Support Leaders in a Modern Workplace

Strengthening the internal communication function is a timely subject when increasingly, in my view at least, it faces some serious challenges. The two most obvious ones are the current workplace revolution we're all experiencing as we move from an industrial society to an information society, and the impact of ever-changing technology.

These two mega trends are affecting our work and the role of both senior business leaders and communication leaders in unprecedented ways.

These trends mean that senior leaders can no longer presume that "communication merely happens" by virtue of people working together to achieve agreed-on results. They also mean that senior leaders must take a much more active communication role than ever before to help explain the change and to put communication technology in its proper place, as a tool rather than a panacea.

I've been so struck by these trends that I've written a new book called The Credible Company: Communicating with Today's Skeptical Workforce.1

How to break the barrier of skepticism

My primary thesis is twofold. First, that senior leaders must acknowledge that today's turbulent change has turned their relationship with their employees upside down. Those employees, who are the means of doing business in the information age, are increasingly skeptical, if not cynical about the communication they receive at work.

That means that for company leaders not only to be credible but also to focus on improved company performance in today's global marketplace, they need to understand the changed relationship and design communication strategies that break through the skepticism that gets in the way of performance.

What they, and we as communicators, need is a robust strategic prescription that's addressed to these new issues.

Technology won't solve all problems

Second, I'm increasingly persuaded that our current love affair with technology as a seductive end rather than as a remarkable means has placed our profession at a significant crossroads.

Will we be mere purveyors of information without regard to outcomes? Will we focus on craft at the expense of balanced communication strategy? Craft is a tempting and easier alternative to the more difficult role of advocacy, education and the greater humanizing of organizational practices and values.

If they truly want to strengthen the communication process, senior leaders need to insist on a robust strategy that sees information as the raw material for today's intellectual assembly line and that recognizes the needs of the audience as the starting point and the first cause in creating that strategy. They need to recognize that face-to-face communication is the antidote to impersonal digital delivery of information and that openness is the antidote to skepticism.

They also need to insist on careful research and data gathering to identify the specific, changing needs of their own workforces and to use the marketplace as the means of rationalizing company strategy in response to the marketplace.

Finally, they must combine all of this into a communication strategy that drives the goals and objectives of the organization.

Help leaders change their view

This may be a tall order. But if we continue on our current path of using technology primarily to deliver mountains of raw information, we run the risk of "dumbing down" the workforce further and increasing the skepticism that already exists.

We need institutional leaders with the courage to tell the truth as it happens, to admit their own confusion in a complex world, and to listen intently to the needs and anxieties of their followers. We also need local interpretation by people on the ground-managers, supervisors and team leaders who understand local needs and who can translate how larger forces and events affect their teams and what they must do to adjust.

What leaders must change is their view that communication just happens in a well-run organization. Instead, they must recognize the need to make it a deliberate and accountable system, like all of the other systems and processes in the organization. The credible company and the credible leader alike will understand that if they wish to strengthen the communication process, they will demand communication strategies that efficiently move human energy in pursuit of worthy goals.

Source : Roger D'Aprix