Organizational Communication Strategy… make it simple…

Communication is always scored low in any organization. People have different perceptions about communication. Few companies are not open and transparent and less communicative. The culture is closed and everything is confidential and secret in the organization. Assistants, secretaries and cheerleaders are powerful without title. There is lot of scope for ambiguity. The gossiping is common and water cooler discussions are hot. There are another few organizations who are very communicative. They are open and transparent. Everything they do, they communicate. Their intranet is always updated. Top management takes interest in their people.
They communicate vision, mission, numbers, projects, programmes and regular updates. Still there is gossiping and water cooler discussions. Employees still think that they are not communicated properly.

What may be the reasons for this? Why always employees see the disconnect about the information companies share? I see the basic fundamental issues and i.e. do your company have the internal communication strategy? Oh, again strategy! You may ask the question, communication should be simple so why to go in strategy, another corporate buzz word? Answer is how you look it. You still can make it simple by using the simple information gathering tool, yes,  i.e. 5W & 1H.

You can design your strategy for each communication… before doing any communication just ask following questions…

What you want to communicate?

Why  you want to communicate?

Who are the audience in communication? What is the level of people?

Where you want to communicate?

When you want to communicate?

And most importantly How you want to communicate? What is the mode of communication?

Sometimes, I always see people communicating something, but the connection is missing. If you are speaking about numbers, I see, people seating, in the room are blank. They even forget what they heard when they come out of the room. I see the reason behind this. People don’t see, “what is in it for me” factor. This can be avoided, when you are critical about the particular communication you are doing.

Once you do the proper questioning on your communication, go further by asking,

What exactly does this mean to the audience?

How does this relate to the audience (connect) what you are communicating about?

What is the nature of impact you want to see after the communication?

I think sometimes we forget the basics and try to find out the solution from elsewhere by making whole system complex. Less communication and over communication is always bad and may have the adverse impact on the culture and people in the organization. Question is about right communication at right moment at right place for right people.

Are you ready?