This blog is about improving the relationship between organizations and the people who work for them. And, it’s dedicated to the millions of people around the world who go to work every day wanting to do a great job.

Management

The hidden language of communication

As communicators we like to believe that the communication begins once we send the news release, change the banner on the intranet, distribute the communications tool kit for all managers, host the CEO in a virtual or real town hall, send the survey, publish the newsletter, or post the blog.

The truth is that for most important change or announcement the communication started well before, often [and sadly] long before the professional communications team was even involved.  The communication started when:  the President cleared their agenda for a week with no notice.  Or, when the GM started having way more/fewer than normal meetings behind closed doors with her most trusted advisors.  Or, when men in suits turn up unannounced at one of our distant locations.  Or, when shouting is heard coming from a boardroom during a strategic planning meeting.   Or, when the Director of Marketing who is due for a promotion is seen smiling for no apparent reason.

The bottom line is that communications in your organization are happening now with or without you.

Do you know what’s really being communicated in your organization?

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Deborah Hinton Sunday, August 29th, 2010
Permalink CEO, Change Management, Communication, Corporate communication, Culture, External communication, Internal communication, Management No Comments

Management innovation = Communication innovation

Another wake up call.

I just tuned in to Gary Hamel’s recent webinar [ironically - given the closing line to last week's post - called]: Lighting the Fires of Management Innovation.[1] In it he describes how Management innovation was once the source of significant competitive advantage.  But, most management innovation took place in the very late 19th and very early 20th century.

So, if we are going to effectively tackle the urgent challenges of today, we need a fundamental reinvention of underlying management principles and practices.  And, we need to create this ‘management advantage’ at a time when the pace of change – political, economic, social, and technological – is increasing.

How?  Well according to Hamel it will take courage.  The courage to:

  • Take on big and noble problems
  • Question dogma
  • Learn from positive deviance [he refers specifically to the ethos of the web and the values that he believes must infiltrate management]
  • Start small – we need to be able to be both revolutionary and evolutionary at the same time.

[echos of Grassroots thinking]

Innovation in communication – the communications function and the communications themselves – will be absolutely fundamental to the reinvention of management.

As communicators it’s sometimes easy to be a little complacent around the idea of communication innovation.  After all the past decade has brought significant and important innovation to how we do communications.  The number and kinds of navigation tools, distribution channels, communication tools and tactics that are available grows exponentially.

But the kind of innovation that Hamel is calling for asks us to fundamentally rethink what we do.  Are we taking on or encouraging our organizations to take on big and noble ideas?  Do we question dogma – ours and others?  Are we learning from positive deviance?  Do we start small or are we caught up in one system wide campaign after another?

Are we ready to take this challenge on? As a profession?  As executives and managers? As advisors to leadership?  As employees and as voices for employees and other key stakeholders?

I’d love to hear what you think.  [the conversation continues]


[1] You need to be registered on the Management Innovation Exchange to access it, but it’s well worth it.

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Deborah Hinton Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Permalink Communication, Culture, External communication, Internal communication, Management No Comments

Creating extreme competitive advantage

Meeting people who really get communication is rare.  So, I was pleasantly surprised to meet with Bob Weiler, founding partner of Brimstone Consulting Group last week.

It was a meeting that proved to be both interesting and provocative.  Early in the conversation Bob suggested I change my business card to read Hinton : Communication strategies for extreme competitive advantage.  Boy did he have my attention?

He pushed on.  Reminding me of what, as an air force brat, I once knew, which is that the first thing you do when you go to war is take out or try to take out your enemy’s communications.  Once you’ve got your enemy in the “dark” and unable to communicate with HQ or each other they start to think very dark thoughts.  They will imagine the worst things possible about what’s going on.  And this gives you a very critical strategic advantage.   So the very first thing you go after is communications.

I felt like a light bulb went back on.  Somewhere 100 conversations ago and in the constant fight for limited resources and budget my clients and I’d lost touch with reality.  The reality that communications is not nice to have.  It’s critical to have.  And, great companies aren’t just OK at it.  They are great at it.  Individual, team and organizational mastery of communications is a top business priority.  And, for the super great it is used as a weapon.

Bob suggested I go back to Kotter’s 8 steps of change model [it's a classic].  As a reminder they are:  1. Create urgency, 2. Form a Powerful Coalition, 3. Create a Vision for Change, 4. Communicate the Vision, 5. Remove Obstacles, 6. Create Short-term Wins, 7. Build on the Change, 8. Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture.  Every one of these steps requires not just good communication, but great communication at the individual, the team and the organizational level.

And since Kotter’s change model isn’t the only way think about change I pulled out some notes I had on a newer favourorite of mine – Viral ChangeTM .  As Dr Leandro Herrero describes it, this approach takes  “a small set of behaviours spread by a small number of people through their networks of influence to create massive behavioural tipping points, translated into new routines and ‘cultures’ (new ideas established, new ways of working, new process adoption, new culture).”  What will it take?  Great communications.

So, I went back and pulled out some other classics:

Remember the 5 elements of management from business school?  What managers need to do to get things done through their people:   Planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. What will it take?  Great communication.

Or the 5 P’s of marketing, those things that marketing managers use to control marketing mix:  product, people, place, promotion, price.  What will they take? Great communication.

Or Jim Collins description of how to move an organization from “From Good to Great”.  Remember:  Develop level 5 leadership, decide first who and then what, confront the basic facts, use the hedge hog concept [know what you’re deeply passionate about, what drives your economic engine, what you can be the best in the world at], build a culture of discipline, be a technology accelerator, use the flywheel effect.  What will each of these need?  Great communication.

Or what makes for really engaged employees [this still rankles with me, but since it’s so loved by so many] – job clarity, materials and equipment, matching strengths to the job, recognition and praise, caring about the people you work with, mentoring, valuing employee opinions, connecting to a noble cause, one for all and all for one, creating the conditions so that people can have a best friend at work, regular conversations about individual progress, creating opportunities to learn and grow [based on Gallup G12 questions].  What will that take?  Yep.  Great communication.

So, why is it that so few organizations make mastery of individual, team and organizational communications an essential business priority?  Seems like a no brainer.  What do you think?

And thanks Bob for reigniting the flame.

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Deborah Hinton Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Permalink Change Management, Communication, Corporate communication, Culture, External communication, Internal communication, Management No Comments

Waffle words

“I’ve challenged our team to end this year at the No. 1 [sales] position in the marketplace.  If that doesn’t happen. . . my thoughts are simple:  If you’re the most profitable No. 2, it may be a better position in the marketplace.”

Yes, this is a reported quote from a real executive: Kevin Williams, the new CEO of GM Canada, at a press breakfast yesterday.  Do you have any idea what he was trying to say?  I didn’t so I asked a handful of professional friends what they thought.

In general they did not have a clue what this CEO was trying to say though one person actually thought it was a veiled threat of downsizing directed at employees.  And, they all gave a kind of resigned sigh and shrug after they’d thought about it for a few seconds.  It’s just not that unusual in the business world to read or hear statements like this.

So, in the tradition of this blog, this is less about GM and more about what it may reveal about the challenges institutions – especially public institutions – and their leaders face when their executives are out talking to the media or industry analysts.

Any of you who have worked close to a CEO knows that a team of people probably worked on this ‘positioning’ for weeks.  So it’s generally not for lack of expert advice and support.   And, it is highly unlikely that the whole event including this statement wasn’t scripted from beginning to end.  Even so:

  • The statement is unclear – Our goal is to be No 1 in sales or No 2 in sales but No 1 in profit? Why isn’t it No 1 in sales and profit?
  • The statement is pretty tentative – We might or might not make No 1.  Why?  Is it our strategy or our team?  We don’t know what the best position in the market is – No 1 in sales or No 2 in sales and No 1 in profit?  Is that because we think our competitors will have to buy the No 1 in sales position?

So, what is going on?  Why waffle?  Why not take a stand and clearly state the goal:

  • “We will be No. 1 in profit by the end of the year”?   In that case, you’d need to signal to investors that you’re also planning for growth.
  • “We will be No. 1 in sales by the end of the year”?  In this case you’d want to signal to investors that you won’t achieve the growth in sales at all costs.

So, why all this signalling?  Why wouldn’t you just state the goal completely and clearly.  Well, you need to give yourselves a little leeway, a little gray zone.   Despite all the talk after the economic meltdown in 2008 big investors are still focused on the short-term.  The next quarter is only 3 months away…  And even for potentially decisive, bold and imaginative leaders the risk of a fickle and volatile market is just too high.

And, that leaves you and me and 10s of 1,000s of customers and employees [and potential customers and employees] scratching our heads and wondering what our  business leaders are smoking?  Is it any wonder employees and customers don’t trust big Corporate?

What do you think?  And, perhaps even more importantly, if you agree with me, what can we do to change the game?

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Deborah Hinton Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Permalink CEO, Corporate communication, Culture, External communication, Management No Comments

Communication is not about transportation!

Since 1948, when it was first published by the two mathematicians, Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver, the Shannon-Weaver model has remained one of the dominant theories of communication.  Senders [read managers] worry about reaching receivers [read stakeholders/audiences] and how they can get their message heard through the ‘noise’.  The answer, according to Shannon-Weaver: Increase the volume!

Over 30 years ago, in conversation with then Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, Marshall McLuhan, argued that Shannon-Weaver’s thinking was flawed and that the model was a “transportation solution”. [see From Marshall and Me]

Too bad none of us were there to hear.  The Shannon-Weaver theory and its underlying assumptions may be at the heart of much that is wrong with organizational communications – inside and out.

How would McLuhan’s insight change how you think about communications and what would that mean for how you/we:

  • Design communications plans?
  • Do communications? [what? when? where? how?]
  • Measure success?
  • Develop professionals?  Managers and communication professionals?
  • Organize communications functions?

I’d love to hear what you think.

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Deborah Hinton Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
Permalink Communication, Corporate communication, Management No Comments

Not all jobs are in cubicles

It’s easy to forget when you’re working in an office at HQ that not all jobs are in cubicles.

When I first began working at Alcan [now Rio Tinto Alcan] our then CEO, Jacques Bougie, insisted on beginning every talk with employees by talking about health and safety starting with the stats for the last quarter.  As the newly appointed Director, Internal Communications, I thought this was simply a terrible way to begin every talk.  I was wrong.  He was right.

The recent explosion of the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon and the deaths of 11 workers reminds us that every day men and women around the world go to work at dangerous jobs.  Some very dangerous jobs.

The “Deaths on the Job Report” for 2010 reports that for the USA alone “In 2008, 5,214 workers were killed on the job—an average of 14 workers every day—and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases. More than 4.6 million work-related injuries were reported, but this number understates the problem. The true toll of job injuries is two to three times greater—about 9 to 14 million job injuries each year.”

What role do you play in communicating health and safety information to your employees, your customers? Your shareholders?  What role should you play?

The real work of your institution may be happening in places without cubicles, without internet access, maybe even without computers.  By workers who farm, chop trees, provide patient care in hospitals, pack groceries, load container trucks, bottle beer, or teach in classrooms. Who may or may not be literate?  And if they are may or may not be speaking French or English as their first language.  Their cultures and their lives may be vastly different than yours.

How well do you and your executive understand their employees experience of their work and the organization they work for?  What are the implications for how well they/you can do your job?

When was the last time you went and spent time with people on the front line?  What was that experience like?  If not, why not?  If so, when will you do it again?

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Deborah Hinton Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Permalink CEO, Communication, Corporate communication, Culture, Internal communication, Management No Comments

Friendly. Not familiar. Rules.

Just to finish the story from yesterday.  At our bricks and mortar bank today… Anne-Marie was at reception as she has been for over 15 years. I used to see her often.  We didn’t necessarily speak.  When I had a problem with the business banking cue a year or so ago, she stepped in and got it solved.  Tellers come and go, but Anne-Marie is always there.

Today I was in line at reception to see about getting a copy of a cheque.  She was with another client who couldn’t do an electronic transaction.  Anne-Marie came out from around the desk to take her to the machines.  She saw me and politely asked the other client if she would just wait a second…  and said “Mrs Hinton isn’t it?  How can I help?”  And then gave me the info I couldn’t get on the phone yesterday.

I haven’t even been in the bank when it’s been open for at least 6 months and probably haven’t spoken to her for over a year!  This is friendly and not familiar.  I feel strangely drawn back into the circle.

Came home to try what she’d suggested.  Didn’t quite work.  After the last three calls, I was preparing myself for the assault of overly familiar ‘Hi Deborah, how’s your…[fill in the blank with something way to personal]“.  This time, though, the person on the end of the phone was friendly and not familiar.  No attempts to be my new best friend – just professional, knowledgeable, efficient and yes, friendly. No manipulation.  Nice.

How could there be such a difference?  It’s the same bank.  I don’t know.  But local management surely plays a key role by recruiting and selecting people who love people, adapting training and support systems that make it easy for their employees to be professional and solve their customer issues, personalizing and aligning reward and recognition approaches.  And, respecting employees and giving them an appropriate level of freedom to solve the customer issue.  It is not about encouraging them to get chummy with their customers.

Now I’m sure my grandmother was right.  Friendly.  Not familiar.

Have you got any stories where you think organizations have gotten it right? Way wrong?  What do you think?

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Deborah Hinton Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
Permalink Communication, Culture, External communication, Internal communication, Management No Comments

Friendly. Not familiar.

There’s been a lot of talk about making organizations more human from a customer point of view lately.  I think the most recent iteration of this idea has been inspired by Design Thinking  and the role of empathy in customer relationships [thanks Dan Gray and the gang at CommScrum for getting me reading this literature].

The idea is that if you really understand and care about your customers and show it you can build long-term sustainable relationships with them.  Not exactly breakthrough thinking.

Anyway it’s not the idea that’s bad.  The idea’s fantastic.  And there are organizations that do it and do it well.  It’s authentically who they are. The problem starts when not particularly nice organizations decide they are going to institutionalize niceness.  And, a recent post by Julien Smith got me thinking about something that had just happened to me.

A story.  I called my bank about something a few weeks ago and the person on the end of the phone asked if she could call me Deborah [a little familiar] and then began using my name in every second sentence. Then she asked if she could wish me happy birthday… it was the next week.  I felt completely creeped me out.

My grandmother ran her own business successfully for years.  Her mantra:  “Be friendly.  Not familiar.”  This clearly broke that rule.  This woman didn’t know me.  I didn’t know her.  I wasn’t calling for a personal relationship with her.  I wanted to complete a transaction with the institution.  This was simply a pretence of friendly.  It was manipulative.  She knew it and I knew it.

And this got me thinking about what it must be like to be an employee in an organization that’s decided it’s time to be warm and friendly with customers when the organization has never been warm and friendly before.

Imagine you’re the employee who’s asked to behave this way.  You’re given the scripts – customer says “x”, service rep says “y”.  If you’re the Borg it’s perfect.  If you’re a customer service rep who’s really trying to understand a customer need and meet it?  Not so much.  It must get pretty hollow pretty fast for the employee.  I know it did for the customer.

What do you think? Can you be more human from a customer point of view when you aren’t from an employee point of view? Can organizations institutionalize empathy?

Post script – Had to call the bank again this morning and different person same script… although this lady didn’t ask for permission, just asked if this was Deborah and promptly hung up on me twice!  I’m really feeling the love.

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Deborah Hinton Monday, April 12th, 2010
Permalink Communication, Customer, Internal communication, Management 4 Comments