Reorganizing the communication department…

Communication World, Dec, 1997 by Diane Gayeski

Q: My company is reorganizing this month into traditional Sales, Marketing, Product Management and Delivery groups. Right now, I head communication for a business group that will be absorbed, with others, into Product Management. We have been told that probably the communication people will be in a different organization, maybe centralized. My responsibility now includes marketing communication, press releases, our web site and a customer service office in Columbus, Ohio. I use mostly freelance writers and editors. A number of us have been invited (by a couple of vice presidents) into a three-hour brainstorming session on what the new communication organization should be. So I am looking for good models, and looking out for myself. We don't think our jobs are in danger, but you never know. What would be an effective model? I would think marketing communication in Sales might be a home.

A: Many organizations are re-organizing their communication function. From what you describe of your present functions, you could certainly find a home in Sales doing somewhat of the same thing. This would probably be an easy fit for you and would not further "rock the boat" of re-organization. However, I see several potential dangers in this approach: It doesn't broaden your skills and you would be somewhat of a "lone wolf" as a communicator in a group of people who have other roles. You could be viewed as more of a tactical "producer" for what others come up with...and if this viewpoint were reinforced, it's easy for companies to think of outsourcing these kinds of production and editing functions.

However, this could be your opening to broach a more strategic role and to propose a different model for communication in your organization. In the client organizations where I have served as a mentor or "jump-starter" for some strategic planning in communication, I have encouraged them to look at the rapid integration of internal and external communication and of promotion and learning. I think that pegging communication into "sales" reinforces an old notion of "advertising" while newer approaches to relationships with customers and prospects are more similar to "collaboration" and "learning."

I think that there is much more career potential and security in establishing a new department of "communication and learning" in which you (and perhaps some other colleagues from PR, marketing and training) would be internal performance consultants managing an integrated information infrastructure that reinforces your company's culture and improves its performance. I would encourage you to help your management look at their perceived "gaps" in performance, the kind of culture and image they want to build, and in knowledge - and then propose a way that these gaps might be closed in new ways. In the short term, probably you and other colleagues would continue to perform similar functions - but in the long term, you will be seen as strategists, not technicians or "word smiths."

This will mean some "selling" and analysis on your part, but in the organizations where I have seen this happen, major philosophical changes have happened in under a year which have really promoted the whole concept of communication and learning and propelled it into a much more central position. Needless to say, this has been a huge career-boost for those communicators and trainers and in most cases, there have been additions to staff - not reductions.

Sometimes it's good to find out what management theories (like empowerment, teamwork, the "learning organization") are floating around in your executive suites and tie your proposals into these notions. In other cases I have found it useful to do executive briefings for companies - in a retreat setting where executives can learn about "best practices" in other companies and new ways to view their own challenges in communicating with their employees and their customers.

If you'd like to read some of my research and case studies, there are some online for free downloading at http://www.omnicomassociates.com. Click on the "publications" section, and you'll see a number of articles listed.

Also, I have materials from some keynote presentations that I've given on the concept of "re-wiring" communication - both philosophically and technically - at http://www.omnicomassociates.com/rewire.html.>Good luck! You have a wonderful opportunity ahead of you.

Cliff McGoon is a business writer with offices in San Francisco and Palm Springs, Calif.

COPYRIGHT 1997 International Association of Business Communicators

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