War,
what is it good for?
....seemingly not for internal communications
When is a war
not a war? Well, when the Prime Minister tells us so. Yet in spite
of Governmental spin, major organisations across Europe and the
US are battening down the hatches as disquiet over Iraq adds an
ever more dangerous aspect to the recessionary gloom gripping western
commerce and industry.
As ever, the
usual suspects are taking a hammering within businesses – organisational
development and communication, those walking cost centres that thrive
in the good times are suddenly finding themselves on the back burner
again. Projects are being delayed or cancelled and organisations
are looking to their own teams to deliver the goods at the expense
of consultancies, agencies and freelances.
Internal communication
is especially vulnerable. Too often in organisations it’s a
low-value function: delivering news and information and disconnected
from the key business focus. When times are hard, it’s easy
to cut channels and reduce spend in an area where success is nebulous
and employees are often quite junior.
Yet what’s
the result of this activity? More uncertainty among staff; lower
morale and potentially lesser productivity. Extrapolating from that,
you could say that cutting back on communication puts your company
at risk. If anything, this is the time for organisations to be ramping
up internal communication – as long as they’re prepared
to ‘tell it as it is’ and build credibility with employees,
suppliers and other key stakeholders.
This, of course,
creates an uneasy balance for most communications departments. On
the one hand they have the task of preserving corporate reputation
among investors and analysts. On the other, they run the risk of
bleeding goodwill from their foremost ambassadors – their own
staff.
So is there
an answer?
These days,
communications teams need always to be on a war footing. Long gone
are the days when we could look forward to years of stability within
business. Now you’re either a predator or a target. Major change
is a fact of daily life, and no communications professional can
afford to be complacent. Talk of war only heightens this, and it’s
essential that your communications team – be it in-house, out
of house, or a combination of both – is continually on the
front foot, prepared to manage change.
That means:
- Having a
credible relationship with senior management that gives you a
voice at the top table
- Being part
of the organisation’s strategic planning function (by influence
rather than reporting line)
- Managing
communication on an ‘issues’ basis rather than creating
a false internal/external communication barrier
- Knowing your
stakeholders
- Having the
right processes in place to communicate with them
- Being able
to ‘health check’ your communication to see where it’s
effective and where improvement may be needed
- Having open
channels to stakeholders that can be fed and watered swiftly and
effectively.
Creating such
a communication environment unites the communication function and
makes it a far stronger corporate tool – in fact an essential
tool in uneasy times.
© Mark
Shanahan, Leapfrog Corporate Communications Ltd, 2003.
