I recently read an interesting thesis ( ‘Internal Communication in organizations undergoing change’ by Linda Bertelsen and Anders Nerman) and found the following thoughts on effective communication relevant and useful for communicators to apply at their workplace.

There are 7 Cs of effective internal communication as collated by researchers.

1.    Communication needs to be concrete – easily understandable by the receiver

2.    Communication to be concentrated – focusing on issues that are essential for the receiver to simplfy matters

3.    Coordinated communication will enable managers to effectively get the message over

4.    Information needs to be consequent over time – which means it is better to communicate defective facts over time to be consistent rather than say one thing and take it back over the next communication, thereby losing credibility. I find this the most essential in practice and noted many organizations fall into the trap of communicating inconsistently.

5.    It is important to form ‘constrasts’ in the communication. Memos and emails can become dull and boring and less interactive compared to face to face communication. Hence, usage of pictures, images, charts and content on sidebars will help make the communication interesting and easier to assimilate. Effective communication affects knowledge as well as feelings of the receiver.

6.    Communication should ideally develop contacts – or create a dialogue or open channels for discussion for further exchange of ideas.

7.    It is critical to pursue communication on a continuous basis to keep the dialogue flowing and increase credibility.

Any perspectives from your experiences? Keen to hear about it.

How does one describe the role of internal communicators? Strategic? Tactical? Complex? People oriented? Results focussed?

An executive administrator from a leading organization who was keen to join the ranks of an internal communications team got cold feet when she dived headlong into projects. “I am better off with what I am doing today if this is how complex the role is!” was her impression when working on coaching senior management, creating processes for improved communication, building self-help models for internal teams and setting up pulse sessions with employees.

While internal communication is fairly new as an domain, communication has been in existence from when organizations were created.

Fundamentally, understanding the business goals and need, the right mode of communication, the key messaging, timing and measurement metrics are what makes good internal communication stand apart from the ordinary.

From my experience, internal communicators are change agents and need to work like consultants thinking ahead and for the business.

This means, reviewing business plans for insights, interviewing customers, communicating ahead of time, involving stakeholders, measuring impact of communication, working with the leadership, assessing penetration of communication, making stakeholders communicate better, visiting workplaces, providing recognition among others.

As the Work Foundation puts it;

In a nutshell, adapatability will define how internal communication can shape the future of businesses.

Organizations are waking up to the alarming increase in information overload and drop in productivity among their staff.

According to RescueTime, an organization which analyses computer use behavior, a typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail programme more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times.The research also found that on an average the worker also opens and reas 40 Web sites over the course of the day. 

Companies are experimenting with methods to restrict access to e-mail and encouraging employees to meet up in person more often or take a break at least 15 minutes in a day. Some organizations are creating ‘no-email’ days during the work week to increase productivity.

Another study concludes that the more email employees receive, the unhappier they are with how email is used within the company. This is reflected in the high number of emails received by those who are concerned about the defects. Although it is not just quantity of email that causes concern, it is also the quality of the email.

For the internal communicator, these are important issues which need attention. Employees need help in getting to relevant information for their work and to contribute to the organization’s growth. The role of the internal communicator is two-fold – to evaluate and assess the information generation and publishing and build processes which streamline the flow of information.

The communicator needs to meaning of the information around and share in crisp, relevant chunks for easier assimilation. The recent boom in social media and Web 2.0 tools provides avenues to achieve this. Today, the employee no longer needs to rely on the organization for information about its products, services or its strategy. They discover it on the internet and the blogosphere much before the organization decides to make it public.

Recently, a senior professional from a leading Indian IT firm spoke about challenges in controlling information within the organization and also the need to understand how much information to share. This is a typical challenge faced by companies who are balancing the changing power shift in the Web 2.0 era where content co-creation, transparency and trust take centre-stage.

The internal communicator’s first step is to understand the various channels, information served and the rate of publishing. This will involve an audit and discussions with stakeholders within the organization.

You can involve employees and stakeholders for creating a guideline or a policy for information sharing and increased ownership.

Creating a centralized channel or routing all communication via a single source aids better recall and easier information intake. Some organizations use the intranet as the only medium for internal communication while stacking all corporate and business news for a weekly release unless it is a crisis message.

Leveraging RSS (Really Simple Syndication) options like Feed Reader or RSS Owl allows relevant information to be served to employees on a subscription model.

While sharing information, the communicator needs to ensure it is written to suit ‘skimmers’ and ‘scanners’, types of readers we find among ourselves. The former looking for key words within the documents to make sense of the information and the latter needing proof of the information’s authenticity to truly believe.

Allowing users to tag, rate, submit, forward, share and create mash-ups of information only increases the distribution and reach of news. Enroll citizen journalists and communication stalwarts from within the organization to enhance perspectives and viewpoints.

Helping managers distill information that is relevant for their teams is another good strategy to adopt.

The role of the internal communicator is more of a facilitator and a strategist than a creator and publisher of information. Companies which recognize this difference will be able to win the minds in the war on information overload.

At a New Media and Career workshop for students conducted today, I posed the following questions:

Is your resume New Media ready?

Do you know what makes a curriculum vitae tick in the social media space?

Are you sending the right messages for recruiters trawling the web?

Is your career Web 2.0 proof?

Recent shifts in the Web 2.0 world like content co-creation, transparency and individualized information impacts the way job searches and careers are defined. Trends indicate the need to adopt and leverage new media or social media channels for improving accessibility, creating a brand image and enhancing the potential of getting a job. Blogs, podcasting, wikis and social networking are no more mere buzz words but effective tools to get a head start in a complex web world. Recruiters are constantly monitoring the web for potential candidates and an impressive web profile can improve the chances of landing a job.

For a management student, it opens up numerous opportunities to build awareness, cultivate communities, contribute to relevant discussions and improve chances of a long term career growth.

The students were honest about their understanding of new media and realized the implications of leveraging it to its fullest.

By increasing awareness, focusing on career objectives and working towards a new media career strategy.

A CV can be enhanced to make it more web savvy using tools like You Tube, social networking sites, references and links to articles among others.

Today, choosing the right social networking site to be on is critical for image building. My take is to ‘get off Orkut if you want to be taken seriously!’.

On the web, collaboration is a sure way to improve your chances of better opportunities. Be useful and relevant to others; maintain decorum while communicating online, help others get successful and it adds up in the long run.

Be credible online. Do not post information which is ambiguous or not verified.  Know yourself and be yourself.

Test your strategy with your peers and stakeholders before you go public. Get feedback on how it matches with your objectives.

Finally, market your profile through social networking sites which align to your image, alumni networks and collaboration tools among others. Do not miss an opportunity to talk about it offline either!

Remember, it takes time to shape a new media strategy; be willing to experiment and be patient.

For an evaluation of your resume and ideas for creating a successful career new media strategy, mail me at intraskope@yahoo.com

The management education community (students, placement professionals and leaders) can derive immense benefits from new media/social media/Web 2.0 and its popularity.

Rising interest in new media coupled with faster, cheaper access to the internet has fueled opportunities for interactivity, community and brand building. But, awareness of how new media impacts our personal and professional lives is limited.

On June 27, 2008, while conducting a new media  workshop for students from the Bangalore Management Academy, Bangalore I learnt a few interesting insights.

- Although new media tools and techniques are already being adopted by the community, they are unaware of its implications and usage.

- There is a thirst for learning - from the basics to the complexities of how the new world operates.

- Differentiation in the Web 2.0 era is yet to be understood and so it personal branding.

- There is a fear of the unknown and the risks involved.

At the workshop, the key take-aways were around positioning in the web world, being aware of what works and what doesn’t and making the most of new media tools and trends for reasons ranging from easier access for search executives, branding and credibility.

Opportunities exist for placement officers and the management of educational institutes as well - from opening up new channels of communication to keeping track of new trends among Generation Y, their students.

Look forward to your comments and feedback.

Over the last couple of days, I have received mails from students - one from the UK and the other from a leading institute in Pune. Though the questions were fundamental, it highlights the ambiguity in the minds of those wanting to pursue communication as a career.  

For the benefit of others, I am taking the liberty to first articulate the queries and provide my take on the subjects.

Question: “The lines between HR, internal communications and PR are quite blurry and senior management seems to be unsure regarding how IC is related to PR but different from HR. I would like to know if this is an area that has been widely covered. Apart from what is being discussed regarding the importance of internal comms and how it is increasingly important now to address its key stakeholders - the employees, as an internal comms professional, do you feel that there are other aspects of internal comms that has not been looked into before? Internal communications is a largely debated topic here and if organizations do not get their key messages right from the inside then they pretty much will not be able to do a good job externally either.”

My response which is open to debate:

“There is very little clarity on the roles of HR and IC but in terms of what IC and PR does, management and communication professionals do know how each creates an impact. Undoubtly, both have a linkage - the messages to the external and internal audiences must be in sync. It again depends on how organizations and senior leadership value and view communication. There is a large role of communicators to demonstrate tangible benefits to convince their respective management.

 That said, there are some areas which need attention. With the advent of new media/social media, there is a shift in the way communication is created and shared both internally and externally and that is something communicators do not have too much control over.

 Research also points to a lack of trust and transparency within organizations which is further deepened by the web 2.0 trends.

 Crisis communication as part of internal communication needs more focus and attention like the way leadership communication is taking centrestage.

 Another area of study should be around communication satisifaction and effectiveness/measurement.”

The second query was on the topic of ‘PR in the Corporate Sector’ assigned to the student, which I felt was too broad based.

Below were my recommendations to improve and therefore arrive at a more meaningful project result.

“The suggestion is to narrow down the direction to a few key areas.

1. Perception of PR agencies among media and governmental bodies

2. The role of PR in the Web 2.0 era

3. PR and ethics - how much of hype can be tolerated?

4. Measurement in PR and role for communicators

5. PR and social responsibility in India - where to draw the line

6. Is PR as a domain redundant?

 After you decide along with your guide, talk to at least 10 PR professionals and understand their perspectives on these areas.

 I think the industry and your college will gain a lot more from the insights you will get from these areas.

You should then use Google Scholar to get papers and articles on the topic - talk to media folks and get a 360 degree viewpoint.

The third question was with regard to Internal Communication (IC) as a subset of Corporate Communication.

“Internal Communication (IC) falls within the purview of Corporate Communication but is very specific to communicating with internal audiences. In some organizations, there are niche teams which focus only on employee communication directly reporting into the CEO or the Executive Office, while in some they are nested within HR or as seperate outfits. There is a strong linkage of IC to PR and it is in the best interest of the organization to keep their messages consistent.”

Look forward to views, suggestions and comments.

At a recent communications gathering in Bangalore last week, I had an opportunity to meet up with Mike Green, who leads employee communications for Intel.  A veteran at Intel, he took time off from his short visit to India to talk to communication professionals and share insights from his experience.

Mike stressed on the need for communicators to understand their role as strategists and mentors for employees and leaders. He is credited for bringing significant changes within Intel through transformation in communication, engaging employees and helping leaders do their jobs better.  Mike explained how challenges like information overload and decreased engagement were forcing communicators to think differently.

He fielded a host of questions from the audience ranging from print vs social media influence, global communication and culture, outsourcing and implications for communications, leadership blogs, consistency in messaging and dealing with the press.

I was drawn by the significance of the questions posted by the audience – most of them were tactical, probably a reflection of the work internal communicators in India handle. On the contrary, Mike extolled participants to focus their sights on the core mission and values which keep their respective organizations in business.

In my interactions with the participating professionals, I could gauge a sense of urgency to shore up internal communication efforts within their organizations due to the constantly evolving dynamics and business expectations.

Overall, an interesting knowledge sharing session. Kudos to Vijay Shankar and team for organizing the event and to Arun for engaging participants for an interactive evening.

Participants, do feel free to share your views here…

Over the last few weeks I have been conversing with a host of senior management in India and getting to know their views on the challenges and significance of internal communication and branding.

Some common themes emerge.

While internal communication is accepted as a practice, some professionals were unsure if it is a part of the communication mix and how it played a role.

Public relations and reputation management as communication drivers were top of mind, more so the latter due to its long term implications. Public relations is seen as a means to the end.

Most accepted that internal communication and PR were interrelated but were unsure how.

Those professionals exposed to the US and European markets had a far greater understanding and expectation of communication; viewing it as a long term investment rather than a short term one. Periodic briefings, regular meetings and closing the gap between what is perceived vs reality are some of the improvements expected.

Internal communication is not a silver bullet but a significant step in building a brand from the inside out.

Welcome to my first podcast on my blog!

 http://aniisu.podbean.com/2008/06/17/podcast-on-new-media-and-internal-communication/

In this podcast, I summarize the implications of new media influence on internal communications and provide a strategy for managers to leverage opportunities to their advantage. The views from this podcast are from a workshop conducted on the same subject in 2007.

Below are some starter-kit recommendations.

• Leverage internal expertise
• Constantly beta-tests with your best critics
• Tap the power of citizen journalism
• Monitor the web
• Build policies
• Start a conversation

Finally, don’t be afraid to experiment. Be flexible and get feedback from users and finally, don’t get frustrated…the internet is an evolving media. Leverage it to your advantage. Absorb - Adapt – Apply.

My new found interest in YouTube got me searching for employee videos to understand how organizations in India express themselves online.

The results returned some fascinating clips…sharing my favorites below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynfg27tErNU (Frito Lay’s referral program)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTXL5Z6EZQs&feature=related (Thought Works, a day in the life of a developer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV4RXX6Zer4 (Swipe Out – a parody by Infosys employees)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctK_CyKIz8I (What it is like to be at Frito Lay)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gPLW6Q-QLs (Frito Lay Buzz)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp9fAEjGizs (HCL life)