Four essential ingredients for transforming culture: what communicators can do to support culture change

Four essential ingredients for transforming culture: what communicators can do to support culture change

When it comes to culture change, the communicator's dilemma is a thorny one. Organizational communication is first and foremost a reflection of culture. But without communication, there's no hope of culture change. To get the process in motion, Roger D'Aprix and Cheryl Fields Tyler suggest communicators start by teaching their organizations to communicate more effectively.

Here, they share four crucial areas to focus on.
1. Explain why change is necessaryThe driving force of culture change is the marketplace. Its urgencies represent the only compelling rationale for organizational change. Leaders may want to discuss what actions they've decided on, but employees want to know why the change is necessary in the first place.
2. Create a clear and compelling plot lineA clear, simple and compelling "plot line" for the change story is the second essential ingredient to successful culture change. What is the business strategy and how will it make us a winner in the marketplace? How will we need to change to execute this strategy successfully? What will we need to change in the way we do business?
3. Understand those involved in the processCreating a successful communication strategy to change culture starts with understanding who needs to be communicating with one another and the current mindset, experience and expectations of these individuals and audiences. For example, front-line managers, caught between the anxiety of middle management and the fear and frustration of employees, ride the rumor mill roller coaster and wonder why no one is telling them what the future holds.
4. Aim to engageBy this we don't mean high scores on the annual survey tool, nor a permanent state of employee satisfaction and motivation. The simple truth is that most companies that have cause for major culture transformation are on the negative end of the engagement continuum. Communication strategy that supports engagement in this context must be understood as a sophisticated process that creates the situations and understandings that lead people to literally choose to engage with one another, and through that engagement, to change their behavior.

Source: Strategic Communication Management Volume 10, Issue 3 April/May 2006.

Communicating with financial analysts

Communicating with financial analysts

The results of a new global survey of financial analysts’ opinions on corporate reputation management, have interesting implications for corporate communicators. "Return on Reputation," published by Hill & Knowlton in association with market and public opinion research agency MORI, examines the way investment analysts assess company performance and shareholder value and identifies the key factors driving investment decisions.

The report notes that “clear and consistent communication with key stakeholders and transparent disclosure are crucial non-financial elements contributing to the assessment of a company’s value - the great majority of the analysts interviewed have given negative ratings on account of poor communication with stakeholders.”

Other interesting findings around analysts' communication preferences include:
One-to-one meetings and conference calls with analysts have the greatest impact. Company presentations and annual reports are also important ways of communicating with analysts.
Clear communication of company strategy is vital, followed by achievements against strategy markers and any necessary changes of senior executives.

Most analysts wish to be communicated with monthly or quarterly and only half of analysts think companies should listen to them more.

Building a brand for the new CEO

Building a brand for the new CEO

The first 100 days are critical for building the brand for your new CEO, says Kate Hogben, internal communications manager at British American Tobacco. The following ideas should help get things off on the right footing:'

Create impact: get the CEO in front of the whole company at the first opportunity. “We put our CEO on the cover of the company magazine and gave him the opportunity to address all employees at a company event and out in the field on a roadshow tour in his first month.”
Hasten the CEO’s immersion into the business by organizing monthly “buzz groups”: informal breakfast or lunch forums with the company’s key opinion leaders or connectors (i.e., the networkers). These are not necessarily senior management – they should include employees and union and staff council reps. “The idea is to help the CEO connect with employees both to surface the real issues and to use them as a sounding board for new ideas,” says Hogben. Employees in turn will create buzz about the CEO’s vision, message and personal style. To personalize the invitations to buzz groups, Hogben used a voicemail message from the CEO followed by e-mail to set expectations.

Hogben believes it’s important early on for the new CEO to be seen shaping, influencing and uniting his own top team – the board. Orchestrate opportunities for the top team to be seen to be working together such as shared activities, panel style briefings or an interactive Q&A site on the intranet.

Finally, blogs are a great way for the new CEO to share his personal opinions and give employees a sense of his personality. However, this medium works best when your CEO is willing to write and maintain the blog personally.

Making an impact as a new comms leader

Making an impact as a new comms leader

How do you set the foundations for success during the first few weeks in a new role? Jane Sparrow, senior manager at Internal Communication and Change at Sony Europe, makes the following useful suggestions:

Step 1: Get to know key stakeholders Use a variety of techniques such as one-to-one meetings and roundtables to understand more about your stakeholders needs, views of communication and attitudes. Go cross-level, cross-attitude and talk to people one level below the board. Ask agencies and consultancies that the company has used recently to talk about key stakeholder needs and aspirations.

Step 2: Understand business goalsFind out as much as possible about the aims, objectives, strategies, key issues and priorities within the organization. Identify where communication has the biggest potential return on investment. Read annual reports, intranet sites, past newsletters and other communication. How effective has communication been in the past? Ask external organizations for their view of the company and its priorities, get their view on quick wins, organization strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.Identify where communication has the biggest potential return on investment.

Step 3: Identify movers and shakersAsk yourself who the influencers are? Where do key stakeholders go for council and advice? To whom do they listen? Once you’ve identified these people, build relationships with them, ask their views and position your work with them.

Step 4: Assess communication issuesAsk your team to present the current communication strategy. Study data from employee opinion surveys, communication surveys and measurements. Look for issues, opportunities and benchmarks. Conduct a “quick” media audit. Find out what channels exist to communicate which messages, at what frequency. Ask which are the most valuable channels during other formal and informal conversations with people.Find out what channels exist to communicate which messages, at what frequency.

Step 5: Find out how you will be measuredAsk your boss how he/she will know that you’ve been successful. Get a clear understanding of how you will be measured so that you can focus your efforts accordingly. Once you understand business priorities and stakeholder needs, show you’re proactive and you know your profession by suggesting other measures that you believe will be important.

Step 6: Be visible across the organizationTalk to, and be seen by, as many people as possible. Ask to attend department meetings to introduce yourself and gather views. Talk to people at the coffee machine. Walk around and introduce yourself to others.

source: http://www.melcrum.com