Changing How We Communicate

Many of us remember a time when employees would happily wait to be told of anything important via one or two obvious channels. Stories were simple, expectations were simple, channels were simple.

Our challenge today is to cut through the noise as swiftly and timely as possible.

Today, people are less trusting, more assertive about what they want. Employees have become accustomed to control – choosing and using the media and channels they want, when they want. Employees are used to being listened to, influencing what is going on and being allowed to interact.

Therefore our communication teams have to be:

• Diverse in skills sets. Competencies to include; creative writers, digital engagement, change agents, project managers, events specialists, marketers – just to name a few – to help employees connect better through a media of their choice
• Savvy in connecting employee’s interest to the organization’s goals. Finding ways to use the personal stories and linking them with the organizations’ milestones, so employees can engage and be better advocates of the business.
• Strategic with channel selection. Not all stories are appropriate for all channels, especially with almost four different generations in a work place. How can we truly enable employees to tell compelling stories?

It is much harder work, we are making mistakes along the way, but if we start each project being clear about the impact we want to make, and who we want to influence we can achieve more than we ever have before.