Oh dear, what can the matter be?

“E-mails and Intranet Are Top Communication Methods Used to Engage Employees”.  Oh dear.

In my last post I spoke about Gary Hamel’s call to reinvent management.  In the webcast I refer to there, Hamel talks about a global study of 90,000 employees around the world that was conducted by Towers Perrin and that showed that less than 20% of employees are engaged.  I think this IABC News headline, above, may tell us why.  Or at least part of the why.

We talk about communications as being more than crafting and sending messages.  And yet, this new survey just released by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation and Buck Consultants makes it  clear,  We still rely heavily on push technology and message sending.

And, in case we needed more evidence, the IABC article goes on to say that “32 percent of survey respondents indicate that their organizations rarely or never conduct employee listening activities”.  Oh dear.

In the world Hamel describes.  A world where “obedience, diligence and intellect aren’t enough to create a competitive advantage, any more, organizations need employees to bring initiative, creativity and compassion to their work.”  And, that “isn’t going to happen if  we command it.”  It isn’t going to happen because of e-mails and intranet.  It isn’t going to happen if we aren’t listening.  Oh dear, what can the matter be?

What do we need to do to create inspiring work places? Places where people want to bring more of themselves.

Is it possible?  Is there a role for communications in creating inspiring places to work?  If so, what is it?  How do you see it?

Something to read and think about

Bill Jensen, Work 2.0:  Rewriting the contract, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, 2002

Tags: Behaviour change, Communications, Creating, Cultural norms, Employee communication, Relationship, Work