How Burton OD can help with your Internal Communications

Communicating with purpose

Where to look for improvements

Four dimensional communications

When I am working in organisations of all types hardly a day goes by without the subject of “communications” coming up.

Communications – what are we talking about?

Sometimes people are talking about the style of communications, some about lack of communications, some about over-communication. When I talk to senior managers it may be about “the inpenetrable layer” somewhere between them and the grass roots; when I talk to the grass roots it may be about theinvisibility of senior managers; when I talk the somewhere in between it’s everyone’s fault!

Communicating with purpose

The debate is often about the channels and content of communication and the commitment and skill of managers in actually communicating. These are certainly important issues . However, I would argue that what is often less considered is the overall purpose of communicating. Let me explain.

Increasing emphasis on PEOPLE

If the 1980s and early 1990s were about using quality management, change management and customer service to achieve competitive advantage, the final years of last century and the early years of this have been about building on these programmes by getting the best out of our people.

Underpinning this concern to get the best out of people is the belief that the properly managed commitment, energy and bright ideas of our people will provide competitive advantage for the 21st century business.

Central to this is emerging thinking about the role and importance of internal communications to the success of a business. Is it about getting the right information to the right people at the right time – the means and content of communication? Is it about a manager’s style? Is it about giving people channels for two-way communications?

Communications as competitive advantage

I am going to propose that getting communications right is more than adjusting the nuts and bolts of our communications systems but about adopting the view that properly used, internal communications can give us strategic advantage.

At the highest level, really good internal communications will align the values of our people with the values of the business in order that they can communicate them to customers.

In this view of the world – where, effectively, your people are a major component of your brand – internal communications are designed to help staff understand, buy into and live those “brand values”. In doing so they will better meet the expectations of customers.

There is now plenty of research around (in particular I have reviewed two major pieces of work, carried out by The Hambleden Group using financial results and CREATE – the Centre for Research in Employment and Technology which surveyed over 2000 organisations working with the Investors in People Standard) to show that Investors in People companies – which by definition take the issue of internal communications seriously – outperform their peers in a range of financial and other measures including staff turnover and motivation. The CREATE research found links between improved communications and improvements in motivation, teamworking, knowledge sharing and “one company” mentality.

A third major benefit based on my own observations of organisations before and after a drive to improve communications is that there is less of a “silo” mentality – that wasted time and energy as departments misunderstand and blame one another.

Where to look for improvements in internal communications

To look at different types of internal communication in a bit more detail I’d like to share this model with you:

Strategic/one-way communications

- are designed to ensure that people understand the future direction of the organisation and its current and past performance. This may be done through: Printed matter: newsletters, annual staff reports; Video/audio/broadcast; Intranet; noticeboards

Strategic two-way communications

- are deisgned to bring the behaviour and commitment of people in line with the strategic focus of the organisation. It is in this area that I would see a business using internal communications to develop competitive advantage.

The key to gaining people’s commitment is to involve them in a dialogue during which they have an opportunity to update and change their views. This may be done through: Conferences and seminars; Focus group; Informal gatherings or management walkabouts; Surveys; Briefings; Performance reviews

Operational one-way communications

- are designed to ensure that people have the day-to-day information they nee to achieve their individual, team and organisational objectives. This may involve: email; memos; intranet; briefings; newsletters; noticeboards

Operational two-way communications

- are designed to engage the commitment of people to plans and objectives and to encourage people to come up with ideas. This may involve: Performance reviews; briefings; planning workshops; continuousimprovement events