There's oh-so-very-much truth in the chuckler, "It's hard to soar with eagles when you're surrounded by turkeys!"
If you're an eagle-minded communicator who's forced to work cubicle-to-feather with communication turkeys, don't you ever settle for personal mediocrity.
So, what's a journeyman\woman communicator to do if you're the only person in the (department,division, organization) who knows that employee communication is a critical factor in organizational success? Stay tuned.
Epidemic executive stasis?
Exactly what does cause communication executives (the people who head organizational communication departments) to 'go along' and 'get along' instead of moving their organization's employee communication process into the 21st century? What influences senior professional behaviors that morph into communication executive stasis? Why don't more senior communicators and communication vice presidents help their chief executive officers and senior leaders understand that the employee communication process today is strategy-critical and no longer a nice-to-have?
The view from here is that the stasis among too many organizational communication executives results from individual ambition, self-interest, ignorance, fear and the histories of their organizations. Managing employee communication to add organizational value is still not practiced today in way too many organizations--of all sizes across all industries.
Communication executives stasis is the genesis and nurturing fount of the "We-don't-do-that-kind-of-thing-here." edict so often issued to staff communicators who try to do a professional job. It is that edict, too, that serves as the foundation excuse for the often HR-based, one-dimensional "happy talk" internal messages. Employees often are not engaged in any internal venue with how they can help overcome operating obstacles and achieve strategic targets. There's still too much wrong-headed executive belief that, "Our people really don't want to know about all the business problems and the decisions made by management. We tell them what they need to know."
Invoking the spirit of Rod Serling
Let me tell you a true story about communication executive stasis. The late Rod Serling long ago moved on to another Zone. Rest assured, however, that the quotes below actually fell out of the mouths of this story's organizational characters--who are still with us.
In the golden days of early television, this story would have been presented like this:
Act 1, Scene 1:
The eerie "Twilight Zone" music theme would have played and series host Rod Serling would have intoned:
"I-submit-for-your-consideration, true events that took place at a distinguished, internationally-known, U.S. university, during the humid month of July, in the Year of our Lord Two-Thousand and Four.
"The director of communications for the university's School of ___ was invited by the director of communications at another of the university's schools to come and hear a consultant's presentation on the organizational value derived from planning and managing the internal communication process.
"After the presentation, the guest director of communications sought out the management consultant to chat.
"Let us listen to the conversation and follow the story events as they transpired," Serling would have said to setup up the unfolding tale.
"I understand what you said about an organization's need to establish its operating priorities and then plan and manage internal communication to support those priorities," the visiting communications director said.
"We, at the School of ___ , already have done a lot of the work that you mentioned. Our School has researched who we are, who we're going and how we're going to get there. All of that's on paper. But it hasn't been communicated. Somehow, our School's operating priorities are just supposed to happen. For example, I think that we really can identify our current operating priorities, but I can't seem to be able to get anybody to focus on developing a communication strategy to support what our school is trying to do. I think that you can help us," the director added.
Act 1, Scene 2:
"Twilight Zone" music would have swelled to ear-splitting volume and then faded to silent as we again heard Rod Serling explain:
"The management consultant agreed to a consultation date and the session was confirmed. It was agreed that session participants would include the director of communications and her boss, the School's associate dean of external affairs and development, plus two of the dean's key managers.
"In the weeks preceding the session, the consultant requested and received volumes and volumes of documents from the Department of External Affairs and Development, including a 100-plus page tome of research that had been gathered by various committees in the School some two years earlier. That work has resulted in the initiation of many programs and activities throughout the school.
"Also prior to the session, the consultant interviewed the director of communications by telephone. The consultant was particularly concerned about how well the expected outcomes of the session were understood by the director's boss (the associate dean of external affairs and development)."
"Oh yes, my boss knows what is to be achieved that day," the communications director affirmed. "I've briefed everybody. We're go!"
Act 2, Scene 1:
"Twilight Zone" music would have swelled again and faded as Serling continued:
Follow-along, if-you-will, as the day for the communication strategy planning session arrives. The group is assembled in the meeting room and after a self-introduction, the dean of external affairs and development introduces #2 assistant and #3 assistant."
The Management Consultant:
"Tell me, Dean __, what are the current operating priorities for the School of __? I already have all of the research documents that were sent to me by your office. I can see all of the School's new programs and that they were started over two years ago. What I don't find is any current status on the new programs and I'm not clear on what the School's current operating priorities are that you need a communication strategy to support."
The Associate Dean:
"Oh, the School of __ has never had a communication strategy--and we never will have one."
Norman Bates! Drop that knife!
"Twilight Zone" music would hve swelled and faded as the associate dean continued:
"Forget all of that stuff that you were sent. Just disregard all of those documents that you received. That's not relevant. Just put all of that out of your mind. That's not what we're going to do today."
Serling would have reappeared on camera to refine a description of the meeting room scene as the music from Hitchcock's "bloody shower stabbing scene" in the movie thriller, Psycho, blared from the television speakers.
"The director of communications, who called the communication strategy planning meeting, has now developed a 'deer in the headlights' expression, clearly indicating that the associate dean's statement also is a news flash to someone other than the consultant."
"What I want to know from you," the associate dean said to the consultant, "is whether you can help us raise $500 million over the next 36 months? We do need a communication strategy for that."
Serling would have used the pregnant pause to tell viewers, "The director of communications has now become ashen-faced and silently wonders in a state of shock,'What happened to the communication strategy project for today?'"
The Management Consultant:
"A communication strategy alone, can not raise $500 million nor achieve any other of the School's operating objectives. What exactly is the operating objective behind the need to raise that amount?"
Associate Dean Assistant #2:
"What the dean meant was that we need a communication strategy that can get us face-to-face with audiences that can contribute those kinds of dollars. We're very good at getting contributions, but we've always just sort of done it without a formal plan. Our School's Dean trusts us to get the job done. However, the current Dean is retiring next year and we have no idea who the School's new Dean will be. We're feeling the need to formalize our fundraising."
The Management Consultant:
"Okay, if as you instructed, we forget for the moment, the operating priorities for the School of ___, and how your department fits into the School's operating strategy, what exactly are the operating priorities for your department of external affairs and development?"
Serling would have summed up this eerie tale for us
like this:
"The-truth-of-the-matter-was, the associate dean of external affairs and development and her staff did not have any documented operating priorities. As a result, the consultant recommended that the group spend the remainder of the day developing and defining a list of the department's operating priorities--including a rationale for raising $500 million in contributions.
"As-the-session-progressed, the associate dean and assistant #2 contradicted and bantered with each other about departmental operating objectives and the priority of each one while the bushwacked director of communications remained mute, except to interject periodically, 'Since when was that a priority for this department? I don't have access to that information.'
"The communications director repeated that statement so many times that the external affairs dean irritably announced at one point, "Let's not get into who does and does not have access to information. We can get it to you later."
"Associate Dean's Assistant #3, literally mute all day, finally spoke to the management consultant during a session break. 'I saw all of that information that we sent to you in advance of today's session. I'm sorry that you weren't sent the right information.'
"Relieved to escape at day's end," Serling would have confirmed for us, "the consultant de-selected that group as a client and hoped never to hear from them again."
What to do? What to do?
With the director of communication's strategy planning session gone-to-Hades-in-a hand basket, what should be the next move? What can communication eagles do when they are outranked by unenlightened professionals?
I say, go around them! Side-step the gwanna. Refuse to be grounded. Turkeys must never ground eagles. What this director should do is build a communication strategy for the School of __. The director knows the people in the school who are managing the priority projects--and who has the needed information.
The director need never again make a lot of "noise" with the associate dean of external affairs about building a communication strategy. Clearly the department's boss has no idea--and little interest--in what the director of communications and her staff do. That opens all kinds of opportunities for this potential eagle to soar. I say, go for it!
What's your advice to the solo, sentient communicators in organizations?
Tell me at rdraughon@gavinhodges.com
Go in peace.- RLD
