A collection of thoughts on the power of communications in this easy to use set of cards.

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Strategy
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Communications drive organisations
That’s it. Not product development, not ROI and certainly not top-level
strategy but communications.
It’s a big claim for the Cinderella of the business strategy to make but it’s not
only pivotal to success but the lifeblood that keeps the whole machine firing.
The problem with communications though is that it seems so easy. After all,
everyone can communicate so everyone stops thinking about how important
it is. A little like our ‘always on’ subconscious, we take it for granted and fail
to use it effectively. Just because we can all add up doesn’t allow us to claim to
be accountants though.
And yet properly focussed the natural desire we all have - to talk to one
another - can successfully transform your business and provide a platform to
jump forward from.
Less talk costs lives.
If it were possible to put a number to the cost of the failure to communicate
clearly, or a business strategy that that ignored the communications compo-
nent, or have a clear communications platform then perhaps more business
would be circumspect before ignoring it.
Unfortunately though we can. In 1996 Union Pacific merged with Southern
Pacific in a $4 billion railroad deal to create an effective link between the
seaboards.
And by 1998, Union Pacific was $700 million in the red, that nations biggest
shippers (and UP’s clients) had lost more than $2 billion in lost sales*
The deal highlighted the fact that without involving their Chief Information
Officer in it’s communications, Union Pacific overlooked the cost of bringing
the acquisitions’ I.T. up to speed - the key to an effective railroad system.
That’s how costly the gap can become. So what’s going wrong here, why are
our working relationships (and businesses) floundering and why should we all
be sitting up and taking more care with what we say?
* Source; Boochever, Park & Weinberg, Strategy & Business, Booz/Allen/Hamilton,
Third Quarter 2002
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two
Getting closer to the problem
The biggest single issue facing businesses today is that communication
needs to become a central driver, and must be used to effect change.
It’s one thing to reach back into the business to find the meaning.
It’s quite another to use that insight to engage the attention and affection of
the audience and that has to be the focus for beginning the chain-reation.
Information service and retailing in becoming the the only means by
which customers can differentiate products - products which are becoming
more and more generic and businesses move manufacturing out of their
core activities.
And getting that message out, while the explosion of communication
channels results in more interference for audiences, and getting it into the
audiences mind in it’s unadulterated form becomes the primary objective.
The idea of the move from supplier-centric production models (they’ll buy
what we sell them) to asking what customers want or would recognise that
business might supply is only going to take us half way towards real success.
We need to be aware that all of us (as customers) are asking what we think
the business are thinking of us.
It’s in our communications that we need to be aware of this. Our thoughts
and actions are the direct expression of the regard we hold for others. So did
you really mean what you just said?
The trouble isn’t that “it’s strange (they) don’t have worse consequences that
they do”. The trouble is that they do.

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three
Clear enough?
It can never be clear enough. While it’s lazy to simply state that the best
companies follow very clear and simple vision, and yes it is hard to go in a
single direction if you don’t have one vision - what you actually have is fifteen
- it’s much harder for businesses to understand how you go about getting one
that will work.
One that will have a strongly emotional qualities and clear distinction.
With so many different audiences it become increasingly difficult to group
them together. Each set demands a clearer definition in order to engage
them, each level of engagement means managing more with less.
The big clear picture or idea is the means that allows businesses collectively to
focus on what they do best, while enabling the individual functions to oper-
ate around that central core.
“With one strategy - one for all - you can express it so as the rest of the world
can share it. Sharing with everybody doesn’t mean you have to give away the
crown jewels, but it does mean you can be clearly understood”.
So how does your business get into the zone, so as things can become clear?
Firstly we need to understand the importance of engagement, and secondly
the process of building a communications platform.

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Inside and outside the problem -
Joining the dots with clearer communications
The tension between the traditional functions of communications within
businesses has been driven by the need to manage a central message and
enabling functions within the business to talk to one another.
While the former ought to drive the latter, it seems that the problem is
actually to do with the fact that the strategy being communicated can’t have
been clear enough in the first place. Otherwise the dots would have joined
themselves. Trying to join them - pushing strategy - is something that will
always encounter resistance.
Pulling, and using the gravity to bring bodies together is not only natural but
something that is hard to actively resist. Which means that the
communications platform has to hold enough of an attraction to do it’s job -
hold the greater part together.
Aligning internal and external aspects of the communications platform is
the key issue. By placing shared values and issues from the heart of the
culture into a clear strategy means that the messages will be spoken with one
voice. In a culture of risk aversion, or rather pro-active risk management, it’s
easy to forget that the wrong messages can screw up the best reputation, and
that glossing over them with another marketing /sales /product /re-invention
strategy will be recognised for what it is – rearranging the deck chairs on
the Titanic.
It is more risky to embark on a journey when you’re not clear than never
to set off on one at all but unfortunately most businesses don’t regard risk
management when it comes to understanding the impact of not
communicating clearly.
A communications platform isn’t about the fluffy issues and feel-good factor.
If not treated as a serious, value-adding part of business practice problems
resulting from a lack of clarity will only exacerbate mis-understanding.
Try joining the dots to draw the picture without the numbers.

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Engagement – The key to bringing strategy to life
“Engagement through a communications platform with a clear narrative is a
rock-steady foundation on which to base all your organisations activitites. With a
clear picture of your business you can connect with customers right back into the heart
of the company – cutting through channel interference and aligning experience directly
with strategy.”
Unless the experience and the environment its is delivered in precisely
reflects your needs and concerns and can clearly communicate that it can
fulfil your desires, then all you ultimately create is more architecture.
The critical aspects to building powerful communications are;
- Developing a strategic role
- Contribution of the individual
- Building commitment /confidence
Ultimately our communications should be working to improve behaviour,
and so business performance, across the organisation. We can only do this if
a core ideology exists in the business, that there is an alignment of individual
and corporate values, that we are all being better informed and above all
inspired and motivated.
Knowing how do communications influence behaviour is important in order
to appreciate the value that this approach brings.
External stimulus affects our Response System, which leads to Action.
More than that thought is that the world is not seen but constructed - on
our past experiences - experiences that reside in our minds as a series of
images. These Visions, Thoughts, Feelings and Emotions shape our
understanding of the world.
What we must do is create the right images, to influence and elicite response,
understanding and behaviour.

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six
Communications Platforms - Establishing a Narrative
The core of the connection for people to the communications platform
is the narrative, a Life Trail, something that we can speak, see and learn
to understand.
When faced with the charge of “am I getting anything out of this? What’s in
it for me?” and marketing increasing focussing on the need for individuals
to indulge at any cost, is the programme you’re asking others to embark on
leading to personal fulfilment?
Given the finite amount of time we all have, ‘CommitmentTime’ generation
to a new plan involves giving up something, or switching other things around
- or shaving the least important things down to the barest minimum
If this is going to become ‘MeTime’ (like overtime, after hours time of
lunchtimes) businesses need to think carefully about the value of the sup-
posed ‘ownership experience’ of the new strategy we are being asked to share.
Communications need to focus on the benefit that a shared platform can
give. That platform, the beginning of the change process is critical the
direction and momentum of the change desired.
While not wanting to engage in the change management debate in this
instance, it is worth noting that the outcomes of effective change are
significant and worth bearing in mind when trying to market the objectives
of a communication platform that takes the business in a new direction.
Real change demands we:
1. Separate purpose from practice
2. Make the strategy visual and everyday
3. What do you do that’s truly different?
4. Convince us we can fly
5. Commit to a timeline.

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Come to the edge - Barriers to clear
communications and how to overcome them
Part 1
There are two main barriers to change when trying to effect clear
communications and drive business strategy forward – ‘Don’t want to’ and
‘Don’t know how to’.
‘Don’t want to’
‘Initiative fatigue’ is a clear sign that ‘strategy’ isn’t working but it’s more
likely to be symptomatic of a strategy that can’t be understood or applied.
And it’s only one dimension usually blamed by the ones creating the plans
on ‘why things just don’t change around here’.
There are seven hills that need to be climbed to overcome the barriers;
Personal interest - From the board to team-leaders, to every member of staff,
everyone has their own dreams and needs. What’s stopping the decision
makers or what do they feel will stop them personally succeeding?
Us and Them - The political status of individuals as well as the hierarchy of
organisations can be a real barrier. Understanding the complexity and inter-
relationships will held to see where the dots can be joined.
It’s not clear enough - Is the offer really clear? Is it one vision, or fifteen
different versions of it? Are the benefits to the business apparent and my
place in the structure of it?
I don’t have the time - You want more done with less? Is the support for
this an unreasonable expectation and what are the expectations for changes
in responsibility?

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Come to the edge - Barriers to clear
communications and how to overcome them
Part 2
Everything’s just fine - Does the business actually want this clarity, and will it
support it? Can it support it? Without greater clarity the perception will be
that the initiative will just be what the business is already doing.
Apathy - It’s never made any difference before, why should it now? Your
strategy needs to overcome the trust and the fear factor to change behaviours.
What’s in it for me? - Everybody needs a little motivation. Communicating
how it benefits individuals directly is key to overcoming many of the above.
Each of these perspectives create barriers to driving effective
communications - having a platform can only provide so much. At the end
of the day, the business has to want to go forward. Facing the demons is
essential if it does.
Determining whether the business is prepared to commit means asking;
Will the support this new environment for change?
Who will be in-charge of the change - Operations, Marketing, Sales, Finance,
IT? Or the Chief Executive? Evidence to support the changing role of the lat-
ter is that dealing with the internal challenge is key to the success of it.
An external, media profile is only doing half the job.
Can the business support switching from a cost to a value based economy?
Will it fit? No use projecting a nice friendly personality when you really need
to be a right hard case.
Will the resources be committed to the change? Are there reasons why not?
Will we be able to afford it? Of change comes at a price, the cost in salaries, in
environments, selling the idea, managing and delivering it. But the question
has to be ‘what’s the cost of not?’.
Will you continue to cannibalise you existing markets, or do you want to
grow into new ones?

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The New Navigators - Finding the way forward
‘Don’t know how to’ is quite another matter, as in an environment with the
desire to change, a communications platform can transform the organisation.
All we need is clear way forward.
Navigating used to a simple process of understanding where you were by
looking to the sun or the stars, a simple and easy idea to grasp, constant and
depenadable.
We now have so many ways of measuring where we are from where we want
to be it becomes impossible to know which way is up, and which to trust and
which to use to help us on the journey.
Having the simple and easy idea and a strategy that’s clear and easy for
everyone to understand is a little like being able to see the stars during the
day as well at night.
The communication platform is based on having a single, clear idea at it’s
heart. It could be that it is expressed as a single image (a visual metaphor), a
simple compelling statement based around customer needs or a expression of
what is important to the audience.
Identifying the problem is the biggest issue to be tackled.
Einstien said that if he was faced with the problem and had just an hour left
to live, he’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes
resolving it.
But the problem is not the problem – how you resolve it is, and resolving it
so as it can be clearly recognised and received by the audience.
Having this clear picture is fundamental for five reasons;
- It makes the organisation Valuable
- It makes the organisation Different
- It creates Belonging for Everyone
- It creates Unity but never uniformity
- It gives the organisation Integrity.

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The six benefits to a business of clear communications
Clear communication drives culture
All cultures depend on the sharing of a common purpose and language.
Once that goes, nothing can hold things together for long. With a sense of
clear roles, a clear purpose, the effective structure for teams to function and
a ‘steam-vent’ for getting everything out in the open everyone can contribute
and do what they do best.
Clear communications allows collective understanding
If you were asked by your friend what, in nutshell, the company you worked
for did how far would you get if you couldn’t describe it functionally? Strong
emotional images are what make products and services compelling. What’s
your business purpose - rather than it’s practice?
Clear communication are fundamental to management structures and status
Does everybody here know exactly what it is that they should be doing? Yes?
Good. No? The ‘what’s in it for me’ isn’t a bad question to start with as if
there’s no clarity of roles and responsibilities then the answer is going to be
‘whatever they want me to do today’. Hardly directional, not fulfilling and
ultimately dis-hearting.
Clear communication defines process
Having ‘our way’ means that business can truly integrate, get flow working for
them and ‘climb the tree’. Clear blue sky between competitors comes from
thinking hard about what you do differently, that’s emotive and distinctive.
Clear communication clarifies both proposition and offer
Want to be easy to buy? Clarity is a great differentiator and with a clear
central idea coherently communicated what’s stopping you?
Clear communication creates sales growth and costs savings.
Everybody is looking for faster/cheaper/better. Everyone wants more
innovation, more done for less, and the dirty secret of the slow growth
economy is that everyone’s busier doing more with less. With the ability to
see where the new (and quick) wins are and where we can let things go,
what’s stopping us?
Only a clear communications platform, that’s all.