Jeff Standridge:
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Innovation Junkies Podcast. I am Jeff Standridge.
Jeff Amerine:
And Jeff Amerine, glad to be back.
Jeff Standridge:
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So we’ve been talking a lot about strategy. We’ve got a couple more episodes on this topic. Today, we’re talking about the role of strategic communication in driving business performance. Have you ever had a situation where no one in the organization knows where we’re going, they come to work every day and they just blindly execute their processes and roles and what have you, but really they don’t know, what’s the greater good that they’re working for? I’ve had that happen to me in a number of situations where a few people at the top of the organization seem to know where we’re going, seem to know what the ultimate outcome is that we’re driving toward, but the masses within the organization really don’t have a clue.
Jeff Amerine:
No, that’s exactly right. And a good example of how to do that well. American Freightways is one that I like to bring up in this particular area. So that was the fastest growing less than truckload carrier in the country from 1982 to 2001, when they’re acquired by FedEx. And the thing that you knew where the communication was tied to the strategy was the fact that everybody understood what those organizational core values were, what the vision was, what the mission was, and it was embodied in things like, if you called up the American freightways and you needed to talk to someone in pricing or someone in safety, the switchboard would answer it live within the first three rings, and it would stay on that line until you got the specific person you needed to help you out. It wasn’t an automated attendant. And part of the reason why it was the motto for that organization from Sheridan Garrison was, we’re not in the transportation business, we’re in the customer satisfaction business. And so that model or that brand promise tend to permeate the whole organization. The only reason why it worked was because everybody knew due to the good communication plan they had, what the leadership expectations were on fulfilling the strategy.
Jeff Standridge:
Yeah. You know, another similar story as our colleagues who help us with our podcast every week is the team over at Dave Creek Media. And everyone in that organization, if you were to ask them, what is Dave Creek Media about? I think all of them would say, we help businesses grow. We help people grow their businesses. And, you know, I’ve heard Glenn say a number of times and he says it to all new employees when they join and others is that, people want to be part of the organization because of this growth factor. Customers want to work with them because they help them grow. And employees want to be part of the team there because they grow in the process and the organization helps them grow. And that just helps connect people to the greater good of the organization. So there’s this concept of strategic communications. The role of strategic communications is to convey the vision and the plan and to help people to see themselves within the context of that grander vision. That’s why it’s important. Another reason it’s important is to ensure alignment and consistency throughout the organization. If every leader throughout the organization doesn’t know the greater direction of the company, then they’re likely to make decisions that may actually be in conflict with that strategic direction. And then the third aspect of that is it’s much easier to be engaged and motivated when I know how what I do matters. So I’d say that’s the first role of strategic communication in executing a strategy or in driving business performance is in making sure everyone knows where we’re going, making sure that we’re not making conflicting decisions, and helping me to understand and stay engaged and motivated because I know how the work that I do every day contributes to the greater.
Jeff Amerine:
Yeah, why it matters and why, you know, when you’re trying to do something strategic and important, we’ve had a client that we worked with together for almost three years and there was never adequate internal communication across the organization. And so a lot of times the team that was trying to drive this specific project would have real difficulties in getting support and resources because people just didn’t know what the heck was going on beyond that core team that was working on the project. And it can make all the difference. It’s a public relations mandate that is as important internally as it is externally in order to get the buy-in you need from the organization.
Jeff Standridge:
You know, that’s a great point. Let’s put that as category number two. The first one is to get everyone engaged, motivated, aligned, and understand where we’re going. The second one is about just driving change management. You know, any creation of a new strategy or articulation of a new business strategy is going to require some level of change within the organization. And if the leaders don’t understand that change management is really about how well they execute strategic communications, then they’re going to spend a lot of energy and spin a lot of wheels trying to drive change that they just can’t seem to get to stick because they haven’t adequately tied it from a communications perspective as to why it matters and where we’re going.
Jeff Amerine:
Yeah, and an effective communication strategy will say that you need as many as seven touch points with the person, the audience, whether it’s an internal person or whatever you’re trying to impact. So it’s got, it’s not just we sent out an email, we sent out a newsletter, we launched something out on social media, internal internet, whatever it is. You got to keep after it. It’s got to be constant reinforcement in order for people to get it.
Jeff Standridge:
That’s right. And that’s maybe another anecdote or a story is, I was talking about how being part of an organization and not knowing where we were going or how we were gonna get there. I’ve also been the leader of an organization where I feel like I’ve communicated it over and over and over. And then we get feedback on an associate satisfaction survey or on an employee assessment and they say, no one knows where we’re going. No one knows what’s going on. It’s like, So yeah, you gotta anticipate that and you gotta understand that, you know, back to teaching 101, you tell them what you’re gonna tell them and then you tell them and then you tell them what you told them. And that’s the same kind of adage that I think we have to use for strategic communication is tell them in different ways, tell them in different formats, tell them in different venues, but have a few memorable pillars or tag points or something that you can reiterate at every communication, at every town hall, at every employee address or whatever. You say, now don’t forget, here are the strategic pillars of the organization. Here’s what we’re trying to accomplish. So let’s talk about how what we’re gonna do today actually impacts that.
Jeff Amerine:
And I think that the cadence needs to be high, but the messaging needs to be simple and concise so that people understand it, not overly complex and just constantly reinforced.
Jeff Standridge:
Yeah. You know, it’s also important to recognize that. So we’ve talked about getting people aligned and engaged and understanding where we’re going. We’ve talked about changing the collective behavior across the organization. And both of those tend to suggest a one way communication where I’m communicating or the leaders communicating to the organization. We also need to think about, you know, God gave us one mouth and two ears, we need to talk and listen proportionally, right? And so really, before we roll out to the masses this big plan that’s been created by a few people in the organization, we need to make part of our formal process a strategic communication where we share the draft plan and receive feedback and make adaptations based upon the feedback that we hear from critical stakeholders within and throughout and across the organization.
Jeff Amerine:
Yeah, the team is never going to feel like it’s their plan if they haven’t had some inputs to it. The only way you’re going to get that kind of ownership and buy in is if you ask them, if you sought their opinions. And the tragedy in some of that is that the people closest to doing the work tend to know the work better than those of us that are trying to drive the strategy and drive the direction. So they need to play, they need to play an important role in helping provide that feedback as part of the listening you do in your strategic communications.
Jeff Standridge:
No, I agree. I go back to the Covey quote, you know, Stephen Covey said with, you know, mark it down. He actually said, mark it down. Without involvement, there will be no commitment.
Jeff Amerine:
Yeah. Yep. And another thing he said, which is pretty compelling is, uh, seek to understand before seeking to be understood. And that’s, that’s all part of it. Good communication strategy is not just transmission. It’s two way communication.
Jeff Standridge:
Well, since we’re riding on the coattails of Stephen Covey here, let’s use another adage that he used to say in this particular instance is when it comes to people, and I’m quoting, when it comes to people, slow is fast and fast is slow. And what he meant by that was that we may fool ourselves into thinking that fast is fast. In other words, we don’t have time to roll out a draft and get feedback from people. We don’t have time for that process. Well, if we try to go fast in the beginning, it’s gonna be slow implementing because we’re gonna have to drag people kicking and screaming. So with people, fast is slow and slow is fast. And so that means take a little more time on the front end, get the feedback, adapt the plan based upon that feedback, give people some opportunities to have some individual ownership. It’ll be a little slower on the front end, but it’ll be much faster on the back end.
Jeff Amerine:
Good stuff, absolutely.
Jeff Standridge:
Yeah. And then we talk about, so we’ve talked about getting people in an overarching manner, bought into the plan, engaged, motivated, and aligned and consistent. Then we’ve talked about this change management aspect of trying to move the collective whole. In order to achieve both of those, we need to have a period of feedback adaptation and building trust with the organization by giving people the opportunity to create a sense of ownership. And then finally, when it hits the fan, In crisis mode, strategic communication can be a key element of real quality crisis management, of making sure that when we have a setback, it doesn’t completely derail us from the execution of our plan. And we’re actually using good quality strategic communications and channels of communication to communicate about that setback in a way that keeps the momentum moving forward.
Jeff Amerine:
That’s the key. And a lot of times you waste in an ordinate amount of time firefighting and not getting to the right people because you haven’t established a good communications plan, the channels for how to respond. Disaster recovery can be a piece of that as well. There are setbacks that happen and how you effectively communicate can make all the difference.
Jeff Standridge:
Well, and also, I guess I would say is that in the face of a crisis, in the absence of communication or in the absence of facts, people will fill in the blanks with their own facts. And many times those are erroneous assumptions, innuendo and inferences and what have you. And so the role of strategic communication is to build trust by being direct. by giving all of the necessary information and tying it back to how it could, but how it’s not going to implement, effect rather, the implementation of our strategic plan.
Jeff Amerine:
Yeah, and you know, to tie that to one specific incident that we all live through, I recall back to March 11th of 2020 when the world began to shut down in response to the pandemic. And we were getting reports that most small businesses had less than 30 days of available cash on hand. And so our job, given that our mission is to empower, enable, educate entrepreneurs, small business owners and innovators, was to quickly… aligned the people in the federal government that had the resources that could help the small businesses with what the small businesses needed. And one of those ways we effectively communicated, which helped our strategy, was to quickly translate all the CARES-back information for the PPP program into Spanish so that whole audience that otherwise would have been completely overlooked could be included as part of the recovery. And, you know, we played a small role in that, but I think that was a perfect example of When something critical came along, we didn’t deviate from what our purpose and what our mission is. We had to find better ways to communicate to that constituency under crisis.
Jeff Standridge:
Yeah, agreed, agreed. All right, that’s good stuff. So strategic communication and how it actually is a critical and vital part of strategic planning and the execution of a strategic plan. Next episode, we’re gonna talk about, and we’re gonna wrap up, if you will, this focus on strategy by talking about the role of strong leadership. And we will bring that back in the final episode on this particular topic of strategy in our next episode of the Innovation Junkies podcast. Thank you for joining.
Jeff Amerine:
Can’t wait. See you next time.