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For communication professionals, these are both the best of times and the worst of times. Those who have established a working relationship with their senior leaders are well positioned to make a difference. For them, these are the best of times. Those who have focused mainly on craft and tactics now face the worst of times. The problem for them is the danger of being seen as irrelevant to the task of addressing the crisis at hand.
The crisis we now face is an ambiguous one. In my opinion, no one has offered a simple explanation of events that the average layperson could easily understand. All this talk of derivatives, hedge funds, bank bailouts and arcane explanations of what has gone wrong has only served to confuse employee audiences further. This audience is now bewildered, frightened and angry. The media, with their hand-wringing and doom and gloom forecasts, has only managed to raise the fear quotient throughout the world. We not only need to remember that lack of confidence not only caused the Great Depression, but also that pessimism feeds on itself.
So the task for us as communication professionals is to focus on our own organizations and how they are affected by today’s economy. Maybe the first task is a sit-down interview with your CEO to gain his or her perspective on what it all means for your organization. From that interview you may well be able to glean a simple explanation of what has happened and what it portends for your company’s employees. However, the strong odds are that no one will want to provide assurances in such a chaotic and rapidly progressing situation—nor should they, given its volatility.
Instead the likely message is: “We don’t know, but we’re keeping a close eye on events and will keep you fully informed as the situation becomes clearer.” Then the task is to explain your company story and to relate it to the marketplace that is shaping company strategy. Doing so requires absolute honesty and as much candor as your leadership can possibly muster in this difficult time. It also requires fulfilling the promise to keep people updated with timely information that is communicated in such a way that it provides context for the days ahead.
At the heart of all of this is a fundamental communication principle: Any communication strategy must be based on the communication needs, assumptions and beliefs of the intended audience. The starting point should always be the audience, rather than our need to control the story and potentially deliver messages that miss the mark. The obvious point is that we need to understand people’s state of mind. To do that properly we need to do some careful data gathering. However you get that data—whether it’s through focus groups, tapping existing employee surveys, one-on-one interviews with thought leaders or some other suitable technique—the task is to use that information as the starting point for both your strategy and tactics.
Those of us who act in this fashion will be the likely survivors of today’s crisis. But just as important, we will help our organizations to explain events and our employee audiences to better understand the circumstances that inform all leadership actions.
Roger D’Aprix, ABC, is vice president of ROI Communication and an internationally known communication consultant, lecturer and author who has assisted scores of Fortune 500 companies in developing their communication strategies and re-designing their communication training. |
