Advice on strategy that's out of this world

Always an interesting moment when you tell a client the only way they will make head or tail of the company's complex, strategic goals is to imagine they are talking about them with a Martian.
Today isn't the first time I have suggested it but it got to the point where both of us were reaching for the paracetamol and the gin in our bid to bring clarity to the corporate strategy. Sure I have no idea whether a) Martians exist b) they can speak English or c) if they do, whether they give a toss about articulating strategic goals on the red planet. But it is a fun and surefire technique to help you cut through the gobbledegook that sometimes even comms folk find themselves bogged down in.
Today was a prime example as we vainly tried to retrieve some key messages from a raft of almost incomprehensible acronyms, jargon, and nonsense. We were in danger of repeating the same language in our comms plan, so tough was it to decipher and so immersed were we in trying to make sense of it all.
"Wait!" I said. "Step away from the plan. Let's pretend we are talking to Martians."
(Client looks at me as if totally off rocker).
Me: "If a Martian wanted to know what we were trying to do, what would we say to keep it simple?"
Six clear messages were duly produced.
Client smiles with delight and says: "You are a comms genius and deserve twice your daily rate, Sarah!"
Yeah, well maybe she didn't actually say that but am sure she meant it.

Back of a napkin comms tips

Note to self. I must stop going out at weekends and ending up sitting next to people at dinner who want me to help them communicate better with their staff but would like my gratis top tips for it between the main course and pudding! This weekend's impromptu surgery/counselling session took place during a wedding reception and actually did involve me writing on the back of a napkin - albeit one with lovely confetti shapes on it.

All common sense, of course, but it still amazes me how much common sense gets overlooked in the hurly burly of business life.

My top tips for the lovely manager sitting on my right (cousin of the bride, no less) are repeated here and are in no particular order:

• Communicate with integrity: tell the truth always and without exception. If you don’t know the answer, say you will find out and come back to people
• Make time to communicate and make the most of that time
• Remember the basics: people want to know the who, what, where, when, why and how of any communication and ‘what’s in it for me?’
• Think about what you want people to Think, Feel and Do as a result of any communication
• Use stories. The right anecdote can be worth a thousand theories or facts and people are more likely to remember them
• Build trust and credibility. Be visible and approachable, engage the people who work with you openly and fully
• Check for  understanding. Ask questions and provide context and further information if needed.

How do corporate despots survive?

The fabulous eye of cartoonist Tom Fishburne is in spot on focus with this amusing array of corporate characters. If I was a talented artist like Tom I might add the Talk To The Hand guy and Mrs Shssssh You Have Nothing Interesting To Say While I'm In The Room - both of whom I have encountered. And let us not forget Mr Jump-Up-And-Down-On-The-Spot-Ranting-In-The-Middle-Of-An-Open-Plan-Office whom I met on one, very memorable, occasion along with 150 aghast colleagues. Now, I hasten to add, I have worked with many brilliant, inspiring people but there have been a few really, really bad ones along the way. And I am not alone. One such baddie is the bane of a good friend's life. 
My pal is pretty resilient but has extreme challenges with one of those 'Unique Individuals' who everyone seems terrified of, who has single-handedly added triple digits to the sick leave stats, yet whose budget and organisational power remain solid and growing, year-on-year. (Think Edward Tufte's Stalin doing a PowerPoint presentation for more of a pen picture).

In his three million years of service with the organisation, scary, unpleasant, upward managing, nightmare Head of Function big cheese has clawed his way up and all the while successfully avoided any attempts at leadership support, training, performance management and Decent Human Being immersion courses.
Yet it's my pal who is being coached on how to handle this despot and all to improve communication! It's a complete mystery to me what these fiendish folk are good at apart from filling dead men's shoes or roles left by better people having babies. Yet how do they survive? If there's a war for talent, if CEOs are generally wanting to embrace employee engagement, and if research shows people leave their manager not their company, tell me how do they get away with it? If anyone knows, then do please put me out of my misery. 

Read more about 'horrible bosses' from body language guru Carol Goman.

Food for thought

At dinner on Saturday night I was lucky enough to be sitting at the lively end of the table. Amid a range of topics which could have given the BBC Question Time panel a run for its money, my very entertaining companions were regaling me with their stories of life in the companies where they worked, particularly their views of poor communication.

Happily it didn't take long to stop feeling like a doctor who can never socialise any more because strangers want to share their illnesses over the cheesy pineappley things on sticks.

None of what they told me was surprising (which is why there is still plenty of work out there) and I had a few 'remedies' to give them between the starter and pud. Much of our conversation surrounded our views of the barriers to effective comms, how to spot them and points to avoid.

So here they are, sans a particularly tasty bottle or two of chenin blanc and in no particular order:

Listen up: communication is about listening and acting upon what you hear. It’s not just telling people what to do

What's the story? This starts with the leaders of the organisation – many of them struggle to agree on a strategy or if they have one find it challenging to articulate it or share it with employees

Honesty is the best policy: businesses are often governed by their external agenda thus there is still tension around timeliness and transparency of information which needs to be shared with employees

Loosen up: a command and control organisation often struggles with good communication – the great irony is that the military learned long ago that, if you want to win, you have to engage the intelligence of everyone involved in the battle

Do what I say not what I do: everything we do communicates, particularly our behaviour

Take responsibility: effective communication is the responsibility of managers - leaders at all levels need to be able to communicate openly and honestly. It's not a third party activity run entirely by a comms team at HQ!

Hold that thought: there is no shame in saying “I don’t know”. Try: “I don’t know but I will go and find out and come back to you.”

As ever, please feel free to add your thoughts...

Henry Kissinger and keeping calm in a crisis

'There cannot be a crisis today; my schedule is already full.' Henry Kissinger knows what he's talking about and you can't imagine this famous former US Secretary of State not keeping his head when all around are losing theirs. Watch out FIFA!

The same keep-calm-and-carry-on approach is true for the numerous comms pros responding to a 'top tips for handling a crisis' post on Linked In this week.

My top tip, based on managing a crisis in several organisations, is how critical it is for IC and leaders to have a core plan and stick with it - avoiding all temptation to respond and react to everything. 

The human instinct to panic is great and never more so when your crisis is playing out in the media, or with unions, regulators, stakeholders and customers. But please resist 'tit-for-tat' comms as a response to everything everyone is saying about your organisation. It only makes your business look like it's losing control and can also prolong and fuel the crisis. 

That doesn't mean your comms plan should remain static. Indeed, as all good internal comms practitioners know, any communication approach needs to measure its effectiveness in terms of clarity and understanding and in a crisis regular pulse checks with employees are vital so you can respond accordingly.
Just don't lose you own head as tensions rise and keep the messages clear, relevant and timely.

Keep a finger on the pulse of best practice

I love that social communications has opened up the world to sharing knowledge across time-zones and specialities. Not that it's a panacea for networking but it's a great addition to the mix.

Sure Twitter and Linked In can harbour plenty of pretention, self-promotion, hidden sales pitches, and, my old favourite, 'stating-the-bloody-obvious'-as-if-it-was-original-thought.'

So too can face-to-face events and conferences.

But you can get some golden nuggets of wisdom and good practice tips in the blink of a cursor or tap on the keypad from employee comms people who really know what they're talking about or from those in associated fields.

It doesn't matter if you work for a big utility, a global bank or a company that puts widgets on widgets. Don't get hung up on the sector you work in.

People are people - with a few variations on humanity - whatever the business they work for. And as we IC folk are largely focusing on the people aspects of business performance you can still pick up ideas and advice from your fellow practitioners working in a diverse range of organisations, large and small.

In the hurly burly of corporate life, it's sometimes tricky to find time to gauge whether you're unnecessarily reinventing the wheel or could be learning a new way of doing things for greater business benefit.

Even in the thick of action and a meaty challenge or two I have always tried to keep an active and enquiring mind about what others have tried and tested and, in return, shared my own experiences of the job. Social communication really helps with all that good stuff and you can make 'real' connections that stay online or transcend that.

Indeed for today's practitioner it's essential to be connected in one way or another or both. Keeping your finger on the pulse of good practice is what your CEO will expect and it's good for your career (which you take with you wherever you go).

Be interested to know what others think.

Industry events: the good, the bad and the ugly

To go or not to go to an industry conference - that is the question.

With the growth of Linked In, Twitter and other social media, sharing knowledge in this business is easier than ever. Some of my virtual worlds often meet up face to face to network and swap war stories. It got me wondering how the world of the practitioner conference is faring and reminded me of a big online debate had with colleagues and peers this time last year about the value and ethics of the large conferences which used to be the only way to connect with people doing what you do every day.

I think conferences are like any comms channel. They are only as good as the content - whether it’s going to really add value to me or someone who works for me, whether it’s going to provoke fresh thinking and sharing of best practice, and whether I will make new connections or catch up with people I already know.

I have worked both in house and agency/consultancy side and been to some absolutely shocking events repackaging common sense and charging people the equivalent of an oligarch's annual expenses - with nothing to take away.

Equally I have happily paid to attend or send a colleague to events run by individual practitioners, agencies and membership bodies such as IoIC, CIPR and IABC. Usually these offer a healthy mix of strategy and tactics leaving my sometimes jaded outlook well and truly refreshed and giving team members food for thought to help their professional development. Freebies (again with the most pertinent content) are always welcome when budgets are tight or non existent and there are more and more of these.

But beware one of two that look 'no strings attached' but can be financially ruthless. A few years ago I was almost thrown out at a 'free' annual conference for senior practitioners when they ‘unmasked’ me as an interim head of internal comms – apparently a heinous crime because “suppliers only want to speak to budget holders.” I thought I was – trust me I was in that job for a very long time, had signed more than enough supplier invoices and helped a lot of change happen.

Their short sightedness (call it ignorance) and, frankly, rude dealings with me means they never get my personal recommendation and I always give colleagues a health warning if they get tempted. It’s a small world and we are so connected that events charlatans be warned. We know who you are!

Top tips for IC people - please add yours!

People who know me know how much I loathe all the hot air around internal comms, engagement, call it what you will. It's usually coming from the sort of people who have never actually got their hands dirty and wouldn't be tempted out of bed for less than £2k a day.

Still I guess you gotta earn a living. Yesterday, in my bid to make my office a clutter-free zone, I found a copy of an article I'd written in an industry mag which connected with some of the comments I have seen on Linked In and Twitter recently from new IC people looking for tips and advice on the job.

I wrote the article for Melcrum last year with the key points I felt were worth sharing with other comms practitioners about the role of internal comms and the people helping to make it effective.

They asked me to write it (and no, sadly it didn't involve chocolate or cash incentives) because I have been doing this stuff for a wee while and happened to have a particularly challenging role at the time heading internal communications for Royal Mail in the UK.

What was interesting about the exercise was having to hone down what I felt were the most relevant points bearing in mind the job has changed so much in recent years as have business leaders' expectations. And, naturally, I had a bit to say. 

Thank goodness for all those years as a journo and the invention of the bullet point. Yes, the resulting piece had a bit of an 'IC manifesto' look about it, but it is a true reflection of what I believe are the key ingredients for good IC and great IC people.

For this post, there are a couple of points from my 'Ban the fluff in your function' IC manifesto (!!)  which I always keep top of mind. Please feel free to have a look at the full post and add your own.

• Don’t be afraid to say what you are thinking and challenge the status quo. Big organisations have a tendency to say they tried your suggestion in August 1985 and it didn’t work. 

•  Get back to basics – don’t overlook simple ways of communicating for something fancy with bells on it. Conversation is best so do what you can with that in mind.

• Prioritise your priorities or you will soon find there are not enough hours in the day. If you match your comms strategy to business priorities that’s a good start.

Align leaders' actions and words

Actions speak louder than words is a phrase that is never more true than in a corporate context. Carol Kinsey Goman speaks wisely about the importance of leaders matching their behaviour with the words coming out of their mouth if they really want people to believe in them, what they have to say, and act on it.

As communicators I think we are in a unique position to observe this more than many folk in the business, particularly when coaching managers on how to have the most fruitful and inspiring conversations with their teams.

There's no doubt it can be very hard work.

I recall many instances, my own and gleaned from colleagues, about leaders with a genuine want to engage people but who failed to realise that their own behaviour was going to be the main barrier.

• The financial services company whose executive team wanted more 'openness' including open plan offices but who swiftly installed glass cubicles and wooden doors so you could see them but couldn't hear them.

• The bankers who did get rid of their private dining room but carried on having their lunch delivered to their offices on silver domed platters - a daily ritual watched with incredulity by employees who had just seen 25% of their colleagues axed in the name of cost-cutting.

• Or the very genuine but nervous boss who turned up for a factory team building event dressed in a very expensive Italian suit and Rolex and couldn't understand why no-one could relax.

An important part of our role is to help leaders at all levels avoid the pitfalls of non-verbal communication which is just as important, if not more, as the verbal kind. But to have that conversation in the first place you need to be in a position of trust. To get there means understanding what you need to do to add the most value to the business and getting on with it.

Recounting these sorts of anecdotes also helps and I welcome more for the collection plus tips on how you've addressed it.

Yes, but, no, but

‘No’ is a lake in the south central region of the Sudan. It’s also a great word to put people totally straight on what you will or won’t do. And I love ‘computer says no’ in Little Britain.

But I don’t feel it’s a word internal comms people should use too much if they want to be successful in a business.

Nor should the word 'yes'.

Too many internal comms professionals suffer from Corporate Client Afflictions and always say 'yes' particularly with demanding stakeholders who are 'doing the most important things in the business which everyone needs to know about right NOW!' The result is a comms team drowning in workload, rapidly losing their resilience and the ability to consult properly. Knee-jerk, non-integrated and ah-hoc communication might keep the client happy but it sure as hell will confuse everyone else in the organisation.

The best advice for dealing with tricky stakeholders is to take a deep breath and remember someone has come to you for your friendly professionalism, expertise and guidance. Some may be up against a deadline themselves or been given strict instructions by their boss to ‘get that comms out!’

Avoid 'no' and too much 'yes' by simply adopting a positive stance on any request for comms assistance and couple this with further explanation and context to qualify how best you can help. Try to show you understand their point of view. Empathy is very, very productive in this situation.

If you strongly disagree over a particular issue, a firm, fair, diplomatic approach is entirely within most people’s capabilities coupled with constructive suggestions of a way round it.

Once in a while you may get someone totally obnoxious – ‘a unique individual’, which I feel is a brilliant euphemism, wielding their job title around like a great big sword. They can make you feel personally affronted, raise your hackles high and make it difficult to think on your feet. A good tip is to say something like: “I understand what you are saying and it is obviously important so give me a bit of time to think about the best solution and I will get back to you shortly.”

Thinking about the best solution and taking time out like this will give people a very good impression of a professional who cares a lot about getting it right and will strengthen how you work together now and in the future.

If you still can’t work it out, there is always gin!

Top tips from Scott Eblin on dealing with rude people: http://tinyurl.com/6k6glj2

Why strategy schmatters

It's that 'chicken and egg' scenario over what comes first - a business strategy or a comms plan. A comms plan is not a business strategy but sometimes in lieu of the latter (and yes it does happen, dear reader) you can pull together a framework for communicating what the business should be sharing and start the dialogue. 

The inexperience of youth had me waiting around in one organisation for the leaders to neatly explain where the hell we were going as a business so I could wrap a lovely bit of comms activity around it. In hindsight I would have been waiting for at least 18 months and possibly lost my job for twiddling those thumbs. 

After six weeks of much umming, aahing, sucking of teeth (their own) and mysterious meetings between the great and the good in the leadership team there was still no sign of clarity much less action. What's a gal to do? All I could do was grab the situation by the corporate throat and get on with deciphering a lot of Powerpoint slides discarded on photocopiers, ditto random speeches lurking in publications and emails, uncover content hidden in the intranet's dusty bits of cyberspace and invite myself to meetings about meetings in a bid to piece it all together. The result? A draft narrative and a first tranche of activity signed off by the Board who were more than happy after that to get involved in bringing the strategy to life and develop it further with employees. 

Interestingly another company I worked for had a business strategy to help them achieve their goals over the next five years. Sadly my initial delight faded fast. The strategy team hadn't really tested their theory and plans though their Powerpoint skills were up there with the best SlideShare has to offer - truly out of this world. Presenting us with 35 slides, filled to bursting with gorgeous figures, pointy arrows and creative Venn diagrams is all well and good but when the comms team tried those old fashioned 'who', 'what', 'why', 'when' and 'how' words, the strategy turned to dust.

Public speaking v death

It was US comedian Jerry Seinfeld who claimed people are more afraid of speaking in public than they are of death! While public speaking in not for the timid, speeches and everything that goes into creating memorable and persuasive ones are what keeps plenty of people awake at night and are what many of us will have to do during our career.
I would rather stick pins in my eyes than stand on a giant conference stage and spout forth but apparently as long you have something worth saying (have a long, hard, honest think about that) and structure the whole thing in the right way, you need never suffer from 'glossophobia' again.
There are three vital ingredients for a great speech - 'head, heart and guts' in the right proportion.
For speakers it's all about empathy with your audience, making a personal connection with what you are talking about and sharing stories which reinforce the point you are making.
There are also a number of tools of rhetoric to include - from using imagery to asking questions and making contrasts. For the latter, Neil Armstrong said it all with : 'one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.' And it's important to use wit wisely. Making a speech isn't an audition for a stand-up comedy routine - even if your audience end up rolling in the aisles and not for the right reasons. One-liners are better than set piece jokes, and self-effacing humour wins hands down. Here endeth the lesson.

Playground politics shape companies

A colleague told me a truly horrific story of an introverted CEO being forced on to the management conference stage with a leather jacket slung over his shoulder to the va va voom of 'Eye of the Tiger' at 90 decibels.
A salutary reminder that matching the appropriate comms style to a leader's personality is critical or can misfire horribly. Who cares what the guy has to say when he's being held up to ridicule? There is a richness in our individual personalities but you need to work with and not against it when comms planning, I once invited a child-psychologist-turned-executive-coach to share his views with a group of internal comms folk. The subject taxing us at the time was the issue of 'visible leadership'. I don't like the phrase but we had a giant employee survey to thank for quipping it and opening it up to misinterpretation. In essence, it was the age old challenge of how we could work with all types of leader to ensure people could see, hear and talk with them more. This is where our behavioural expert stepped in to explain how our personalities are largely formed in early childhood. Imagine, he said, you are looking at a school playground. You can probably see at a glance all the different characters at play - there's the boy who won't share his toys, the girl who is singing and dancing her way to the centre of  attention, someone tussling over the Wendy House, a child trying to get others to join in and, somewhere, there is bound to be a tiny tot in an angry huff!  Sure, you can be coached and trained to a certain extent, but your personality traits largely remain intact as you turn into a 'grown up' business person. Now be honest - who doesn't see themselves or their colleagues in this story?  Over to the wonderful Joyce Grenfell:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/oom2EPuNPv8

Let me tell you a story

Storytelling (though it's best not to describe it thus to your left brain CEO) is a technique increasingly being used to give more meaning, context and authenticity to the conversations taking place in some businesses. I have used this approach in a few places - careful to describe it to senior leaders as a way to better bring the business strategy to life and not something involving Janet and John or anything to do with Harry Potter. Google it and you will find plenty of references and case studies. I would also encourage you to check out people like Sparknow , Tony Quinlan and The Storytellers .
Here's another good link - the Harvard Business Review's interview with Peter Guber. Couldn't have put it better myself!
http://tinyurl.com/5sub8pf

Making a point with PowerPoint

I have found myself explaining to a senior leader how 168 PowerPoint slides does not an engaging and dynamic business strategy make. I have also asked various executives whether they did a PowerPoint round up for their spouses when asked about their day or engaged in some good old fashioned conversation - the kind of communication employees often prefer. While I still think PowerPoint when used correctly is a useful aide memoire, you can imagine my horror at a story my friend told me recently. It seems the HR director at her work came home from a hard day at the office to tell his wife he was leaving her as she had failed to fulfill Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for him for the past 20 years. And yes, you've guessed it, he used a PowerPoint diagram to spell out why he was off to live with his mistress. If you need to use PowerPoint (for business!), this is a good link: http://tinyurl.com/lonz5w
If you are leaving the love-of-your-life, can I suggest Relate?

More on Maslow and employee engagement at:
http://tinyurl.com/3qqqubs

Remember you're a Wobbler

Talking to a colleague yesterday we agreed the need for comms practitioners to have a goodly amount of  'resilience' to get their job done and to try and make a difference. It reminded me of a great quote (can't remember its origins): 'Corporate culture is like a giant jelly: unless you shake it hard, it wobbles back to its original position.'
I must confess that as a young reporter I thought 'corporate culture' was the stuff lurking in the unwashed mugs in my old newsroom. I am still not sure it's an entity in itself. What I am sure of is that organisations are the sum of their parts in terms of people, processes, how things have always been done and are done. That makes some of them very tough to work in and for. But how very satisfying when you  'wobble' them to improve communications and it works!

Take a peep at the people

You wouldn’t run an advertising or marketing campaign without real insight into the people you were trying to persuade. Yet how much internal comms activity takes into consideration that most of us (with some exceptions) don’t leave our real selves at the office door but come to work as individuals and with all our wonderful human characteristics intact?
We are not one passive ‘audience’. You have members of the public working for you. If you want to take people along as your organisation transforms, you need to understand who they are, what they think and feel, what turns them on and off and what might just convince them to give a little bit extra. And what’s more your CEO or MD will expect you to know this stuff.
There is plenty of research you can do yourself or that already exists in organisations. Indeed you probably have a starter for 10 from measurement and feedback processes. But you may need to enrich it with further qualitative info and this is one of those occasions when you should prioritise your budget – however big, small or non-existent – and call in the experts to mine that valuable insight and help you get the basics in place. 

Puzzling stuff

I was once asked by a senior leader that we need 'to try harder' with engagement. He had a solution, he told me, and suggested our managers engage their teams in the UK around a new company vision using nothing more than a jigsaw puzzle covered in a global mantra. He was planning to send us this magical jigsaw, which had allegedly worked its spell in other countries, and was aghast when I explained it might take just a tad more than that to do it. I did put it to him that culturally the Brits are a questioning kind of people and spookily may want to understand how the business was planning to achieve its vision, what was their role, what was in it for them and so on, and a balsa wood puzzle was not going to do this - however jazzy!

But this story is a reminder that while there are plenty of organisations well ahead in the engagement stakes, there are still too many who want to tick a great big box on it. They seem happy to spend a small fortune on glorious comms gimmicks, sheep dip their employees each and every one of them in some kind of one-off comms activity that promises to miraculously transform them Stepford-wives’-style into 'engaged' beings, and wonder why nothing changes.

PS We never used the jigsaw puzzles.

The ex PM, her veg and cultural comms

Are you a tough battler, friendly helper or a logical thinker? Do you feel threatened when someone points a finger at you or makes eye contact for longer than what you think is polite?

What's good for you – 12 inches or 3ft (personal space, that is) - and are you intimidated by anyone invading it? Does fear of divine retribution mean you refuse to shake hands with a member of the opposite sex?

Crossing the cultural divide when you are communicating globally needs careful consideration.

I was once told by an international comms guru that at birth we are all 'a ball of pure potential'. It's what happens in the following years which shapes a person's view of the world.

Culture, status, wealth, religion, tradition – even the weather - can all affect how we behave and interact with others. It can be tough negotiating the global multi cultural minefield. When researching this a few years ago I discovered that US companies were at that time losing $2 billion a year because they didn't spend enough time or money preparing their people for foreign assignments. Over 30% of all mergers and acquisitions were failing because of cultural chasms. The same guru outlined some interesting personality traits about different nationalities. Apologies if anyone feels they are an exception! Her view was the Brits can be quite uptight and introspective, the Americans like to be in charge and the French are quite hierarchical and business titles and kudos matter enormously.

Then there are the distinct personality traits – the battlers, thinkers and helpers I have previously mentioned. These idiosyncracies transcend all cultures, but being aware they exist and knowing how to deal with them can make business communication far more effective.

Tough battlers move fast, are very ambitious, like to be in charge but rarely possess many people skills. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is a shining example. The following anecdote from a Conservative Party dinner is true...on my dog's life:

Waiter: "Madame, how would you like your steak cooked."

Mrs T: "I'll have it rare."

Waiter: "And the vegetables?"

Mrs T: "They'll have the same as me."

Logical thinkers, on the other hand, love detail, research and won't make any decisions until they have plenty of back-up. Friendly helpers are great listeners, team players and want people to be involved and happy.

Today's communicators have a great deal to think about when faced with the cultural divide. The challenge is to acknowledge the differences between personalities, cultures and countries and work with that insight, not against it.

Business better by smiles

They speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Ban the 'fluff' in your function

As a pragmatist I am not overly impressed with too much theory or hypothetical nonsense about the business of improving internal communication.

In that spirit, and in no particular order, here are some thoughts:

• A comms plan is not a business strategy but sometimes in lieu of the latter (and yes it does happen!) you can pull together a framework for communicating what the business should be sharing and start the dialogue.
• Strategy schmategy. I don’t believe people who say they are only strategic and don’t roll their sleeves up and get tactical. It’s a balance of both depending on business need.
• Don't feel you are only half a comms practitioner if you don’t have every single latest way to communicate in your comms approach. I once overheard someone say they needed to ‘engage’ their staff because everyone else is doing ‘staff engagement’.
• Remember your CEO will come to you wanting to know what people are thinking and feeling in the organisation. Keep a finger on the pulse – that’s your job.
• Talk the language of business and ban the fluff in your function. How can you and your team show real value in the work you do? Perhaps link your activities with your own scorecards and measures or add it to others’ key performance indicators?
• Who, what, why, when, where and how are good to have top of mind most days.
• Stalking could get you in trouble, networking is a great alternative so find those people in the business you need to help you get things done. Organisations never look nice, neat and hierarchical like those organagrams on the intranet. They are structured more like a mad ‘splitting the atom’ diagram from a science book. It’s not what you know but who.
• You don’t need to spend the GDP of a small Caribbean island to support a business with great comms activity.
• Communication is more than one, two or three ways.
• Employees are the public and usually – particularly in the UK – have their own opinions. They don’t do being spoon fed information and spookily often want to have their say or get involved in change.
• Don’t be afraid to say what you are thinking and challenge the status quo. Big organisations have a tendency to say they tried your suggestion in August 1985 and it didn’t work. 
• Get back to basics – don’t overlook simple ways of communicating for something fancy with bells on it. Conversation is best so do what you can with that in mind.
• Listening is good and should feature in your approach to stakeholders and with employees. 
• What do you want people to think, feel or do as a result of communication? If you or the business person who has come to you for help can’t answer that it probably doesn’t need to happen.
• Leadership visibility – be very afraid of encouraging or increasing this if the leader in question hasn’t learned any social skills. It’s fine to be more visible and build a better relationship with your employees but not if your leader is a psycho standing three inches from said employee and asking them if they enjoy their job.
• Benchmark – people are people with a few variations whatever the business they work for. You can learn a lot from your peers’ experiences of supporting similar challenges in other organisations.
• Prioritise your priorities or you will soon find there are not enough hours in the day. If you match your comms strategy to business priorities that’s a good start.
• And lastly…banned from the Board meeting? Your unofficial network gone on holiday? Don’t discount the treasures you can find or pick up at the photocopier, fax machine, water cooler, paper shredder and on all those social communication sites.

Making sense of it

And on the search for commonsense around employee engagement here's one of the clearest discussions on the subject that I have heard for a long time.

http://ciprinside.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/is-there-a-future-for-video-in-employee-comms-and-engagement/

Darth Vadar spreads a little employee love

What’s Darth Vadar got to do with it? I am going to what looks a very promising event in London next week on a theme that continues to tangle up a lot of internal communications professionals and obsesses their CEOs. Staff engagement – a buzzword doing the business bingo rounds  – has a plethora of definitions and I am sure I’m not alone in trying to find some clarity to what I suspect is just age old common sense got lost in the corporate quagmire: treat your people well and you might get a successful business. As it’s top of mind I post up here some lighthearted relief on the subject c/o Lego's Darth Vadar and chums: