Format to Print Page
Send this Page To a Friend
Volume 2.1 Table Of Contents
- Communicate credibly to build ethical organizations
- Trend Watch: Blogs: the grapevine on steroids
- Digging Deeper: Tuning into the right channels
- Ask the Business Performance Expert:
Communicate credibly to build ethical organizations
Keeping up an adequate level of credible communication on an ongoing basis is one of the cornerstones for avoiding “strategic gridlock” (persistent problems that pile up and grind progress to a halt) and building an organization that truly lives into its ethics policies.
There’s a big difference between transmitting information and communicating credibly. While the former may get your message across, the latter is designed to meet the needs of your stakeholders and accomplish the results you want. Three of the most important factors you can use to establish trust regarding ethics initiatives:
- Consistency: Do you “walk the talk”? In order to be considered credible, people must perceive that a policy is consistent with what really happens on an everyday basis. Nothing invalidates an ethics initiative faster than the perception that leadership doesn’t truly believe in it
- Suitability to audience: Different stakeholders, such as employees, customers and suppliers, have varying needs for amount and type of information. While some individuals and groups need in-depth explanations to buy into a policy, others only want to know the bottom line.
- Frequency: Studies show that people need multiple exposures to messages in order to digest them. Tapping into different channels of communication (e.g., internet, meetings, etc.) that people actually use and trust increases the likelihood that people will accept and internalize the policy. Building in ways for gathering feedback on an ongoing basis provides an effective means of finding out how stakeholders are receiving policies and monitoring their progress
Trend Watch: Blogs: the grapevine on steroids
Opinions and news have never traveled faster now that Weblogs or “Blogs” (online journals of information and opinions) are becoming mainstream channels of communication. In his March 2005 “State of the Blogosphere” report, David Sifry of Technorati (a leading search engine for the blogging community) notes that number of blogs has doubled every five months over the last 20 months. There are currently over 7.9 million blogs, and Technorati discovers 30-40 thousand blogs daily.
Blogs can be dedicated to a wide range topics. In fact, a growing number of companies are using them to generate real-time conversation across department lines. The important thing to remember is that this communication channel is being used by more and more of your employees, customers, suppliers, alliance partners and others to share what’s on their minds about your company. This means that if you do things to call your credibility into question, the news can spread like wildfire. Tune out of this channel at your own risk. For more on blogs and their potential visit http://weblogs.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=weblogs&zu=http://www.dijest.com/bc/
Digging Deeper: Tuning into the right channels
Keep in mind that how information is sent is just as important as its content. People must understand and trust the communication channel that’s being used in order for the message to be credible. Fortunately, there are many ways to convey and receive messages. Some choices in addition to blogs include: emails, memos, posters, company-wide meetings, teleconferences, webconferences, videoconferences, surveys, focus groups and, in-person grapevine conversations.
If you really want to get people’s attention, imagine the impact of a four-barreled dose of information via memos, email, voice mail, and intranet home page. Remember, however, overuse of extra strength communication methods seriously dilutes their power. For example, in one company, individuals flag virtually every email as “urgent priority” and their fellow employees have developed the habit of hitting the delete button all too easily. Therefore, to maintain the credibility of your communication, save the extra attention methods for messages and information that really deserve it.
Ask the Business Performance Expert:
Q: "We’ve
run into unexpected problems this quarter. How
can we preserve credibility with stakeholder groups
when our results aren’t matching original
forecasts?"
A: Focus on the communication
process, with emphasis on frequency and completeness
so that stakeholders can follow your progress,
understand why events have occurred, and know
what you’ll be doing to address the challenge
that your company now faces. In addition, the
more feedback that you solicit from stakeholders,
the better you can relate to their concerns and
shape your communications to be credible to them.