Competing for Stickiness

Communication within an organization is a competitive arena. In most departments, there's always someone with a message or information they deem highly important, all vying to implant it in the minds of the workforce. To stand out in this competitive landscape, your messaging needs to be imaginative, innovative, and impactful.

I am often hired to coach and advise clients on their strategy to improve safety performance and overall culture. I regularly find ineffective communication at the root of many personal and business problems. Effective leaders' ability to send and receive information is a core competency.

How creative is your communication? Are you expressing thoughts and feelings in a unique and, where appropriate, poetic or transparent manner? Does it influence and cause the audience to think and ask questions? Most importantly, does your audience remember the topic or most important details weeks or months later?

Effective communication is not just about delivering information. It's about delivering it in a way that captures attention and leaves a lasting impact. Creativity plays a crucial role in this. Whether it's through storytelling, using metaphors or analogies, or incorporating visual elements, finding innovative ways to communicate can make all the difference in ensuring your message stands out and is remembered.

Being transparent and authentic in your communication also helps to build trust and credibility with your audience. People appreciate honesty and are more likely to be engaged and receptive when they feel that you are being genuine. By expressing your thoughts and feelings uniquely and poetically, you can create a connection that goes beyond the words themselves.

But creativity alone is not enough. Your message should also be thought-provoking and stimulate your audience to think and ask questions. By presenting your information in a way that challenges their current beliefs or encourages them to consider different perspectives, you can foster a deeper level of engagement and encourage critical thinking.

And perhaps most importantly, your communication should be memorable. It's not enough for your audience to simply understand the topic in the moment; they should remember it weeks or even months later. This is where the concept of "stickiness" comes into play. By using memorable anecdotes, catchy phrases, or even repetition, you can increase the likelihood that your message will stick with your audience long after they have heard it.

So, how effective is your communication? Are you leveraging your creativity to make your message stand out? Are you being transparent and authentic in your expression? Are you stimulating thought-provoking questions? And most importantly, is your communication sticky? By continuously striving for imaginative, innovative, and impactful communication, you can outcompete the rest and ensure that your message is heard and remembered throughout your organization.

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." - George Bernard Shaw

"Your brain hosts a truly staggering number of loops. The more hooks an idea has, the better it will cling to memory." - Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Playing Field, Players and the Game: Understanding Safety Performance

July '24 EHS Today Magazine

Tribes and Infrastructure: Empowering Organizational Growth, Safely

July '24 BIC Magazine

Fostering Strong Employee-Supervisor Relationships: A Key to Safety Excellence

June '24 EHS Today Magazine

Excellence is the ability to duplicate and sustain success. Strategies to achieve this desirable outcome will be elusive if the information flow is compromised, decision rights are vague, proactive accountability is absent, and the motivational impact of visible progress is forgotten. Moreover, if you, the leader, cannot describe in vivid detail what excellence looks like and your strategy to achieve it, don't expect others to. Visions, missions, goals, and strategies are only as effective as the population's ability to repeat them, believe in them, and the leader's ability to measure leading-indicator progress towards achieving them. Without a detailed vision and strategy, your results will fluctuate, with sustainable improvement only an elusive dream.

ProAct Safety?'s Strategy Practice assists organizations in developing and executing a safety excellence strategy, obtaining breakthrough results in culture and performance. Contact ProAct Safety to discuss and explore the most common path options that fit your organization.

Shawn M. Galloway is the CEO of the global consultancy ProAct Safety. With over twenty years of experience in safety systems, strategy, culture, leadership, and employee engagement, he is a trusted advisor, keynote speaker, and expert witness. He is the author of several bestselling books and has multiple regular columns in leading magazines, with over 400 articles and 100 videos to his credit. He also created the first safety podcast, Safety Culture Excellence, with over 800 episodes.

As a leading and globally recognized expert on safety excellence, he has helped hundreds of organizations within every primary industry achieve and sustain excellence in performance and culture. He has been interviewed and a guest on Fox News, EHS Network Radio, Safety and Health Magazine, EHS Today Magazine, ISHN Magazine, Safety Decisions Magazine, EHS Daily Advisor, Faces of EHS, Wild World of Safety Podcast, EHS Daily Advisor Podcast, Utility Safety Podcast, The Case for Safety Podcast, Occupational Safety Leadership Podcast, On the Safe Side Podcast, and many more.

Shawn's passion, dedication, and significant contributions to the safety field have been widely recognized. He has received numerous awards and accolades, including Global Safety Excellence Expert, Power 101 Leaders of the EHS World, Top 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS, Top 40 Rising Stars, and Top 11 Health and Safety Influencers. His influence is felt globally, and his status as an esteemed Avetta Distinguished Fellow further underscores his expertise and makes his perspectives highly sought after.