“Each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.” Okay maybe scrap that last one. What the 1985 John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club did get right though is that we are all complex beings with annoyingly – or perhaps endearingly – complex social needs. We’re all the same deep down – the same but different.
Individuals, teams, and departments can vary greatly from one to the other. It makes sense then that you would need an adaptive and flexible internal communication strategy to suit the mixture of personalities that come together in an organization.
If you want to have a really robust internal communications strategy, you need to take into account the complexity of the human experience. Big words, but not really a groundbreaking concept. The first thing you need is to make a plan, and in this plan, you must identify the following eight points.
1. The Context
In creating your plan you must first create a summary of your organization. How many employees are there? How are the departments divided? What do the corporate values include?
Within this context, you should outline your existing internal communications strategy. What are you using right now, and how well is it working? Do you use Yammer, Slack, newsletters, and meetings to inform everyone about the new workflow software? What feedback do you get from your colleagues about these methods?
2. The Audience
Once you’ve summarized your context, you need to get down to the nitty-gritty. Who is your audience, and, based on the analysis above, how do they prefer to communicate? What are their interests, what do they have in common, what do they seem to get excited about?
Some people love meetings (it takes all sorts), some people really enjoy social media, and others prefer to hammer things out on Yammer. Keep your ear to the ground to get a sense of what makes your colleagues tick.
3. The Power Rangers
There is no ‘I’ in Power Rangers. Everyone needs a team of different strengths to help implement their strategy. This could include HR, the communications intern, the mental health first aiders, or Anne in Accounting who has a flair for making posters. Figure out who you’re going to enlist in your mission and then…
4. Set Goals
What do you want to accomplish? Is it better morale? More feedback about your free conference calls? Better cohesion across departments?
Having a measurable set of goals is useful: for example, you could say you want to increase survey response rates by X%. Maybe you want the office to score higher on the yearly wellbeing survey. Maybe you just want to see more happy, spooky faces at the Halloween office party. Maybe you want someone to give you a World’s Best Boss mug as your Secret Santa gift. It’s all valid!
5. Less Is More
One thing you might be tempted to do is say “okay, most people are visual learners, let’s put lots of graphs and quotes and pictures on screens around the office with catchy music and blare it 24/7!” Well, hold your horses there buddy! You don’t want to overwhelm your colleagues.
You want to be tactical with information sharing. Marie Kondo that stuff and only keep that which sparks joy. Just as horses wear those eye shield thingies to avoid getting distracted, your colleagues could also use a break from information overload. Your communications should help people to focus, not get distracted (unless distraction and relaxation are one of your aims, but that should also be well-timed).
6. Timing Is (Almost) Everything
When deciding what your strategy should be, keep two things in mind: timing and content. You want to be strategic with when you communicate and what you communicate. If you bombard your colleagues with everything, all of the time, the information will just become background noise. So be selective with what you want to say, and when you want to say it. Think more Zen and less like a Superbowl commercial.
7. Some Like It Hot
But some don’t. You might want to consider a variety of communication methods as part of your strategy. Maybe you could include a monthly video update, a podcast for those that prefer listening, maybe even a social media hashtag for a more informal approach. It all depends on your company’s culture and on your audience.
65% of us are visual learners, and you can see that society adheres to this with its flashy ads and color-coded sales events. However, let’s not forget about the 30% of us who absorb information more through listening or the 5% of us who need to actively do stuff to learn.
8. Keep It Fresh
What worked before might not be relevant now, so try to keep your finger on the pulse and stay adaptable to ensure that your communication strategy isn’t becoming stale. You don’t want the same two people to read your weekly newsletter (unless your company consists of just you and two other people, in which case, not bad).
Keep your strategy open, flexible, and adaptable. As part of keeping it fresh, consider trying to do more than just informing your colleagues about call monitoring. Use your internal comms strategy to get your colleagues involved in something office-related. A call-to-action button could be included in your emails. You could have regular opinion surveys.
Up With the Upgrade
Your internal communications strategy is a really useful tool that could drastically improve your working environment. Don’t let it go to waste, and don’t let fear stop you from trying new approaches. By remaining open to feedback and new ideas, you can foster genuine engagement from your colleagues, and hopefully, see more happy faces at the next Halloween office party.