativity that popped on (even flickered) that lead you down the path of project righteousness?
It’s also important to recognize that culture comes from the people—it is the people. Think about the individuals within your organization—what are their personalities like? Who are they outside of work? What tickles their fancy? All of these things lend to the culture of your organization, and ultimately your agency’s product. Once we begin tapping into these quirks, culture begins to form.
As daunting as the idea of a creative corporate culture may seem, fear not my fellow PR and marcom professionals. If you are one of the bold and daring to take on the challenge of building said culture in the New Year, here are a few tips for your right brain to digest:
1. Get a desk tchotchke, already. Culture is built by sharing parts of our personality with those around us—what better place for that than your workspace? If your personality could be personified by something small that fits on your desk, what would it be? Find that thing, embrace it and share it!
2. Build a community space. Forget the archaic days of water cooler chats. People like to hang in hip spaces—gather ‘round a Wii, create a community bulletin board or have a reading nook filled with industry related publications. As the saying goes, “if you build it, culture will come.”
3. Play games and buy toys. Incorporate games (and yes, even toys) into traditional office activities. Play a round of Apples to Apples before a staff meeting, or leave baskets of building blocks around the office. Using different parts of the brain is important to creativity and improving the overall quality of our ideas.
4. Find a platform and give back. A surefire way to build corporate culture is engaging team members in charitable activities—it feels good to give back, and when you do it as a group it creates unique bonds and fun memories. Find a kooky charitable activity in your town and make a day of it!
5. Eat, drink and be creative. The easiest way to enhance an organization’s culture is eating together. Consider a monthly potluck where staff can bring their favorite fares for teammates to enjoy. Encourage exotic recipes and fanciful presentations—these always create a buzz around the office.
Excerpt from an interview with Bob Pozen, author of Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours.
In this hyper-connected world, it’s easy to get distracted. How do you recommend workers stay focused?
Email and mobile phones can be great contributors to productivity, but also great detractors by wasting lots of time. So I urge you to ignore a large chunk of your emails and then use OHIO—short for “only handle it once”—for the important ones. If an email is important, respond to it immediately. If you wait a few days, you will forget it or take several minutes to find it again. As to your cell phone, I strongly urge you to get a separate ring tone for your boss so that you can easily ignore all other after-hours calls if you so desire. And make an agreement with your boss that you’ll be unreachable during certain times—such as family dinner. Don’t be afraid to “unplug”—turn off your phone, and close your laptop.
What is the best way to efficiently use your time at the office?
To use your time efficiently at work, you need to prepare in advance. First, you should write down your goals for the next week and the next year, and then carefully consider which ones are most important to you and your organization. Next, you should each night go over your schedule for the next day and see if it is consistent with your highest priorities. You might find that your schedule is mainly reactive to the needs of others, rather than your own goals. To better align your schedule with your priorities, don’t be afraid to decline invitations to unnecessary meetings, and recognize that certain tasks only require a quick and dirty effort.
Read full interview by Dan Schawbel in Forbes