(JENKINTOWN,
Pa.)--"What is the benefit of managers understanding the bottom-line value of communication?
"Whose fault is it that managers don't understand the value of communication?
"Would you say that managers in most large companies do or do not understand the power of communication?
"What are some ways to educate managers about communication processes and their value? Should communicators or executives be doing that educating?"
Those were some of the questions posed by Sarah McAdams, editor of The Ragan Report to Roland L. Draughon. The queries came on the heels of Draughon's presentation at the annual International Association of Business Communicators Conference (IABC) in New York City. A standing-room-only group of 300-plus communicators from around the world participated in the session that he entitled, "Piano
Lessons for 1000-pound Gorillas."
During the IABC presentation, Draughon defined an organizational
"gorilla" as any organizational leader who refuses to take advice and counsel
from anyone--especially communication specialists.
(The Ragan Report, based in Chicago, scheduled Draughon's comments for its "Q&A Page.")
Draughon, Managing Associate of Jenkintown, Pa.-based Gavin-Hodges Associates, told The Ragan Report:
"Operating managers need to better understand internal communication as a management process. It's not all their fault that many of them still think employee communication means more media.
"Often we, the staff communication professionals, are too chicken to stake out our professional turf and defend its value against organizational leaders who have more power.
"Every communication professional worth his or her cursor knows that nothing happens in an organization--at least not as it is documented in the operating plan--until specific internal groups are influenced to behave in specific ways.
Win one, win some
"We must try harder to persuade our organizational leaders to wrap an internal communication strategy and documented communication plan around the operating objectives/goals at the time that they're set. Obviously, we have to demonstrate strategic communication's value. We need to try harder to win one, win some.
"We must help our organizational leaders understand strategic internal communication as a process that should be anticipated, planned and managed for positive impact on operating outcomes.
"Those organizational leaders who do know that communication is not media (and there are some) also don't know what it is. As a result, more often than not, that group also asks us for 'more media.' We, the staff communicators, must stop rolling over, surrendering and colluding with them. We must always remember to offer analysis and a communication strategy where needed.
"I really don't think that we try hard enough to sell our leaders on the benefits of managing the internal communication process. We need to work harder on providing tangible measurements. However, measurements are not possible without strategies. We can't say what we've helped do, helped achieve, unless we can help our clients define, up front, what they need to get done.
"Too often, we accept operating managers' requests for more media because that's easier than taking some risk and pointing out the benefits of a communication strategy.
Explain benefits better
"We need to better explain and demonstrate that strategic employee communication:
can provide employee stakeholders with a frame of reference for decisions and events so that the workforce can keep focused on pursuit of the organization's mission--and keep behaving in ways that contribute to achievement of that mission;
can increase employees' readiness level for understanding organizational changes in light of organization priorities;
can be an ordinary, routine management process that provides the workforce with a sense that they're a part of a rational organization that has a mission; and
can reinforce with the workforce that organizational leaders are focused on the priorities that were established in the operating plan.
Preparation, daring and luck
"In an ideal world, strategic internal communication management would originate at the top of an organization. That's still rare, I believe. But that may not be bad news.
"I find that most operating managers--at all levels--are willing to listen and learn from staff communicators who can explain and demonstrate strategic internal communication's positive impact on bottom-line results. That puts the ball squarely in the communicator's court. With a bit of risk taking, we can create our own opportunities for leading our organization's shift from media producer to communication manager.
"As with any profession, success in leading strategic communication management depends upon preparation, a dash of daring and some luck. I think that communicators need to be more brave--not foolish--just more brave in leading the managed communication process.
"When we know that what we can offer our organization is value adding, we need to step up and offer it. Too many of us shirk away from offering anything different--sometimes on the advice of our organization's veteran communicators. That's a mistake.
"The other day, I stumbled across a quote that said: 'Never let anybody give you a 'No' unless that person also has the power to give you a 'Yes.'
"Maybe we need to give ourselves more yeses?"
Copyright
©1998-2009
Gavin-Hodges
Associates
(215)839-8373
Fax (215)247-5403
Contact:
Ms. S.N. Jones, Marketing Associate
snjones@gavinhodges.com
Foxcroft Square
Post Office Box 704
Jenkintown, Pennsylvania 19046-7104
