Lessons from the Field - Winter 2007
The
Key is Communication
“I can’t act on what I don’t know.”
By Chris Swistro
A common mistake I see some clients make is
that they fail to communicate their vision
and plans for attaining the vision early and
often. Many executives struggle with what the
“right time” is to communicate with their
staff, department, or company, and worry that
they need to hammer out every last detail
before they get the message out. The truth
is, plans are never air-tight, and good plans
must be flexible enough to respond to
changing market conditions or environmental
variables. Flexibility is not a sign of
weakness, but failure to communicate may be
interpreted as just that. Leaders need to
consider that it is not the details that
people seek, it is the message – an
understanding of what the leadership team is
thinking, what they are trying to accomplish,
and how members of the organization can
support the effort.
Swistro Advisors works with companies seeking
to implement strategic plans they have
developed. These plans often require
significant change to business as usual. As
we guide clients to design and activate their
change implementation, we help them make
communication a priority. Employee
understanding of the vision is essential to
attaining their buy-in, and employee buy-in
is essential to attaining enduring change. In
The Wisdom of Teams, Katzenbach and Smith
emphasize the importance of converting
strategy into team purpose that “[everyone]
understands in common.” Helping everyone
understand the “why” is key to this
conversion.
What can you do as an
executive?
Share information. Ask yourself: “Why
is what we’re doing important?” Then, find a
way to communicate the answer to each of your
constituencies both internally and externally
– your senior leadership, your management
team, your support staff, your customers,
your clients. Plan to repeat this exercise at
each important milestone of the change
process. In the absence of information from
you, speculation will fill the void.
Listen. Provide people opportunities
to offer feedback, acknowledge that what they
have to say is important, and let them know
how you will handle that feedback. You will
not be able to act on every comment,
suggestion or complaint, but it is important
that people know you have heard and
considered their opinion.
"Chris Swistro's approach focused on building
effective team performance, not fracturing
it. I've worked with other consultants in the
past that inadvertently fueled discord
between senior management and field staff.
She avoided this pitfall completely by
refusing to become emotionally entangled.
With our team, she kept our eye on the prize:
to build a unified organization whose people
function as a team."
- Executive
Director,
Public health research
organization
Exploring New Media for Internal
Communications
By David McSweeney, President of Tenor
Technologies and
Swistro Advisors Affiliated Professional
It's no secret that organizations often
struggle with the challenges of delivering
information internally. Whether it's great
news about a customer win, a response to
negative press, clarifying organizational
direction, or educating staff on efforts to
enter a new market segment, this information
doesn't easily reach its intended audience.
Corporate email volume is at unmanageable
levels, and traditional trickle-down
communication methods (the CEO briefs senior
staff, senior staff briefs mid-level
management, and so on) often result in a
distortion of the original message.
New media can provide an unfiltered,
in-depth, interactive communications channel
for your organization. Imagine a scenario
where the executive team has worked
diligently to formulate a new vision and
mission for the company. Creating a corporate
podcast where that same team can succinctly
and energetically articulate that information
to everyone in the company is a powerful
tool. New media solutions are also perceived
as progressive and positive efforts. Other
new media such as blogging, discussion
groups, and Wikis can be easily deployed to
provide an open forum for effective employee
communication. Contact us for more
information on how you can take advantage of
these technical innovations.
Click here to learn more about Swistro Advisors
About Swistro Advisors
Specialists in organizational transformation,
Swistro
Advisors
collaborates with executive teams to clarify
organizational
direction, actuate change, and support the
mastery
of skills
and
leadership behaviors to ensure enduring
productivity
gains.
Together,
we envision and attain your goals.
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Swistro Advisors
...Successful change set in motion...
Christine Swistro, President
phone:
617.285.0422
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