Reinventing communication

Communication World, Feb, 1997 by Jim Shaffer

Recent downsizing of organizational communication functions slashed bodies and cut costs. It left fewer people and smaller budgets to do the same work that was performed pre-downsizing. But, rarely did it address the work's appropriateness. Nor did it help the communication function address its future role in a changing organization.

Today's aggressive communication reformers are trying to pick up where downsizing left off. Their reforms are driven by three factors that are shaping the rest of their organizations: Technology, increased competition and the emerging partnership between the organization and its members.

Technology replaced layers of middle management that frequently blocked communication. Now, technology allows anyone with E-mail to move information throughout the organization, posing questions or suggesting new product ideas to a Bill Gates or a Lou Gerstner and getting a direct response.

Increased competition forced us to look for ways to do everything exponentially better, faster and at less cost. It's caused us to challenge all the rules, processes, policies, programs and structures. Self-direction, virtual offices, spiderweb organizational structures and telecommuting required us to adopt more efficient and effective ways of moving information among people who need it to improve business performance.

The new partnership evolved from recognition that all assets are inert until people do something with them. Future winners will be those who can get the right people to do the right things at the right time with precious finite assets. Communication in its broadest form represents a critical enabler that can engage people and unlock the discretionary effort needed to win. The new partnership requires a level of openness and honesty that has never existed.

These factors militate for three interrelated reforms that should be made while reinventing the communication function if it's to serve as a strategic partner in the future organization. Some firms are reinventing their functions now. Most haven't started.

Three Reforms

1. The reinvented communication function should be strategic, focused on solving business problems and integrated with business processes. In most organizations, it's not.

Most functions are tactical, programmatic, and focused on developing and distributing media. Their work is execution-oriented, not strategic. They labor each day to produce products. Their preoccupation often is with meeting deadlines, securing approvals, and moving material and people from Point A to Point B.

The reinvented communication function should help identify ways to use information to achieve business goals. It should guide leaders through optional change communication strategies associated with restructurings, mergers, acquisitions and transformation. It should help line managers identify effective and efficient ways to move information that's relevant to improving needed-to-win capabilities. It should facilitate information flow among people and work processes.

The reinvented function should worry about using communication to solve business problems rather than simply getting media out the door. It's not uncommon for a well-intentioned communication practitioner to undertake a communication initiative without having first identified the business problem at hand.

The reinvented function should focus on the information sources that most influence the organization's ability to succeed.

Here are three mega-communication sources, in order of impact on operating performance:

* Leadership style and behavior

* The system's infrastructure (rewards, measurement, planning, financial, resource allocation, structure, etc.)

* The formal media

The reinvented function should focus disproportionately on the two most influential mega-sources, leadership style and behavior and systems that communicate powerfully what's important and what's not. In more than 25 years in the communication profession, I can't recall when an employee publication or video contributed to a significant business problem. However, almost daily I hear of serious business problems caused by conflicting messages being sent by the leadership and the measurement or reward system. Just recently, we were asked to help resolve a customer service problem caused by inconsistent communication.

The company's president is customer-obsessed. Yet, critical front-line employees weren't able to secure important resources they needed to serve their customers. Because communication wasn't managed strategically, employees received conflicting messages. Because the "say" communication and the "do" communication conflicted, employees thought the president wasn't serious about his customer service message. Inconsistent messages from the resource allocation system tarnished the president's credibility. It was a communication problem manifested by declining customer satisfaction.

2. The reinvented communication function should be obsessed with creating information-rich environments that enable people to improve their pieces of the business.