Synchronization: The last mile in strategic organizational communications

Unlocking employee motivation, comprehension and engagement?through a systematic approach

For decades, employee communications practitioners have consistently overlooked and under-estimated one element of a successful organizational communications effort: Synchronization.

Fortunately, we are now aware that it’s the absolute truth.?Few, if any, of us have lived through a time such as the one we’re experiencing now—and the ramifications on internal or employee communications are vast and significant.?The current pandemic and economic uncertainty, combined with rapidly evolving technology, are literally redefining the manner in which leaders, managers and employees (both professional and nonprofessional) interact with each other.?The byproduct of such interaction, if done well, is relevance and trust—both organizational and individual.?

The severity and seemingly always-transforming nature of our current situation—including virtual work models, workforce reductions, organizational restructurings, mergers and sell-offs, compensation freezes, the elimination of products and generally having to “do more with less”—is making it increasingly challenging to get employees to focus, let alone believe and listen.

As a result, organizations—leaders, managers and communicators—are being forced to embrace more open, transparent and interactive communications than ever before.?The impact is nothing short of a revolution in management theory and practice.

Mindset shift

Unlike in previous tumultuous situations, one of the major differences this time is that many organizations are so focused on the here and now that few are attempting to articulate a coherent, long-term strategy for regaining their momentum.?This is a prudent course of action, but we need to understand that the result is additional levels of insecurity, uncertainty and doubt.?To use a sports analogy, we find ourselves at halftime.?It’s time to regroup, reassess and plot a new strategy to remain competitive and achieve goals. It’s time to ascertain how the game is being played and devise a game plan to mitigate any further losses while looking to exploit our strengths to grow.

Connecting the dots—the power of synchronization

Typically, internal communicators focused on message, event, forum and theme in conveying information to the workforce.?This model, while important, lacked connectivity or surround sound to enhance comprehension, increase clarity and burnish thinking. Following is an overview of the latest thinking and practices on how some organizations (and communicators) are now “game planning” synchronization for organizational excellence (it’s worth asking yourself which of these your company is/isn’t doing).

Synchronization in organizational communications: The art of aligning two or more activities to operate in unison, enhancing learning. Tying communications into a cohesive story

Create Business Context Through a Narrative:?When things are uncertain, it’s important to at least provide a framework for how people should follow the situation.?In this case, a corporate narrative, or story, detailing the current state and evolving as conditions change allows people to latch onto something tangible. The narrative is the foundational story for not only all communications but management actions as well.?It provides managers a baseline on which to build their priorities, budgets, resource plans and communications.?

Extend/Expand the Narrative through a Series of Actions: Starting at the top of your organization, break through the “corporate speak” and try to adopt a more conversational, provocative tone when describing the state of your business and long-term goals.?When employees are uncertain, more than anything they appreciate plainspoken honesty, and dialogue rather than monologue.?Complement the story with events, initiatives and interactions to spur a new conversation inside the company.?Communications must drive discussion, dialogue and debate to be effective and relevant.?To do that, the “rah-rah” approach or “doomsday” speech must be buried.???

At its most basic, communications is about conversation. Communicators can facilitate new conversations inside and outside the company as a means of conditioning new attitudes and behaviors through a series of activities that reinforce/reiterate core themes and messages, driving home the subject matter in a real way.

Align Everything—the Orchestra Model: When functioning well, internal communications accelerate strategy, hone performance and spur ideation.?Much like an orchestra, every element rises and falls based on placement and purpose. Linking the many areas of an internal communications strategy creates the melodic sounds of a beautiful song weaving through every sense.??

The Conductor:?To make this work, it’s been proven through our experience that the more senior-most leadership calibrates internal communications as they lead and manage the business. One executive recently described his senior leadership’s efforts in this regard as “conducting the conversation.”?His point: Weaving together strategy, messages,?town halls, diagonal slice meetings with select employees and site visits with managers and employees that communicate in a choreographed manner captures the “story” in both a deep and expansive view.?

Always tricky, but the closer communications are aligned with CEO actions and business decisions versus designed around them, the clearer things become and the greater the chance for trust to be sustained.?

Empathy Is Appreciated:?Given the pandemic, the rational aspects of communicating during a turbulent time overwhelm the internal discourse so that employees don’t pay attention and, ultimately, lose faith.?Talk with people and share the emotional side of what they are feeling through your management behavior, communications and messaging.

Challenge the Status Quo; Challenge Your Instincts:?Are you actually getting through??How do you know??Is your tactical execution plan just a bunch of tactics justifying that you are “communicating,” or is it part of a broader management plan to engage people, influence behavior and impact performance??Your instincts tell you to just communicate to everyone that the company is changing…but your instincts could be wrong, as credibility may be frayed, preventing any message from getting through.?Thus, a completely different approach is needed.

Insight That Influences Decision-Making: In this environment, communications functions are focusing more than ever on aggregating information from multiple sources both within and outside of their control—turning this information into nuggets of insights, trends or red flags and sharing that information with senior management and other functions, thus impacting decision-making at a level and pace not seen before.?What is the employee chatter concerning your situation??How can you piece together all this information into a coherent script??

Organize Before You Strategize:?Take an opportunity to rethink what skills are critical for the organization today, and where those skills are best deployed.?Also, ask yourself if the company physically brings together all areas of communications, along with select management, on a weekly or even daily basis to continually reassess the situation at hand and how to gain more control over the story the company is telling. The tendency in difficult times is to just do something without comprehending the purpose, effect or result. Rather, first organize the various elements surrounding the situation in a manner that can be visualized and internalized by all parties in order to then strategize about what needs to be learned and accomplished.??

Think of it as avoiding the “Ready! Fire! Aim!” syndrome.?

Conclusion:?It starts within

It’s certainly no surprise that the same linear methods of communication aren’t sufficient for today’s challenges.?It is incumbent on us to see the “real” organization—its concerns, needs, fears and expectations—and then work with senior management and throughout the company to articulate clear long-term strategies—punctuated by more transparent communications, enhanced dialogue among all levels of employees and recalibrated efforts to inject outside information and perspective into that dialogue. And most important, actually listening, responding and learning from the conversation.

Synchronizing internal communications to paint a new and better picture of reality for employees is the last mile for leaders intent on achieving excellence.

Net-net: There is no better time to be in our profession.?

Gary F. Grates is Principal at Real Chemistry, a global health innovation company. He is a noted expert in the areas of corporate relevance, internal communications, employee engagement, transformational change and labor-management relations.