A Good Year for Communications, A Great Year for Good Communicators

One would think that in a communications career spanning 32+ years, one would have seen it all. But not until 2020 arrived, catapulting us with a force that no one could have predicted, challenging us communicators like never before.

I still remember sitting at my desk in Bangalore early January and checking with a colleague in Shanghai on what was then being referred to as 2019-nCOV, and wondering whether we needed to alert any of our India colleagues travelling to China; still remember being in Mumbai a few weeks later and sending out our first travel advisory to colleagues in India; still remember being in Sevilla, Spain early March and joining what started as daily calls by our senior leadership team, even before it was declared a pandemic by the WHO, to evaluate and plan our response to what had by then been named COVID-19. 

Information then on flew fast and furious. Communication actions had to fly even faster and more furious because of the large threat from the misinformation that filtered through social media channels. Everyone had an opinion, everyone had “facts”. There was no one source of information, no one advisory that was our frame of reference. Central government advisories, often by more than one department/ministry, were followed by state government advisories which were at times followed by local civic authority advisories, and in one state, even by the city apartment owners’ association advisory. Basing decisions on fact meant ensuring one had immediate access to in-country and multiple in-state advisories over and above in-company ones, and to internal counsel, so that collective decisions could be taken fast and in real-time if the situation demanded it. It also meant being adaptive and quick to respond when advisories were rescinded (as did happen on a couple of occasions) or the external environment changed. 

As we started to learn a new vocabulary, so too did we need to adopt a new tone of communication. If the new vocabulary included words like pandemic, physical distancing, 3-ply masks and so on, the new tone had to take cognizance of what employees, in particular, were going through. Employees who were suddenly physically and socially distanced not just from their place of work but, in many cases, from their families too. Employees who suddenly had to cope with additional care and responsibilities at home. We were dealing with emotions. The new tone had to be empathetic, one of understanding, of a sense of togetherness, of gratitude and, most of all, of hope to help build resilience. Communication had to be frequent, open and transparent. In some cases, it needed to extend beyond the employee, to his or her family. When I started my career in PR with a pharma company, our employee newsletter used to be mailed to homes of employees because it was meant to be a family newsletter. The newsletter’s content was dictated by this objective and included contributions from family members of employees. Now decades later, family members became important stakeholders again and communication needed to acknowledge this but in a very different environment and in a very different way. Content, context and tone mattered more than ever.

Leadership styles adapted to the requirements of the pandemic, not just across countries, but across corporations, with leaders demonstrating empathy, authenticity and humanity, and executive communication and campaigns took on a new shape and form. When we created non-work related, unwind spaces for our managing director and managers to share what they were going through, employees responded positively to the sincerity and genuineness of these interactions. Such shared experiences brought about a realization that everyone was going through situations differently similar, that everyone was equally vulnerable and that talking about it with colleagues was not just cathartic but created bonds and a togetherness that was strengthening. 

That everyone was able to achieve so much together in a virtual world speaks to the intangible values that the pandemic fostered – of care, collaboration, common purpose, kindness, vulnerability, and humanity. 

On the last day of the year, as I look back on 2020, it’s amazing to see how much communicators have had to address. Some of it I have attempted to capture as lessons learned in the honeycomb visual above, some lessons new, some not so new. The difference this year was that they were all happening concurrently and at tremendous speed, even as ongoing business as usual communication requirements had to be met. 

I do no crystal gazing for 2021. The end of the year means little when one is still in the midst of a pandemic. We will carry forward what we have learned, we will continue to do what we need to do. Despite all the challenges faced, it’s been a good year for communications, a great year for good communicators and I hope the next will be even better. 

While I do not crystal gaze, I believe one of the biggest tasks we will be challenged with in 2021 is in using communications to carry forward and preserve the cultural integrity of an organization. As organisations toggle between virtual and physical workspaces, what defines and builds culture in a virtual or even a hybrid world will gain more attention. And I’d like to think communications will be there, at the forefront, driving some of the needs arising from this. This time next year, we will know. 

Wishing you all the very best for 2021.