Two-Way Communications

We have been working on internal communications projects lately, which delight me: it is one of my first loves in the communications field. I like to think of the process as one big conversation that never ends.

I started my career as an intrepid reporter/editor of a company newsletter at a local manufacturing firm. It was my business to report the company news, so I had ongoing conversations with folks on the manufacturing line and in the executive suite. My news came out once a month in a printed newsletter that stayed in employees’ hands (who else would be interested in our news?).

In today’s world the lines between internal and external communications have become blurred. What you communicate internally is likely to be external, as well – now more than ever – so we keep that in mind.

But some things have not changed. Like most conversations, employee communications is a two-way street. A message is sent to an intended audience, and then it is received or not received, for a variety of reasons: pre-existing opinions and attitudes, format preferences, style issues, etc.

As we develop communications plans, we try to take that into account: how the messages or vehicles are likely to be both perceived . . . and received.

That’s why feedback loops of some kind are essential as communications plans, strategies and messages are set, and later as messages are sent.

If you don’t have a feedback loop in your organization, you could just ask employees what they think. And, most important, then listen to what they have to say.

Sometimes you’ll agree. Other times, you won’t.

What’s most important is that you listen first, and communicate back, second. And keep the conversation going in your organization.

-- Mary Lilja

There Really IS Such a Thing as Bad Publicity

With a New Year upon us, what is the number one lesson we learned in 2009?

In short, we discovered that the old maxim, “There is no such thing as bad publicity” was false. As evidence, I need only to invoke the names Tiger Woods, Falcon “Balloon Boy” Heene, Jon and Kate Gosselin, the Salahis… dare I go on?

In each of these cases, we see people who believe that they can navigate or control the media onslaught and come out with a restored image, a TV show, or a level of celebrity earned without any discernable talent.

But in the end they become lambs led to the altar of public opinion, ready for slaughter. Certainly, these people take their punishment in the form of lost sponsorships, freedoms, marriages, etc., but real blame lies at the feet of a news media willing to point their cameras at the target and a public eager to watch the drama unfold.

I won’t try to construct some argument that these media shenanigans never occurred in the halcyon days of Murrow or Cronkite, but when the latest newsmaker lands their live interview on a late night talk or morning show mere hours after their story breaks, are we truly better for it?

I don’t think so. After all, it seems that when we ought to trust the news media to inform us on issues related to our economy, health care and world affairs, all we hear about, or care to pay attention to, are plain Scottish spinsters who have a hidden ability to sing.

I hope in 2010 we expect more from the media and ourselves.

-- Alex Cook