The Communications' Conundrum

I am an accidental communications "specialist". In fact, my career is a series of accidental roles. And in hindsight, I cannot be more grateful because it meant I wasn’t straight jacketed by conventional ways of doing things which allowed me the room to experiment, push boundaries and mostly succeed.

However, this article is not about my accidents but instead a troubled reflection about "Communications" and "Communication Professionals" in the Indian context. I find the function is constrained by two extremes - the seasoned practitioners at one end and the seasoned posturers at the other.

The Seasoned Practitioners

They follow the straight and narrow, have the five point agenda that they follow, leaving little room to experiment, innovate or be radical. They will typically?

• play hardball with agencies (the client-agency divide is old and boring),?
• be difficult to please within the organisation while seldom standing up to leadership for something truly compelling and?
• will sweat the small stuff

The Seasoned Posturers

On the other hand, the seasoned posturers

• will use new age jargon and put in little effort to understand organisation strategy
• struggle with delivery and will settle for gimmicks
• are unclear about their role within an organisation and end up being the weakest link.

Somewhere between the two extremes, a radical shift is necessary for communications to find its true position as a SHAPER of an organisation’s vision, mission and success. Some easy fixes:

1. ?Communication professionals must be comfortable taking calculated risks and innovating while keeping definitive outcomes front and centre.
2. The client - agency relationship needs a shakeup. From the client side, corporate communicators must bring agencies into their fold like any other partner to be a truly collaborative and powerful function. From the agency side, teams must consistently add value and not just “service”.
3. The fundamentals of good content, meeting deadlines, keeping an eye on the details while not losing sight of the big picture and being able to communicate must be non-negotiable.
4. The focus shouldn’t be skewed on either quick wins or long term gains, instead communication plans must be AGILE and RESPOND to what is necessary. Sometimes what is required is a quicksilver, eyeball catching strategy and sometimes a slow burn campaign.
5. Communication “pitches” must be less about making a fabulous impression and more about impressing upon what is crucial and relevant.

The communication function must find its authentic voice and that can happen only if communication professionals do what it takes to redeem themselves.

It’s about time and absolutely necessary.

#CallingItOut