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Volume 4.1 Table Of Contents
- Are you tuned into your key stakeholders?
- Trend Watch: More options for connecting makes it easier to disconnect
- Digging Deeper: Credibility killers – don’t let this happen to you
- Ask the Business Performance Expert:
- Speaking of Success
Are you tuned into your key stakeholders?
How can you more effectively connect with employees, customers, suppliers, outsource providers, and other people who will make or break your success in 2007? The good news is that new technology has given us more options for connecting with these key stakeholders. Ironically, with more channels for connecting, it’s also easier to become disconnected (see “Trend Watch” below). Fine-tuning your communication always starts with one critical question.
Before launching a new and improved communication strategy, ask yourself “What assumptions am I making about how this group or individual communicates?” While it may seem like a simple question, the answer can reveal a number of beliefs, which may or may not be grounded in reality.
For example, you may believe that everyone you’re trying to connect with uses the Internet. However, I’ve noticed that there are still plenty of groups and individuals who are not tech-savvy. Others don’t have easy access to computers. Even the best designed blog or website would be ineffective to reach them.
On the other hand, if your assumption
that a particular group uses the Internet is correct,
the next question is, “What assumptions
am I making about which blogs and websites stakeholders
find most credible and how they use them?”
(see “Digging Deeper”
below)
Bottom line: Before planning and launching a communications strategy, start with strategic thinking. The investment of first uncovering assumptions about your stakeholders’ communication preferences, styles and habits will save you time, money, and open up new opportunities for connecting.
Trend Watch: More options for connecting makes it easier to disconnect
The proliferation of websites, blogs, cellphone camcorders, and other channels means that news is traveling faster than ever across a broader number of people. However, as channels increase, it’s also possible for people to disconnect from you as they take their information from many “unofficial” sources.
For example: carriers are allowing subscribers to send videos to friends and video web video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Google Video straight from their cellphones. Beyond sharing with friends, journalists are using some of these videos to supplement their own fact finding when writing articles. If you thought the office grapevine was difficult to influence, this is the “grapevine on steroids.”
So how do you stay connected in the ever-shifting communication landscape? The answer is to increase the frequency of monitoring which channels your stakeholders are actually tuning into, learn why people use them, and then become adept at participating in them in a credible way.
Staying tuned into unofficial communication channels can pay big dividends by keeping you firmly in the loop.
Digging Deeper: Credibility killers – don’t let this happen to you
With the increase in communication channels that exist, there’s more of a possibility for communication to backfire. Don’t let these happen to you:
- Conflict between the formal messages being sent and the behavior stakeholders observe (or perceive).
- Inconsistency between the message and the means by which it is sent (e.g., sending an urgent message in regular email).
- Inconsistency in the same message being sent to various groups.
- Poor timing (e.g., messages are too early or too late to be meaningful.
- No or insufficient follow-up.
The more aware you become not only of what you’re communicating but in how it’s being communicated, the more likely it is that the message will be received in the spirit in which it was intended.
Ask the Business Performance Expert:
Q: I’ve
been advised that it’s in my best interest
to mingle more with my direct reports. I’m
busy, and frequently my reports aren’t available
when I walk around to chat. Is there some other
way I can do this?
A: There is nothing magic about
informal hallway talk. In fact, depending upon
the relationship, it can be equally as uncomfortable
as an arranged meeting and highly ineffective.
Also, keep in mind that as more offices are staffed
by workers who can be thousands of miles away,
mingling must take on a whole new form.
While there is no one right way to connect with your direct reports, the important thing is to use a variety of communication methods that are consistent with their preferences and habits, be consistent in your messages, and demonstrate that you are interested in their needs as well as your own.
Quote: “ To change and to change for the better are two different things”
-- German proverb