Strategic Internal Communications: Boosting Corporate Culture, Productivity and Profitability

Executive summary ... IX About the authors ... XI Acknowledgements ... XIII Part One: Strategies for effective communications Chapter 1: Effective organisational communications ... 3 How communication can deliver the sweet spot ... 3 Communication has become a key organisational success factor ... 4 Communicating up, down and around the organisation ... 6 Chapter 2: Recognising distortion ... 11 Communication distortion ... 11 Inability to listen ... 12 Generational difference ... 12 Culture ... 13 Personality type ... 13 Power ... 14 Silos ... 15 Preference of communication modes ... 16 Gender ... 16 Change and communicating uncertainty ... 18 Communication overload or fatigue ... 20 Tips and tools: Forming good listening habits for effective face-to-face communication ... 21 Chapter 3: Leadership and the corporate compass for communication ... 25 Face-to-face communication still preferred ... 27 Storytelling - A powerful engagement tool ... 27 Timing of communications, trust and managing the 'grapevine' ... 27 Balancing transparency and confidentiality ... 28 People Rich - Having authentic conversations ... 29 Framing - Maximise the impact of your message ... 30 Managers can become leaders - Helping middle managers with communication issues ... 31 Tips for leadership communication ... 32 Contents i V Tips for middle management when delivering effective communication ... 33 In the spotlight 1: Hills Community Support Group (HCSG) - Transforming an organisation through transparency and trust ... 33 Chapter 4: Communication to support process improvement ... 39 Communication critical element of process change ... 39 Global communications at Ernst & Young ... 40 Cultivating process change through continuous improvement ... 40 Lean principles 'The Toyota Way' ... 41 Actively engaging people through the value chain ... 43 In the spotlight 2: Miracle management - Reshaping through an organisational roadmap ... 46 Chapter 5: Communication across cultures and organisations ... 53 Cross-cultural communication ... 53 Training leaders and managers ... 54 Ten ways to manage communication with virtual international teams ... 56 The cost of cross-cultural training ... 57 In the spotlight 3: Cross cultural communication in M&A ... 58 Chapter 6: Technology - Enabling the process of collaboration ... 63 Bringing everyone along regardless of age ... 63 Sticking with what you know - The intranet ... 64 Providing opportunities for sharing dialogue ... 65 Collaborative tools helping organisations 'stay connected' ... 66 Quick Q&A: Yammer rolled out to 2,000 in a national retail bank ... 68 Knowledge sharing through wikis ... 69 Security and risk of employee forums ... 70 The scone debate: Deloitte social media ... 70 The future ... 71 Chapter 7: Where people want to work and why ... 73 The financial benefits of being a 'best employer' ... 73 Common themes of best employers ... 74 Engagement linked to productivity and profitability ... 75 Asking and acting - The employee engagement survey ... 77 Reward and recognition ... 78 In the spotlight 4: Mercedes-Benz USA ... 78 Chapter 8: The cost of getting communications wrong ... 81 Uncovering the cost of not investing in people ... 81 Budgets: Is there a magic number? ... 82 Failing cultures and toxic environments ... 83 'You have to be joking': The good, the bad and the ugly ... 87 Strategic Internal Communications: Boosting Corporate Culture, Productivity and Profitability V Part Two: Expert views Chapter 9: Making e-mail an effective tool ... 93 In conversation with - Jani Murphy, e-communications consultant, Email Smart ... 93 Jani Murphy's top tips and tools for productive and effective communication via e-mail ... 97 Results from survey regarding e-mail use ... 97 Chapter 10: Telephone and etiquette - Old fashioned but still effective ... 101 In conversation with - Ava Lucanus, communication skills expert, Edge Communication ... 101 Ava Lucanus's top telephone tips and tools ... 105 Chapter 11: Managing the internal conversation ... 107 In conversation with - David Ferrabee, director, Able and How ... 107 The Change Index tool ... 109 Communications as a dimension ... 110 Chapter 12: Creating effective internal communications ... 111 In conversation with - Howard Krais, director, global services communications, Ernst & Young Global Ltd ... 111 Four global audiences: Four different approaches to communications ... 111 The catalyst for planning ... 112 The communication planning process ... 112 Leadership and communications ... 113 Final thoughts ... 114 Howard Krais's top tips to create effective internal communications ... 114 Chapter 13: Communicating change in business improvement projects ... 115 In conversation with - Lorena Paglia, strategy and change consultant, lvp ... 115 Implementing and communicating change ... 115 Business improvement projects ... 117 Lorena Paglia's top-five tips for successfully communicating in change projects ... 119 Chapter 14: Internal alignment to brand matters ... 121 In conversation with - Bill Fellows, president, Top-of-Mind Branding ... 121 Thoughts from the authors and some survey results ... 123 Chapter 15: Vision and values ... 125 In conversation with - Todd Hutchison, CEO, People Rich (Asia Pacific) and Gary De Rodriguez, CEO, People Rich (USA) ... 125 Leadership: The three pillars ... 126 Work with managers for sustainable change ... 127 Adapting communication in a growing business ... 129 People and process ... 130 Contents V i Technology ... 131 Top five tools and tips for effective internal communication ... 132 Part Three: Organisational communication - Survey results and analysis Chapter 16: Organisation Communications Survey ... 135 Survey objectives and methodology ... 135 Details of the survey sample ... 136 Survey analysis ... 137 People and process ... 137 Closing thoughts from the authors ... 152 Part Four: Case studies Case study 1: Government Employees Superannuation Board (GESB) - Instilling pride in a workplace of unsatisfied people ... 155 Situation analysis ... 155 Goals and objectives ... 156 Research and analysis ... 156 Communication strategy ... 157 Implementation ... 158 Results and ongoing measurement ... 159 Evaluation ... 161 Case study 2: ISA Group - Building trust in leadership after an organisational demerger ... 165 Issue 1: The road to an organisational demerger ... 165 Primary objectives ... 166 Implementation: Handling the sensitivities of an organisational demerger ... 167 Evaluation ... 167 Issue 2: Restructuring the organisation and managing change in a culturally sensitive way ... 168 Objectives ... 168 Implementation ... 169 Evaluation - Q&A with Noelene Merrey ... 171 Q&A with external consultant, Julie Hillier ... 172 Case study 3: WestJet - Empowering employees through an award winning corporate culture ... 173 Where people want to work ... 173 Communication + engagement = profitability ... 173 Communication tools ... 174 The power of social media ... 175 Productivity and teamwork ... 176 Strategic Internal Communications: Boosting Corporate Culture, Productivity and Profitability V ii Two-way commitment ... 176 Cultural pride ... 177 Community engagement ... 178 Final thoughts from Richard Bartrem ... 178 Case study 4: The Salvation Army - 'One Mission' - knowledge sharing and collaboration to deliver one integrated mission plan ... 179 Challenges (external) ... 179 Challenges (internal) ... 180 Issues ... 180 Primary objectives ... 181 Secondary objectives ... 181 Implementation ... 181 Results ... 183 Case study 5: Brand One Group - Aligning internal and external communications ... 187 Issue: Strategically unaligned organisations ... 187 Implementation: Strategic realignment ... 188 Maryanne Fernando's tips and tools for internal/external branding alignment ... 191 Afterword ... 193 Index ... 195