Simply-Blogging

A funny thing happened in a focus group

Someone just said "it's all part of the fun of working here..."

I wonder if anyone ever says that in connection to anything really positive?

Liam

Now is a good time to be at HQ

I was emailing a chum the other day and discussing the current business situation and I asked if he was worried.

Of course not he said, there is so much happening at head office he wouldn’t want to miss it for the world.

Which takes me back to the last crash when I was working for a ‘troubled’ company. Based at Head Office life was anything but boring.  Long hours and stressful weekends went alongside being part of the action.  I still have dreams of the atmosphere as day to day we struggled to complete negotiations with the people we owed £3bn to whilst maintaining business performance in the post dotcom downturn.

And best of all was the absence of politics.

OK there were one or two people I could have cheerfully strangled, but we were all working to the same goal.  Departmental agenda and local scheming just didn’t happen.

Sometimes ‘Head Office’ can be a pretty poor posting for an internal communicator. 

The real fun is happening out in the business.  Often HQ work is all about financial calendar work or ‘special projects’ whilst divisional IC’s get their hands on pressing issues like performance or service delivery.

I know more than a few Global Heads of IC who discovered that they are not really in charge of very much and plenty of divisional IC managers who are doing much more interesting work and having loads more fun.

But right now…a crisis is one of the times when a Head Office IC role comes into its own….

Liam

Does anyone actually read what Bill Quirke says?

I was just reading Lee Smith's commentary on the SCM summit.  Sounds like an interesting session.

In particular I wish I had been there to hear Bill Quirke. He's always good value but Lee's commentry reminded me that although Bill is great at expressing quite complex ideas in very simple terms he is often seriously misunderstood - probably because people never buy his book and actually read it.

Lee reports Bill as warning IC people to make sure some basics are looked after.  Keep the channels and systems working he says.

What amazes me is that he needs to say it at all - but it does need saying.

Pick up a copy of Strategic Communications Management and you could be forgiven for thinking that the only respectable thing an IC person could do is attend big beardy-strokey meetings.  And whenever there's a useful discussion on the web about how to handle a practical issue a pseudo-guru always weighs in and starts ranting about 'low value' work.

It seems that many people think that looking after the basic operation of the IC function is less important than barging into top meetings.  How did they they ever think this wasn't rubbish?

If you can't deliver on basic processes, or have channels that work and an intelligence machine no one is going to take you seriously.

And one of the reasons why people get it wrong?  I think actually it's based on a fundamental misunderstanding of Bill's own work.

I've had people show me that escalator model which takes IC roles from 'Distributor', through 'crafter and drafter' up to consultant and advisor.  And they say that they want to move up to become a great advisor and not get 'bogged down crafting and drafting'.

Bill doesn't say the only goal of an internal communicator is to become a guru.  In fact he talks at lengths about managing processes, of sorting out air traffic control and thinking about the better design and presentation of information.

Far be it from me to help sell Bill's books but I wish people would actually read them when they've bought a copy.  But if you're in London in early November, Bill is speaking at an event for the CIPR...

Liam

Heads down and gobs shut

This caught my eye - 71% of companies aren't saying enough to thier employees about the current economic crisis according to PR consultants Weber Shandwick.

Apparently senior teams are heading into the bunkers and saying very little - no doubt terified that anything smacking of candor will make it onto the front pages of the financial press in seconds.

When I was at Marconi back in the days when it was in trouble we did have the problem of things being posted on Motley Fool within minutes of being announced internally.  I never worked out if the culprits thought they were being helpful or were just making trouble.

But should a senior manager go to ground at the moment when people most need leadership just because investor relations demand silence?

Of course not, but it makes sense the avoid written stuff - good old fashioned face to face is what's needed.  And it's what is wanted.

In my experience, staff don't want a rehash of the analysts presentation; they don't want lots of facts and figures, graphs and comparisons.  They want reassurance that the people at the top of the organisation know what they're doing.

At Marconi, we measured in some detail how people felt about the company during our difficult times (with a lot of help from Robert Berrier's team) and what we saw after town hall meetings was that scores for emotional commitment rose, whilst understanding of company strategy stayed static.  People told us that although they didn't really understand the complex world of corporate restructuring and debt for equity swaps, they valued a visit from the CEO who talked openly about a wide range of difficult subjects.

So if you can't write it down, getting the bosses out on the road is the way to do it.

Liam

You couldn't make it up....

As someone who started his career in local government you won't find me rushing to bash local councils.  I even stood for election once (well it was for the Labour Party in a ward where average house prices were around £2million - about ten years ago).

But flying back from a training course in Sweden last week I was moaning to Sue Dewhurst about my local council and how it's taken them 2 years to repair my local swimming pool (in which time the council up the road has build and opened two new pools).

The council has been run by the same people for years with little challenge.  They take increasing numbers of decisions behind closed doors.

And then I opened my paper and saw this story. Yep - that's my local council.

Apparently the chief executive gets to work a four day week with no pay cut.

I'm not begruding someone's right to reduce their hours - lord knows I'd love to work less for the same money.

But how insensitive can you get???

The Leader of the Council is quoted as saying the downshifting CEO needs to 'indulge his passion for music'.  Fantastic.

At a time when the massive investment in saving our banking system can only mean cuts in public services eventually how do you explain this one to the people who work for you?

I don't need to rant on too much, but I guess this is what you get when people don't get challenged and lose touch with what people are really thinking.

Liam

Whatever happened to Inter-Comm?

In the UK there are at least three different bodies that represent internal communicators – the CIPR, the IABC and the CiB.  It’s mad isn’t it?

And that’s not counting bodies with an overlapping interest like the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development or the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

What’s the difference between them all?  Goodness knows. 

They all offer networking events, most do some sort of training and two offer formal qualifications.  And their subscriptions are roughly similar.

A few years ago we all managed to sit down together in a room and have some quite civil conversations.  We even did some useful work developing a model of the skills that people needed at different stages of their careers.  And we had a big event where several big speakers stood up and announced how wonderful the future was going to be if we all worked together.

But then what happened?  Not a lot really.

I have my own views on what happened – which may not accord with what other people remember.  But essentially people got bound up in protecting their political positions.  No one was to blame – when you’ve spent years building a membership body or developing a programme of courses you’re not going to be in a hurry to risk it all by letting another membership body get their paws on it all.

But in the meantime who is speaking on behalf of our profession? 

The CIPR seems mainly interested in media relations although Lee Smith is doing his best to change that. 

The CiB has a reputation for promoting excellence in channels but doesn’t seem to be making headlines about wider strategic issues and the IABC doesn’t seem to say much to the non-IC world outside the US.

That probably misrepresents just about everyone and is probably grossly unfair.  Maybe someone has a well considered programme of PR and lobbying to ensure that a well-informed opinion of IC reaches the ears of the great and the good.  If they have it’s very subtle.

But in these troubled times it would be great if people could bury their political differences to speak up about the role that IC should be playing.  Now, more than ever, we need a unified voice to sell better communications to embattled business leaders.

Anyone want to come to a meeting?

Liam

Taking the pxxx

I've been a subscriber to the Melcrum communicators network for quite a while - I don't particupate much, but occasionally something really hits the mark and gets me thinking. 

Today was one of those days.

Someone wanted some advice with a tricky problem.  Apparently the gents bogs are disgusting and the facilities guys have done everything to promote more civilised toilet behaviors including nice polite notices.  They were at their wits end and the question was posed of how you make the point in a sensitive but impactful way.

As usual with the forum there were quite a few well considered responses and a couple I thought were very funny.

However, the response from US consultant and author Jim Schaffer got me thinking.

Jim's point was that getting sucked into this sort of issue can be of low value and distracts attention and energy from pursuing opportunities to really make a difference in organisations.  His challenege was whether something that delivered a low return on investment should be a priority.

I guess when banks are collapsing around our ears and rising food prices are bring hunger to millions of homes perhaps there are more important things to worry about than getting a bunch of oafs to pee straight.

However, the trouble for me is that many communicators can't and perhaps shouldn't fixate on the notional value that a particular activity.  Let me explain...

Firstly, a very large number of communicators work in organistions that simply don't have a strategy or indeed very much that would count as a business plan.  They have lots of 'to do' lists and an ability to react to a crisis - but a strategy?  When an organisation is run on a day to day or tactical basis what's a poor boy or girl to do?  The answer is attend to getting the day to day messages out - and if those messages include "stop acting like pigs gentlemen and show some respect for the cleaners..."  who is going to say that's wrong?  After all if the bosses don't set a strategic direction, is it the place of the internal communicator to act as a proxy strategy director?

Secondly, in my experience there are some organisations that simply will never get the idea of communications or how to value it.  And when you're buried three levels down in the office of the deputy head of legal services what should you do?  Spend your life regretting that your dull, staid and respectable company isn't Google or get on with doing the best you can to support projects and keep things ticking along?  Indeed you could argue that investing in sanitary bathrooms today could be the beginning of changing attitudes about the power of communication in the long-term.

Thirdly, I am firmly convinced that delivery is key to credibility in many organisations.  I know plenty of communicators who get taken seriously and have a voice at senior levels because they can also be trusted to take care of the tactical stuff - stuff that isn't glamourous or apparently high value.  And frankly, if you can solve with grace, tact and style the problem of boys who sprinkle  you could well be ideally placed to handle the corporate restucturing (both involve boys and willies).

Fourthly, most communicators work in small teams - often on their own.  And if they all declined to help the cleaners is with a sticky problem many would very soon find themselves replaced by someone who would find common cause with the mop pushers.

I'm sure Jim didn't mean that this stuff about toilets isn't important to someone and wasn't suggesting that the original questioner dismissed their friends from Facilities Management out of hand.

But we must get over the 'strategy' fixation that plagues part of our profession. There are too many people out there saying that unless it involves cosy conversations with the CEO then it's not worth doing.

I hope that I have understood Jim's point correctly.  If so, I'm sure he'd agree that the issue is to know where you add value and focus on that.  And if you add value by making sure that colleagues across the business can turn to you when they are desperate for communications inspiration then you're doing a pretty good job in my book.

Liam

Why I love being european!

One of the joys of Europe is that fact that our languages often use similar but incredibly different idioms.

I just came out of a meeting in Copenhagen when a colleague suggeted that we had a detailed exploration of a particular issue - she called it a 'legs-up".  Old colleagues and close friends who know of my tragic Benny Hill affliction will understand the impact this comment had on me!

And later the same afternoon Klavs explained to me the subtle difference between Swedish and Danish.  Apparently if you have a good idea, a  Swede will often invite you to 'bounce' it around - which is a profoundly obscene concept in Danish!!! (use your imagination...)

So... to the regiments of people who I have offended over the years, my excuse is....I was just expressing myself in another cultural idiom.

Liam

All you need is a megaphone

Searching on-line for some information about the legal requirements to communicate in the UK I found this useful little guide.  Sadly the fact that they illustrate it with a picture of a megaphone says it all!

Liam

...I didn't need to worry

Well - Sally has just taken the group through a fantastic session on understanding what makes you influental - and I have to admit to a tinge of envy!

Half way through I was also reminded of something really useful that Sue Solomons told me about this Summer.  She told me about Marcus Buckingham who makes the very simple point that rather than spending our lives worrying about failings we'll never fix, we should concentrate on understading our strengths and building upon them.

The reason I mention it is that communicators tend to be good at getting frustrated when plans don't work and we're often quick to blame ourselves for not being super-human persuaders or for failing to be mind readers.  When in fact, it is worth taking a few minutes to remind ourselves of where we excel.

People value us for what we do well - maybe the world would be happier place if we learnt to make the most of our talents rather than regret the gifts we never received in the first place.

Liam