Restructuring Internal
Communication to Drive Radical Change
Sponsored by the International Quality
and Productivity Center
By Rick Fleer
Internal Revenue Service
San Francisco, California
Rick.Fleer@adc.is.irs.gov
(408) 817-6560
San Francisco, California
April 28-30, 1999
This two-day seminar, followed by a full-day seminar on Strategic Planning for Internal Communication, provided numerous insights for Communicators. The first part of this summary will describe some of the highlights, kernels of truth, and profound thoughts gleaned from the conference. The second part will summarize some of the presentations and the workshop in more detail.
Perhaps the clearest theme to emerge from this conference was the need for Communicators to think strategically and support business processes rather than concentrate on tactical solutions that may or may not solve a particular business problem. Strategic Communication always serves a business need or goal. Communicators must be included in the planning process and should be held accountable for business goals rather than communication output.
Communicators should often ask themselves whether they are doing the right thing, or merely doing things right. The slickest newsletters, videos, or web sites are of little or no value if they are not facilitating the goals of the business.
Another clear and related theme is that business leaders think in terms of financials, business plans, and results. Effective Communicators must learn this language of business if they are to be a part of the decision-making process rather than called in to later to communicate decisions that have already been made. Most Business Management programs do not teach communication, causing many leaders devalue it. Today's Communicators must demonstrate value through business plans with the kinds of numbers leaders are used to evaluating.
Communicators will have to accept the responsibility of educating leaders who perceive communication as tactics rather than having a strategic role to play. Communicators must also have the courage to ask for a CEO's time and attention even when they don't want to hear from you. This is the time to demonstrate strategic communication solutions to real business problems.
Several speakers voiced their opinion that the Communication entity as a discreet function will fade from corporate life. Communicators will be more like business people and will be part of an integrated team -- one of many tools used to solve business problems. Many speakers disagreed, noting the increased focus on Internal Communication and its strategic role in the business process.
Finally, Communication should facilitate the link for employees to see how their daily actions contribute to corporate goals. Employees are faced daily with "decision moments" where the values communicated to them will determine their actions. One clear example of a decision moment is returning after lunch to find two messages, one from a customer and one from the boss. Corporate values communicated to that employee will determine which is answered first.
Here is a quick table of contents showing presentation titles in case you want to scroll through to a particular topic of interest.
The first presentation was by Jim Shaffer of Towers Perrin. His presentation emphasized the importance of people -- they *are* the business. Engaged employees must know how their actions fit with organizational goals. Actions taken at "decision moments" result from the corporate values actually communicated to the employee. Employees must be able to "connect the dots" or see the linkage from what they do to what the corporation values.
Employees take their behavioral cues from their leaders. "If the CEO comes back from lunch wearing a paper bag on his head, most of his team will be wearing one by 3 p.m." Performance problems are the result of mixed messages. Stated values often differ from observed values -- what we say doesn't match what we do.
Bob Libbey of UNUM Corporation advocated eliminating the artificial gap between Communication Management and the Management decision-making process. Most "Communication" problems are really management problems. For example, striking workers turned violent or chemical plants exploding are often seen as a "Communication" problem rather than being more appropriately viewed as a management problem. Likewise, many "Business" problems are really communication problems crying for a strategic solution.
Communicators need to educate their leaders and have the courage to demand their time even, or perhaps especially, when they don't want to hear from us. Involvement in the decision-making process helps create more cohesive communication.
Linda Dulye, president of L.M. Dulye & Co. forcefully described the need to engage front-line managers in the communication process. Front-line managers have a high interface with a large audience but are usually not trained to "connect the dots" showing the linkage from actions employees take to corporate expectations.
Among several strategies, perhaps the most effective is to "cycle" communication rather than cascade it. Demanding feedback and communication measurement is critical. Another valuable tip is to use existing communication vehicles, such as making group meetings more effective rather than adding more meetings. Managers are already overburdened and "don't have time to communicate."
The three main lessons Linda taught are "thrive on data," "no letting up, and "as good as your process is, it can always get better."
Ms. Randy Bergman from Colgate Palmolive shared some of her secrets for an excellent corporate intranet. The intranet is not just a way to disseminate information; it must be a process for getting work done better, faster, and in new ways. It should facilitate communication, not control it. Corporate champions (those who are influential, respected, represent the interests of others, communicate effectively, provide resources, and deliver results -- the "go to" people) must identify intranet opportunities, make the case, and bust barriers. Above all, the intranet must be relevant.
Saturn's Bill Betts described the state of being at Saturn. Though somewhat like an hour-long Saturn commercial, the presentation did describe corporate communication Nirvana where all forms of communication from daily huddles to intranet to video productions are used to create a corporate "family" with shared values built from the ground up. Organizational values are constantly and consistently reinforced through copious communication.
Barry Mike of Pizza Hut gave an interesting presentation on corporate culture. Tricon Global Restaurants, owner of Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell, met the challenge of bringing together three distinct cultures and moving them toward cohesiveness. Tricon chose to merge the three corporate cultures by focusing on front-line managers and their achievements. High employee turnover (typical in this type of business) necessitated bringing managers on board to create the environment where employees embody the corporate ideals.
Recognition and celebration are the key to this strategy. They work exercises together at company events and conferences to create a corporate identity among normally isolated restaurants. Making it fun (rubber chicken awards, cheese-shaped hats) and including *all* their managers contributed to increasing cohesion and corporate performance.
Day two started with Les Potter of Les Potter Inc. describing, in spite of the title, keys to strategic internal communication. The basic concept from this session is that communicators need to learn business models and to speak the language of business. He asked the question, "are we Communicators having a business experience or are we Business Managers having a communication experience?"
The ten elements of Business Management that communicators ought to know something about are: Organizational Design and Theory, Quantitative Analysis, Marketing Theory, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Ethics, Business Law, Strategic Planning, and Organizational and Individual Behavior. To sum up, never abandon your strategic mindset, be open to becoming a better business manager, and know the basics.
Luciana Duarte and Molly Guggenhime of Sapient Corporation described communication in an on-line environment. Because their business is providing internet solutions for other companies, their employees are used to operating on-line. Their communication challenge is to adapt to that very different culture and create a cohesive corporate identity while moving from a company where everyone knew everyone to a larger corporation with "old-timers" and new employees acquired through acquisition.
They leverage their intranet with a daily publication incorporating company strategy and direction, financial information, key messages related to business purpose and vision, Industry and project updates, Human Resources information, people and recognition, classified ads, and "Hot Topics" including bad news too.
Margot Myers from the United States Postal Service (USPS) described the largest, in terms of sheer numbers, communication challenge at the conference. The USPS has over 800,000 employees, literally across the United States. Their "Customer-Perfect" focus listens to the Voice of the Business (Business results), the Voice of the Customer (Customer satisfaction) and the Voice of the Employee (Employee satisfaction).
An Employee Communication Advisory Committee of ten people from all levels of the organization serving a one-year term is taught strategic communication planning, then given the task of creating the strategic communication plan. They use a variety of communication tools from fax to video to newsletters. A corporate newsletter surrounds local "performance cluster" newsletters where local editors pick stories off a "national wire service." A "straight talk" e-mail newsletter is disseminated with short stories pointing to attached files so employees can delve into topics that interest them without getting bored by the rest of it.
The conference finished up with a full-day seminar by Les Potter on Strategic planning for Internal Communication. The morning was used to walk us through the basics of strategic business planning followed by a more detailed analysis of strategic communication planning. We learned a Communication Planning process, then applied it by working a real-life problem for one of the participants.
If you're interested in commentary about two facets of strategic internal communication, visit this page of Les' web site at http://www.lespotterinc.com/recent.html
If you would like more information
about this conference or a particular topic discussed, you can e-mail me at
Rick.Fleer@adc.is.irs.gov or
give me a call at
(408) 817-6560.
Rick Fleer
Internal Communication Manager
Central California District
Internal Revenue Service