I spent a good portion of my career communicating public health and science topics. I spent almost all of my career managing internal communications and the intersect between the inside and the outside of various types of organizations. Employee and company culture is hot.
But just like tissue cultures growing in a lab, you need to be on the alert for specific things, and have a baseline in place to come up with a solid diagnostic.
Organizations that have healthy cultures are a joy to deal with, as an employee, or as a customer. You can tell the health of an organization immediately, and you often don’t stop to think about it. You simply feel it. It is seamless and easy and pleasant.
Organizations that are sick make you miserable, uncomfortable and even angry. The air of discontent and disconnect is heavy and oppressive. Staff are clearly unhappy, and so are customers.
So what are the ingredients of a healthy culture?
In my opinion - clarity of vision, spirited dialogue, an environment of discovery, and a shared connection to the purpose and the result. Everyone is rowing in the same direction, and it works, because each person understands their part, does it well and knows exactly where and when their role ends and the baton is passed gracefully to the next person on the team. None of this happens coincidentally, although it may appear so. Leadership is grown and developed.

With the amount of companies downsizing, closures and other downturns that are happening these days in, it’s a good time to think about the definition of proactive communications. In some organizations, telling staff ranges from sending them a copy of the announcement that went out to the press (yes, this actually happens!) to pulling them into a room an hour before.

Let this be a reminder to executives who want to ‘control’ and ‘contain’ the message by withholding and delaying information to staff - it doesn’t work. Check out the video from Sky News of the angry mob of workers who received one hour’s notice that 850 of them would be losing their jobs immediately. This story made world headlines.

The bottom line is that whatever you plan to announce - good news or bad - you employee communication simply has to come first. And it has to be delivered in such as way that is meaningful to them. For example - what you tell your shareholders or donors, or board about efficiency and cost savings would NOT be the same information you explain to your staff - who most likely translate efficiency and cost savings into working more for less, or losing jobs.

My latest enewsletter - to be delivered to subscribers soon - touches on the topic of leadership and personality, and their impact on effective communications within organizations. This is the essential ingredient - how well you connect, how much your employees trust you, and how good you are at inspiring the potential of others has the biggest single impact on quality of the workplace, and accordingly, productivity. If the culture in your workplace is less than ideal, the root is most often a bad decision or poor communication, fed and watered by the suspicion and distrust of others. Coincidentally I read an article today by Thomas J. Lee from Arceil Leadership on the three voices of communication and the toxic workplace.

Here’s an excerpt:

Overcoming cynicism is a tall challenge for any leader. But overcome it, you must. The engagement and cohesion of your people can mean the difference between survival and collapse. Ignore cynicism, and you allow its corrosion to undermine the organization you have worked so hard to build.
 
By cynicism, we mean a toxic attitude among would-be followers that assumes the worst of your intent as a leader. Instead of embracing the nobility of your intention, instead of granting you the benefit of doubt, the cynic sees only manipulation and control. He is quick to do the math on the cost to himself.

If you want to read more of what Thomas has to say click here.

This is the time of year every professional journal, magazine, and other media is full of articles on resolutions, predictions and tips on goal setting. Yawn - is there a new angle?

Within the communications sector, popular blogs and networks are full of articles on employee engagement, developing strong internal cultures and building networks. There is good information out there, if you are willing to wade through a whole lot of theory and professionals within the networks commenting on each others’ theories.

The problem is, most of the information is written by professionals working in the profession for other professionals in similar roles, and not of much use for the human resources manager, executive director, communications or marketing officer, or professional fundraiser looking for practical information.

Employee engagement is, and always will be a most important challenge for any kind of organization. Without staff who understand the point at which their personal goals, talents, abilities and purpose intersect with that of others, and the organization, no organization can hope to succeed. With all the chatter about the need for innovation, the big question should not be how, but why?

Most of the time, the temptation is to try to persuade - by sharing numbers, projections, and lately - threats - that jobs will be lost, etc. without the commitment and boot-pulling of staff. This doesn’t work. This is data. Data is logical. Human passion and drive is emotional. There is a hierarchy of needs and emotion at work that has nothing to do with organization structure.

Start with why? Think about why this is important. Put yourself into a staff member’s shoes. What’s in it for them? What hopes and fears do they have? Is there common ground between their’s and the organization’s? How can you help?

I realize this may seem oversimplified - but as with many things in life, simple works. Start there in 2009!

Many organizations plan state of the organization presentations for the early part of the year. These are a great opportunity to share high level information with all-staff audiences — but don’t overlook that the greatest value is in the dialogue, and the follow up.

Especially in the current economic environment, we need to unbutton the formality and actively seek out conversation, input, and sharing. This is usually the opposite of what most executives expect, and are comfortable with.

More tips on this topic:

• From Melcrum, How Not to Conduct a Town Hall Meeting
• My November enews - Communicating in Hard Times (you might also want to read September and October 2007 articles in the newsletter archive)

Many of you are leaders, managers or consultants with at least 20 years of experience. Like me you cut your teeth in the days of fat communications budgets, power suits and decidedly top-down modes of communication.

Old habits are hard to break. If you tend to think of dealings with staff as “telling them what they need to know” you have the equation only partly right.

Here are the new rules:

1. Listen then talk
2. Ask what they want then provide
3. Don’t write anything until you talk to real people who you want to reach
4. Get to know their interests, what’s keeping them up at night, what gets them out of bed in the morning, and what makes them want to stay home
5. Think of yourself as the United Nations instead of the Vatican - representative vs. traditional authority
6. Forget trying to sell your organization’s message - focus on sharing information and a two-way relationship with the people that are part of it

The old way of cascading, top down information does not work (if it ever did…). We all expect and deserve more. We want connection, answers and most of all, to be heard.

I realize the irony in the above question from a communications consultant who normally talks about the need for communicating. But there is a point where too much is not a good thing.

Perspective is the most important skill an effective communicator possesses. Whether you are working with a person on staff, a volunteer or a consultant, you are wise to listen! A great communicator will not tell you what you want to hear; he or she will advise you on what to do for your best chance of success.

For example, if you are rolling out a project, it is easy to think this is the most important topic for staff across your organization. Most of the time, it isn’t! There is a point where it may be, but an all-staff, all-information approach can backfire on you.

I love this excerpt from a post from Joseph Phillips, a certified project manager, and a savvy communicator:

Communication planning comes down to this key question: Who needs what information, when do they need it, and in what modality?

Who needs what? This tackles two major issues in any project. “Who” describes the stakeholders with whom you and your project team need to communicate. “What” describes the information that they’ll need.

Not all of your stakeholders will need the same information. Sure, that sounds obvious, but have you ever met one of those moron project managers (yes, the guy a few cubes from you) who sends out all project information to everyone who’s even heard of his project? This guy thinks he’s covering all of his bases because everyone has all of the information. The problem with this approach is the same problem with giving your cat the whole bag of cat food at once: Only give what’s needed or things will get messy.

If you asked most people what they think are the reasons employees quit their jobs, the typical answer would be factors like poor pay, conflict with others, or simply a bad fit. The truth is that those things make the list, but are not the only reasons. Organizational psychologists and experts say these are the key ingredients for staff happiness:

1. Opportunity for personal control or latitude in decision making
2. Opportunity for skill use acquisition and development
3. Clear goals
4. Variety in job content and location
5. Role clarity and feedback
6. Positive contact with others
7. Good pay
8. Physical security
9. Valued social position
10. Supportive supervision
11. Career outlook
12. Equity (justice for both the individual and the community)

The secret to a great leader is someone who can recognize potential in others and set them free to do what they do best. Effective communication, as a leader and as an organization, helps to foster this environment.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Marcel Lauzière. Current president of the Canadian Council on Social Development and the new president and CEO of Imagine Canada. In a few sentences Marcel captures what true leadership is. Read the rest of the article here. A great introduction to the week ahead!

Leaders need to be passionate because it’s through passion that we actually get people enthusiastic…[wanting] to go in that same direction. That’s the case in every sector. We have to distinguish between leadership and management. You need both for an organization to work effectively. But on the leadership front, it’s very much about communicating a very clear vision and destination, doing it in a passionate way so people get excited about issues. It’s also recognizing that leadership can’t be just at the top of the organization; leadership has to be shared at various levels of the organization. A good leader will normally try to encourage people within the whole organization to play leadership roles at different levels.

Jaxon looking scary!

It can be really tempting to rush a project and cut corners to meet a looming deadline. We can get so focused on the larger goal that taking the time to properly communicate to staff seems unnecessary. It is rare to find organizations that truly communicate to their staff on changes or important directions that affect — not to mention depend on — them!

Yesterday my seven year old assistant, wise beyond her years, asked me what afterthought meant. I asked her what she would guess, and she said: “when you know you should do or think something, but you don’t until it’s too late”.

I find there are two types of organizations who need help from communications consultants like me - the group that wants to do the best job possible, and is willing to spend the time necessary - and the group that does this as an afterthought, usually in reaction to an issue.

Many smaller organizations feel that staff communications is a luxury for the mammoth corporations with massive corporate communications departments. The reality is, many large corporations face the same kind of pressures and challenges of stretched resources as do the smaller organizations, just on a different scale. 

The truth, and it’s not so scary, is that we all play a role in communications, every day. Do what you can to inspire and lead those around you - and think first of what they need to know and why!