Ways in Which Strategic Communication Can Help Your Business or Organization
In conversation with business leaders and CEOs, I find that many struggle to understand how communications fits into their overall value proposition or how it can help them achieve their objectives. After a recent conversation with a senior colleague, I decided to put my thoughts to paper on the value of communication in a business or organization.
I worked for a 22 years in a multi-national firm with presence in 78 countries and have been an independent business strategist and communication consultant for the past two years. My perspectives shared below is from my experience in both contexts, working with a diverse portfolio of organizations in the private and public sector. There are several ways that communication can make a difference in how an organization works.
BUILDING A SHARED VISION: Many businesses under-estimate the power of building a shared vision within their organization. This is a process that can only be enabled through strategic, purposeful, and intentional communication. This is especially important if you have more than a hundred employees working in multiple locations. Companies work better when employees understand the importance of their roles and how it fits into the big picture.
Having a strategic and purposeful approach also means that companies do not leave internal communication to chance. In much the same way as organizations plan for expenditure, sales, or marketing, technical delivery, you need to also plan for communication that makes everything work together. Communication is the enabler that drives the oil of integrated delivery.
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: Some business leaders are unsure about the role or relevance of business communications to their operations. They feel that business communication should be left to the discretion of Managers and Supervisors. Now, while this may be correct, it assumes that all managers or team leads are effective communicators and experience shows that is often not the case.
If the organization is complex I.e., multi-layered with several reporting lines as most companies are, there is a greater need for an intentional communication strategy. There needs to be a corporate storyline based on the overall strategic direction. That narrative needs to be cascaded down the lines to every employee. You may need to have a script for this purpose with different versions for various categories of staff.
Your messaging strategy should be like a pyramid. The base of the pyramid should be your headline messaging for the year. This should be communicated to all staff irrespective of how they work. It should include bullet points of your strategic direction and key business priorities and high-level goals for the year.
The next level of the pyramid should be the targeted messaging to various levels of staff I.e., supervisors, managers, and business leaders. This messaging would be targeted to reflect the specific mandates for that team and the delivery centers they represent. The top of the pyramid would be the high-level messaging to the core leadership team of the business including the CEO.
This pyramid approach to communication ensures that there is a common and consistent message to all staff across all levels, with varying degrees of detail and focus for staff categories according to deliverable, work levels and expertise/specialization.
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: In my experience, this pyramid approach to organizational communication needs to be developed into a strategic communication plan signed off and disseminated from the start of the year. There are several practical ways in which this can be done.
From my observation, there are three types of companies. First are the companies that do not have a well-articulated strategic direction or do not feel the need to undertake an annual strategy review and refresh. I would classify these companies as the wing-it companies. Second is the companies that have a strategic direction but fail to purposefully communicate, cascade and socialize it throughout their organization. These I would call the wish-it companies. The third category are those that develop a strategic direction and communicate diligently to all levels of their organization right down to the base of their pyramid. These are the work-it companies.
As can be expected, the wing-it companies are more likely to have inconsistent performance over the short to long term period depending on individual staff initiative, adaptability, and capacity. Such companies rely more on individual aptitude than organizational support. Although this approach may work for a some local operating companies, the flip side is that when the talented staff moves on, the team or operation collapses.
The wish-it companies are in in the same position albeit better positioned from an organizational delivery standpoint because the presence of a strategic direction would provide decision-making clarity. However, the absence of a strategic communication plan would make it harder for that clarity to be communicated further down the organization.
The third category is those companies or institutions that build a strong organization that enables everyone to deliver at their best capacity. They make no assumptions about individual capacity and aptitude. But embed a proactive, targeted and highly purposeful communication strategy into business implementation, organizational delivery and leadership mandate. This kind of organization is likely to be less vulnerable to staff movements because the structure of communication makes it easier for others to step in when needed.
BENEFIT & VALUE OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
INFORMATION: One of the most basic reasons for communication is to provide information. Every communication plan or strategy must provide information otherwise it is of no effect. It is the role of the HR and/or Communication team to ensure that relevant information is proactively communicated to the appropriate staff levels in a timely and effective manner. This enables departments to plan on time, reduce errors, wastage, and avoidable losses due to delays or miscommunication.
MEANING: An important goal of communication is to convey meaning. This is a nuance that is often lost in organizational communication. Information is not communicated until it conveys meaning. Meaning is what drives understanding and enables required action. A strategic communication plan should be developed with the intent to communicate information and convey meaning.
COMPLIANCE & SAFETY: Communication is one of the strongest pillars with which to drive compliance within an organization. People respond to messages that they hear frequently reiterated by their leaders. Any hard targets on financial compliance or safety needs to be proactively communicated and re-emphasized repeatedly at the most relevant opportunities. Having a strategic communication plan enables you to schedule in your compliance messaging into your calendar for the year.
PERFORMANCE & DELIVERY CULTURE: Communication is the best way to deliver a transparent and sustainable performance and delivery culture. It creates awareness, allows employees to engage with performance opportunities within the organization and self-motivate to improve their delivery. An overarching messaging on performance delivery culture and behavior attributes will enable the organization to develop its own unique profile of what solid performance looks like. It also empowers managers and supervisors to be better leaders and delivery coaches.
RECOGNITION & REWARD: Closely related to the above is recognition and reward. Communicated recognition and reward not only encourages staff to do better but motivates others to do more. Building awareness around the criteria for recognition also helps create a sense of productive community and enhances employee value proposition.