This document discusses effective communication strategies for governance, risk, and audit professionals. It emphasizes that the most important aspects of communication are: 1) Having a clear objective that focuses on improving the organization's risk management rather than just compliance. 2) Carefully choosing target audiences and tailoring the message to how they want to receive information, not just how the communicator wants to deliver it. Telling a story in a narrative format can help audiences remember messages. 3) Using a variety of mediums beyond just reports, such as visualization, presentations, dramatization, or podcasts to engage audiences. The chosen medium should fit the objective and audience.

1. Ethical Boardroom | Spring 2016
Ronald Reagan was
dubbed ‘The Great
Communicator’
6 February 1911 to 5 June 2004
IllustrationbyBrendonWard
www.inkermancreative.com
Board Governance | Communication

2. On the occasion of his 34th
and last speech to the US on 11
January 1989, President Reagan
reminisced about his years in the
most powerful office in the world.
In the catalogue of his observations on
the economy, Gorbachev and returning to
his beloved California, he commented on
how he was seen. “And in all of that time,”
President Reagan said, “I won a nickname:
‘The Great Communicator’. But I never
thought it was my style or the words I used
that made a difference: it was the content.
I wasn’t a great communicator, but I
communicated great things.”
One of the most gifted and impactful
communicators of the 20th Century – perhaps
unnecessarily humbly – was seeking to focus
on the importance of the message; on the
importance of content.
I was reminded of Reagan’s self assessment
many years later when I was, of all places,
standing before a group of graduates recently
inducted into the kaleidoscope world of a
professional accounting firm. From the back
of the room, one of the freshly minted future
partners 15 years hence raised her hand
and asked a question that in all my years of
presenting I had never been asked before.
“Mr McLeod,” she said, giving me a status
and seniority that I didn’t deserve, “what is the
single most important thing in a company?”
For a question so simple I found myself
confounded. Was I to speak on behalf of all
companies dating back to the invention of
the word in 1150 – interestingly my research
tells me that it comes from the old French
military term compaignie meaning a ‘body
of soldiers’ via the Latin word companion
‘one who eats bread with you’ – or should I
narrow my scope of reference? Was I being
asked to opine on a prioritisation of all issues
that a company may face?
Practicality – and the limits of my
imagination – dictated that I respond with a
reference point of the (then) previous 20 years.
“Communication,” I said. “Communication,”
I said again as if to make the first time saying
it more impactful. “The single most important
thing in a company is communication.”
Just at that moment, when I was about to
proceed to the next question, I heard the same
questioning voice ask that most dreaded of
The great communicator
Taking inspiration from Ronald Reagan and his galvanising speeches can
help audit managers communicate effectively in the field of governance
follow up questions: “So, Mr McLeod, what
does that mean?”
I then took the audience, now aching for
something akin to a presentation scuffle
between the presenter and the questioner,
away from their smartphones and talked to
them about my violin theorem.
My violin, theorem is this: every great
song that I like has a violin. The genre makes
no difference; the era makes no difference.
If it has a violin I am going to like it.
I struggle now – as I did that day with
my governance inquisitor – to think of any
catalogue of music that I hold dear that
has not been graced by the orchestral
descendants of Stradivari. And it is the
same with an organisation.
In my many years of reviewing what makes a
strong company, the only constant determinant
of strength is that it is an organisation that
communicates well. I have never seen a strong
company that has poor communication.
As I retook the momentum in the speech
from my governance inquisitor – in the
manner of a general defending his flank
a dispassionate framework against which
to measure your judgment.
The framework that we have chosen is
objectives; audiences; messages and medium.
Taking each one individually:
Objective
Governance, risk and audit professionals often
get this wrong and their failings undermine all
their future efforts. As obvious as it is to say it,
the objective is the essential ingredient in your
communication strategy. Too often we see this
step being overly complicated or nuanced.
We have seen communication strategies
based on fear (‘you have to do this or
you will get into trouble’) or arrogance
(‘you have to do this because we said so’).
For us – the communication objective for
a governance, risk and audit professional
should be the betterment of how the
organisation that you are working with
manages risks and opportunities.
There is no other raison d’être. Why does
your function exist if it is not for the tipping
of the risk/reward scale in your organisation’s
favour? You need to be viciously clear about
the objective as it will inform everything
that you do in terms of engagement, influence
and assurance.
Equally, you need to be sure at this early
stage that you have taken your stakeholders
along on the proverbial ride with you – a
misalignment between their expectations
(‘we thought you are only the policeman’)
and your expectations is fatal.
Don’t underestimate how valuable a
well- articulated objective is in reinforcing
your importance and providing the basis
for a proper resourcing of your strategy
and function within an organisation.
It is important to remember the setting
of objectives is not the end in itself – now
the real fun (and challenges) start.
Audiences
Imagine for one moment standing on a stage
before a gender, age and culturally diverse
collection of people (not to mention some that
are sitting there looking at their smartphones
and playing Candy Crush) singing an Italian
aria with the backing music of death metal.
What would be the experience for those ‘lucky’
enough to be in your presence? What is it that
they would remember from the experience?
Communication | Board Governance
Spring 2016 | Ethical Boardroom
In my many years of
reviewing what makes a good
company, the only constant
determinant of strength is
that it is an organisation that
communicates well. I have
never seen a strong company
that has poor communication
Tom McLeod
Managing Consultant,
McLeod Governance
– I remained perplexed by what it was that I
exactly meant when I said communication.
The professional risk or audit manager
needs to be a good communicator. It is no
longer possible – if indeed it ever was – to
be a technical brilliant observer whose
communication efforts were at the other end
of the stakeholder engagement skills seesaw.
So what is it that makes a good communicator
in the field of governance, risk and audit?
Not surprisingly, coming from an auditor, it
is the view that for one to be able to determine
what makes a good communicator you need

3. Ethical Boardroom | Spring 2016
Board Governance | Communication
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may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of Ethical Boardroom.
need to communicate in a manner that our
audience wants to consume the information,
not in the way we want to communicate it.
There is a fundamental difference.
Perhaps the last words are best left to
President Reagan. As the curtain closed on
one of the most important presidencies of the
modern era, he made one final observation
about his impact on the United States.
“We did it.” he said. “We weren’t just marking
time. We made a difference. We made the city
stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her
in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.”
On a different scale and different stage, may
you say the same of your journey.
President of the United States yet somehow
below us in a corporate life?
Tell them what you are going to tell them
– I want you to understand this risk and how
it impacts the business. Tell them – this risk
impacts the business in this way. Tell them
what you just told them – because the risk
impacts on the business this way, this is what
you/we need to do about it.
Equally, we are story tellers and story
listeners. Why is it that the moment we put
on our security pass and log into our work
computers we leave behind eons of evolution
as to how messages are best remembered?
What is the interesting narrative that you are
trying to construct? What is the human interest
angle in the story and what, if any, imagery can
you use to better convey your message?
In the world of governance, risk and audit
there are few better narratives than a fraud.
Once a fraud has happened within an
organisation (and stopped) you might as well
Remember also, the need to define the
immediacy of your message – some messages
need to be communicated with a great
sense of urgency and others are slow release.
Don’t confuse the two.
Medium
Too often a function’s communication strategy
is determined by which medium they will use
rather than going through the process set out
above. That should not however undermine the
importance of choosing the correct medium.
For as long as we can remember, the chosen
medium of the governance, risk and audit
professional has been the report. A report, well
written, is a story to behold. Too often, however,
they are not well written and fall into that most
despised of categories – received but not read.
So the challenge then to us all is to find
more appropriate or complimentary media
– visualisation; (the occasionally dreaded)
PowerPoint; dramatisation; podcasting. We
CHOOSE YOUR AUDIENCE
Plan what it is people
need to hear and see
Some messages
need to be
communicated
with a great sense
of urgency and
others are slow
release. Don’t
confuse the two make good of a bad
situation by deconstructing
the fraud and seeing where
the processes fell down.
It will create an interesting narrative (Enron,
WorldCom or Madoff anyone?); there is a
human element to the story (what drove that
person(s) to take themselves over to the dark
side of ethical behaviour;) and – at least in the
United States with their great love of public
humiliation at the time of arrest with the perp
walk– you may be lucky to have imagery.
Imagery doesn’t need to be photos, though
– a graph can tell a story as effectively
as an essay (other than this one, of course!).
It is reasonable to assume that the audience
would walk away disappointed, confused
as to what you were doing and highly unlikely
to rush to social media to recommend your
best efforts to others.
Yet, yet, yet – this is exactly what many
people do when it comes to promoting subject
matter expertise or function to their respective
audiences. For a governance, risk and audit
professional there are many differing levels
of audience and each has different needs.
Starting at the top is the audit committee
– as custodians of the interests of shareholders
they should be the ultimate focus of your
communication strategy. How are you letting
this constituency know that management has
in place the appropriate systems, procedures
and controls?
Secondly, is management – and this is
where one needs to not treat all management
as homogenous. How do you define your
executive leadership team? Are they all of the
same effective level of experience and seniority
and if they are not, does that matter? Do you
need to go through the executive leadership
team to speak with their direct reports?
Are there some teams that need to hear
your message, irrespective of their seniority
(hint – it is good for all finance professionals
to understand the importance of good
governance, strong risk management and
effective internal auditing)?
Choose your audience well. One thing that
has yet to be invented is a day with more than
24 hours in it. Until such moment as the time
space continuum is disrupted, you will need
to prioritise your communication effort.
There is nothing more debilitating than to
have delivered the right message to the wrong
audience – much like singing an Italian aria
with the backing music of death metal, really!
Messages
You have taken the time to set
your objectives in a measured
and properly socialised way
and segregated your audiences
based on a pre-set criteria only
to then try and think on your
feet as to what is the message
that you want to convey.
As basic as it again sounds
– know what you want to say
ahead of time. Plan out what
it is that you want and need
your audience to hear.
One of my all-time favourite books is from
– here he is again – the speechwriter to
President Reagan, Peggy Noonan. Noonan
was the gifted speechwriter behind Reagan’s
most famous and poignant ‘face of God’ tome
after the Challenger space shuttle disaster.
In her book What I Saw At The Revolution she
recalled what makes a good speech – tell them
what you are going to tell them; tell them; tell
them what you have just told them! Why is
it that this simple lesson is sufficient for the