The question I most often get from communication professionals who want to make the shift from the current town crier role to one that’s more aligned with improving business results is, “How do I get started? How can I make a difference in our organization’s outcomes?” I recommend beginning by asking five questions. Here they… Read more
Performance Improvement
Facebook Fail: Internal Communications Strategy
Surely Facebook didn’t intend to put the internal communication discipline back 20 years, but they did a mighty fine job focusing on outdated tactics. The headline on a recent “Workplace by Facebook” piece was: “A 9-Step Strategy for Connected Communications,” which certainly perked up my ears. Alas, the piece focused more on improving internal communication… Read more
The Purest Form of Organizational Communication
Last month, I spoke at the Gathering of the Games, the world’s largest conference on open book management. Hundreds of open book leaders and communication practitioners from around the world were in attendance to learn, share and celebrate the principles and practice of open book management. Open book management is a leadership philosophy that’s grounded… Read more
Pilot Projects Create Big Successes
Want to produce results fast, minimize risk of failure, perfect a concept and create demand for more? Pick a pilot, improve results and replicate. Increasingly, organizations are adopting surgical approaches to improving performance, focusing on targeted segments (a branch office, manufacturing plant, laboratory, sales territory, or distribution center), making significant shifts quickly, creating stories around… Read more
Cracking the Metrics Code
For years, I’ve heard communication practitioners talk about the importance of measuring everything that mattered EXCEPT financial or operating performance. Measures such as tweets, re-tweets, page views, content consumption, readability, channel usage, word count, timing of content delivery and a ton of other irrelevant measures. Communication measures and broad business measures should be the same… Read more
Money Doesn’t Grow on Tweets
Most employee communication departments don’t measure the right things or they don’t measure at all. What gets measured has little to do with operating or financial performance. So, how do they know if they’re adding any value to their businesses? The number of tweets, re-tweets, page views, content consumption, readability, channel usage, quantity or quality… Read more
Win Big and Repeat! A Case Study
When a communication assessment at FedEx Express brought senior leaders and the communication department closer together, it paid off in a huge return on their investment. The assessment made it clear that there were considerable opportunities to improve results if the communication department could shift its focus from distributing news and information to improving business… Read more
Four Core Areas to Fast Track Comms Careers
Communication practitioners have access this week to knowledge that can help propel their careers. The world’s premier communication association launched its world conference in Montreal on Sunday. Since I became an IABC* fellow nearly 20 years ago, I’ve only missed speaking at this conference a few times before now. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend this year…. Read more
From the Field: Improving Quality without Losing Productivity
You asked for more case studies. Here’s one. It was a big win for our client and it served as a pilot for even more successes throughout their company. The Challenge One of North America’s biggest logistics companies needed to reduce costs created by excessive damage in its supply chain. Most damage was occurring in… Read more
Communication Breakdowns = Lost Revenue
Our recent survey of Leadership Report readers produced a bucket-load of content suggestions for future Reports. (Thanks to all who participated.) Several suggestions centered on using case studies to “help us get the kinds of measurable results you talk and write about.” Today’s issue is in response to the requests for case studies received from… Read more