Internal communication is the lifeblood of any company and yet, (incredibly), it is an area that is woefully neglected or poorly executed. This month's Leadership article on page 97 is just about that.
A big thank you to our strategic partner, Kristina Malther, who we work very closely with on internal dialogue assignments who provided additional insight into the article.
“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change” ~Stephen Hawking
As intelligent as we want to be about communication and especially internal communication, many companies will score well below 70 if they had to complete an IQ test. Why is internal communication so often neglected? No matter what the size of the organisation, they all seem to treat internal communication as a second thought, if at all; thinking that it will take care of itself without any nurturing or attention. Organisations who do this are often left wondering what happened when things go belly up internally, and before they know it, are left with an employee morale dilemma and a high turnover. This internal dissonance has major consequences for an organisation’s reputation. As much as we want to keep our dirty laundry managed and dealt with inside the organisation, it will invariably filter through to outside of the company.
The hundreds and thousands of Rands that get spent on advertising will be for nought if you don’t also invest in an internal communication campaign. You may have the most amazing, Loerie-award-winning advertising campaign to lure in customers; if however you have a team that does not support you, your vision or know where the company is going, the truckload of money you invested in the advert may as well be used for composting, which would in that case then at least have served one positive purpose (and bring about a positive growth somewhere in the long run).
How many of us can put our hands on our hearts and say with a clear conscience that internal communication isn’t something which too often becomes an afterthought? I understand that when there is a change we need to tread carefully. In certain cases we need to err on the side of caution, not to communicate too much about an impending change so as to avoid unnecessary stress; sometimes communicating prematurely about something could be even more detrimental. However, if there is a possible change in the air, it will be sniffed out. If rumours are not nipped in the bud you could have anarchy on your hands. Some time ago we worked on a project that meant a massive change in the organisation; it was something that entailed much advice from a financial, legal and reputation management perspective, and if there were any leaks it would have been very harmful to the growth of the organisation and the impending change. Acknowledging the importance of internal stakeholders, we drafted a comprehensive leak strategy should anyone start suspecting that changes were afoot. We made sure that the CEO and executive team were well versed to swiftly address and snuff out any rumours.
Internal communication is usually the last thing on top management’s mind when there are looming changes; our strategic partner is the very dynamic Kristina Malther who we work very closely with on internal dialogue assignments. Originally from Denmark and an Associate Partner in Copenhagen based agency, Open, Kristina who is now based in Cape Town, has been involved in a number of multinational, global and local change communication engagements. I asked her what she thought the main reason for the lack of focus on internal communication is as she is well positioned to give a global and local perspective:
What do you think is the main reason for the lack of focus on internal communication?
There is some good news that Kristina shares, “I actually think there is a rapidly growing focus on internal communication these days. Especially in the UK and Northern Europe, and to a certain extent South Africa, where we seem to see more dedicated internal communication roles and budgets being allocated to this function. To some extent, this is due to macro trends that affect organisations and require them to focus more on heightening engagement and productivity. Continuous change is one of these tendencies, meaning that internal communicators are increasingly called for to help communicate changes and make sense of them. Something which internal communicators could do better is to clearly articulate the business value of internal communication and link it to the goals of the business.”
What are the key factors to consider when developing the core internal narrative?
Kristina explains that it is all about storytelling, “It must be both inspiring, easy to understand and easy to retell to colleagues. A strong narrative must speak to both hearts and minds to everyone within the organisation.
“Change is often much more emotional than we think. Speaking to people's hopes, pride, values and ambitions can be an immense driver in succeeding with change. Once a change makes sense to employees and they recognise the ‘why’ and see it as something exciting, it creates a clear vision for the future and is actionable, and it often starts to roll all by itself.”
When in your opinion should the communication for a change management process start?
To this Kristina advised, “Ideally the change communication strategy is an integrated part of the change management plan, helping the change management team communicate clearly and consistently from day one.
“Often communication is seen as an add-on to be applied in the implementation phase. This often makes it very hard to succeed in altering the perception and mood about a change at such a late stage. I usually recommend that the core change management team start by creating a core narrative to communicate the change, a narrative that is consistently used to communicate the change at all levels. A strong narrative can boost the process incredibly from the onset.”
Who within the company should be involved in putting the internal communication strategy and plan in place?
“Depending on the scale of the change and the organisation, I would usually recommend that internal communication allocates a resource to the core change team to assist with change communication from start to finish. This ensures proper integration of the communication effort and avoids the 'clip-on' communication activities which often don't work.”
“It is also essential that relevant members of top management are sufficiently involved, trained and orientated to the internal communication strategy, narrative and key messages as soon as possible and are consulted along the way to get their input.”
“Lastly it is always valuable to involve a group of employees as a sounding board, the biggest risk in change communication is that the change team get so immersed in the change themselves that they think it must be self-evident to others too; a group of employees can provide honest insight to what the perspective might be in other parts of the organisation,” concludes Kristina.
Keen to continue the reputation conversation? Join Regine on Twitter @ReputationIsKey or Facebook www.facebook.com/yourreputationmatters. Reputation Matters often host information sessions including internal narrative develop as a topic. Visit www.reputationmatters.co.za for more information.
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