Nine Tenets of Employee Communications

In my years in employee communications, it still amazes me the number of senior level managers who don’t understand what internal communications really are, nor the central role they play in a business’ success.

      In the interests of keeping things basic, following are my core principles of internal communications toward helping improve understanding... each of which at some time or other have been addressed in this blog:

1. Face-to-face. Communication is, at its core, the face-to-face exchange of information, ideas and insights between and among leaders, managers and employees.  On the other hand, contrary to conventional understanding, communications vehicles like newsletters, email, blogs, intranet sites, and all the rest exist only to support and supplement that communication, not as substitutes.
2. Broken communications. Organizational communication is “broken” when management perceives communications vehicles and their content as “communication.”  This is a corollary to the previous tenet.  Similarly, communications are broken when leaders and managers perceive “communications” as someone else’s job, not theirs.
3. Two-way communications. Internal Communications is at its best when it fosters two-way communications between and among leadership, management and employees.  Effective communications occur in an environment where dialogue, discussion and debate are encouraged; in fact, where that is the default position.  People should feel free to engage in constructive disagreement with their managers/supervisors and peers.  It is through such dialogue, discussion and debate that excellence is created and success achieved.
4. Listening. And, by the way, listening is as important as talking, especially for leaders and managers for whom it can prove particularly valuable.
5. Supervisors are most credible. The most credible communication is between managers or supervisors and their direct reports.  These day-in and day-out relationships should be nurtured so that employees see their immediate supervisor as the best and most reliable source of relevant and timely information about the business. This truism works its way up the chain of command, by the way, so that each person’s direct manager is the best and most reliable source of timely, relevant information.
6. Actions speak louder. Leadership and management actions communicate as much as, if not more than, their words.  People are always on the lookout to be sure that management actions match their words.  When they are out of synch or when their actions don’t underline and enhance their verbal and written communications, they will lose credibility and all future communications will be suspect.
7. Employees are intelligent, able to connect the dots and draw their own conclusions based on what they see and hear.  Leaders and managers assume otherwise at their own risk.
8. “They” vs. “We.” Ultimately, internal communications should transform employees’ notion of their company from “they” to “we” – a strong indicator of whether employees are engaged in the organization’s vision and mission.  In other words, when employees speak of their company impersonally in an arm’s length third person voice, rather than the personal, inclusive first person plural, they are detached and disengaged from the company’s mission and vision. Effective communications, over time, will change that “they” to “we.”
9. External linkages. Internal Communications must be linked with external communication and kept in synch, both in terms of messages and timing. External information sources – whether local or national news coverage – are often employees’ primary and re-affirming source of information about the company. In fact, selective use of external media can reach employees in a more credible way, in an environment they normally trust and understand.

Playing to Your Audience

Last night, I finished Walter Isaacson’s excellent biography of Steve Jobs. And though it contains a wealth of material to blog about, I was particularly struck by the tale of the development of the Apple Stores, for a reason that cuts to the core of communications and marketing: knowing your audience.
       Ron Johnson oversaw the development and rollout of the ultimately successful Apple Stores – and they have indeed proven to be a huge retail success, by the way. Just to put it in perspective, consider the following citation from the book: “In July 2011, a decade after the first [stores] opened, there were 326 Apple Stores… The average annual revenue per store was $34 million, and the total sales in fiscal 2010 were $9.8 billion.”
       What intrigued me about this story within a biography was how Johnson revolutionized the stores’ concept with a last-minute change in approach to the stores’ layout, a brainstorm he had in the middle of the night shortly before the prototype was to be introduced to Apple’s Board of Directors.

Prototyping
Like all Apple products, a prototype of the Apple Store was built in 2000 – in a warehouse near the Apple campus in Cupertino. It was furnished completely, and then the design team hung out there, tweaking and adjusting it until they felt comfortable with the concept and its many components. Johnson led the effort for Apple, and Jobs would stop by about once a week to monitor progress and make suggestions for improvement.
       After fiddling with nearly every aspect of the prototype repeatedly, Jobs and Johnson felt they were ready to invite the Board to see it. But Johnson woke in the middle of the night with a bad feeling:

“…they had gotten something fundamentally wrong. They were organizing the store around each of Apple’s main product lines… But Jobs had begun developing a new concept: the computer as a hub for all your digital activity. In other words, your computer might handle video and pictures from your cameras, and perhaps someday your music player and songs, or your books and magazines. Johnson’s predawn brainstorm was that the stores should organize displays not just around the company’s four lines of computers, but also around things that people might want to do.”

Confronting Steve Jobs with bad news was always dangerous, but Johnson felt strongly about it and urged him to start the design process all over again. After exploding in anger, Jobs sat silently in the car and thought about what Johnson had recommended on their way to visit the model.
       Jobs then presented it to the design group with these words: “Ron thinks we’ve got it all wrong. He thinks it should be organized not around products but instead around what people do.” [long pause] “And you know, he’s right… We’ve got only one chance to get it right.”

Swarming With Customers
And boy, did they get it right. Have you ever been to an Apple Store when it wasn’t crowded? Me neither. While the other mall stores near it may be quiet, the Apple Store is noisy, aswarm with customers and browsers. It never ceases to amaze me.
       This demonstrates a core tenet of successful marketing and, in the same sense, successful communications. Reach people on their turf, respond to how they live their lives and communicate, not how you want them to, and you’re guaranteed to get their attention.
        It is something I learned early in my career, a lesson that has never failed me. When I was a suburban beat reporter for a daily newspaper, once while struggling with a particularly complicated story about a town commission’s meeting, I grew frustrated at finding the right narrative.
       Knowing that I was facing a fast-approaching deadline, my editor pulled me aside to help me get focused. He posed a series of questions that cut to the core of my dilemma. His questions weren’t about the point of the story or its details, but rather about my readers.
       Who were my readers? What was their likely interest in the story and the decisions of this particularly commission? How would the commission’s actions and decisions affect my readers? So what would they likely want to know?
       As the effect of his questions began to sink in, I fairly jumped out of my seat to return to my writing. The light bulb had gone on and I whipped out the story easily and quickly.
       What I had been missing was a clear understanding of focus and purpose. Without either, writing is an exercise in a vacuum to no end. The same is true in corporate communications and marketing.
       When you expend the necessary upfront effort to appreciate your audience, to understand what truly drives them and what they want and need from you, you are well past the halfway point in your journey to connect with them successfully. Will the result always be on par with the Apple Store? Maybe not, but you don’t stand a prayer for any success without that crucial first step.
       The germ of the idea about the customers’ world that disturbed Ron Johnson’s sleep more than ten years ago made all the difference.