In my latest article for Ragan.com, I take a look at the current IABC crises and attempt to shift the focus from the current IABC leadership and onto IABC’s current mission and business model.
The piece may be found at:
http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/46228.aspx
My latest blog post can be found on the CIPR Conversation at:
http://conversation.cipr.co.uk/posts/mike.klein/what-next
Interested in your thoughts and comments.
Mike
“That’s me in the corner…”
The departure of rock band REM from the scene last week prompted me to examine my own, if temporary, hiatus from the blogosphere.
Until now, most of my activism in the internal communication world has been based on a belief that manager communication has been over-emphasised. My book covers that ground, and it’s all over my five+ years as an industry blogger.
But lately, I’ve been “losing my religion,” as REM once sung. Back driving comms on a massive change programme , I’ve been confronted by a huge gap in the manager communication space. Most searingly, I’ve also been confronted by survey scores demonstrating that manager involvement resulted in an increase in positive attitudes toward the programme from 10 to 30 percent on our key measures.
Game. Set. Match. So have I become a born again cascader? Sort of. I’m still convinced the manager is overutilised as a communicator and that direct and networked communication can be decisive. But I also believe manager comms – if it builds on and leverages manager credibility in addressing ambiguity, can also be decisive.
And if that means I’m losing my religion, so be it.
In my latest post, this time on the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations Conversation site, I reply to recent lamentations about the fate of the internal communicator in the current environment.
The piece can be found at:
Communications associations, and indeed much of the internal communication industry, have been in for some heat lately. No hotter source is that of one of my publishers, Kevin Keohane (http://kevinkeohane.wordpress.com/), whose latest broadside claims a desire to bin every piece received from communication associations or anyone remotely mainstream in the comms industry.
Now, I share Kevin’s boredom with ten-year old debates on things like preferred powerpoint formats for line manager cascades, and his disgust with the increasing prevalance of tactics like “pay to play” on the conference circuit, where consultants pay for access to conference audiences. Injecting new ideas into the communication discussion is not easy.
But communication associations have a mixed record, not a record of total recalcitrance. The newly rebadged Communication Leadership Exchange (formerly CCM: www.cccmconnection.com) remains a beacon for new ideas and spirited debate in a membership well divided by age and consultant/in-house status. I have also personally found the European Association of Communication Directors and its sister institution, Quadriga University, to be highly open to my ideas and input, and to bringing in talent from new and unexpected sources.
As for the International Association of Business Communicators, the major global association in the field: there is no question IABC is conservative and holds a lot of the old conversations in place. But I was recently offered a position on the committee which reviews content proposals for the 2012 IABC Conference. After some deliberation, namely about whether I thought I could have enough impact, I agreed to join. So in this case, I’m fully inside the tent.
Communication associations need member help and support to remain topical, and to remain open to newer and more distinctive voices. Some of that help will come from losing members and from external pressure, but I think at least as much will come from those who stay and stand for something better. Ultimately, no groups of people care more about organisational communication than these associations. Therefore, they warrant the investment of time, and even of aggravation, that moving them forward sometimes requires.
“From Lincoln to LinkedIn: The 55 Minute Guide to Social Communication” is a call to action , and in some respects, a call to arms.
Having worked in political campaigns before moving inside of large corporations, one thing I noticed was a dramatic shift in tone and approach – indeed a lack of respect for those people who were being asked to change, to innovate, to dig deeper and to represent their organisations with enthusiasm.
While the advent of social media has caused that condescension to reduce a bit, social evangelists also advocated replacing old-school, top-down, one-size-fits-all communication with the brainless anarchy of leaping headfirst into twitter and facebook without any thought about what lurks on the other side, or what lies beneath your own organisational surface.
Lincoln to LinkedIn offers an alternative. It offers you an approach that is genuinely strategic, and one which encourages the intelligent use of new communication technologies without being a slave to them. Indeed, one can run an effective social communication campaign with a phone, an email account and an excel spreadsheet.
In 108 pages, the book provides enough training and insights to allow you to do just that.
It also highlights concepts like social landscapes, tribal dynamics, and source credibility that rest at the core of effective, impactful communication, whether inside corporate walls, or inside broader – but still bounded – arenas of interest.
I invite you to order it, and above all, to let me know what you think. I think you will agree that this approach could make a major difference, not only to you in achieving your objectives, but also in sharpening corporate communication while making it more respectful and impactful.
~~~
To order from Amazon.com, follow this link:
Those who wish to order from Amazon.co.uk can follow this link:
My new book, “Lincoln to LinkedIn – The 55 Minute Guide to Social Communication” is now available from Amazon.
The book has received a variety of strong reviews from leading lights in the communication and change arena. The following endorsement from internal communication legend Roger D’Aprix is particularly enthusiastic:
“We owe Mike Klein a debt of gratitude if for no other reason than his putting the social media evangelists in proper perspective. Aside from showing how their glib advice has created more than a few train wrecks, he exposes their penchant for glittering generalities and reckless recommendations that lead the innocents to possible professional disaster.
“Instead Mike offers the analytical tools to separate an ‘audience’ into its credible tribal parts and associated mutual interests. His book is the best thing I’ve seen on how to understand how real people communicate in real organizations.”
To order, follow this link:
For more information, or to read further endorsements, please visit the book’s blogsite at http://socialcommunication55.wordpress.com
I’ve never posted a note for an open position on my blog. But I have a friend who is a recruiter, Todd Civardi, who is looking for candidates for a role in Switzerland that seems quite interesting…and he’s asked me to put my social media skills to the test in helping him out.
So here goes:
Global Internal Communications Manager HR Focus(Switzerland)This is a full time role with a major multi-national company with its head office in Switzerland.They pride themselves on best practice communications and have an extensive comms department with a real strength in internal and change communications. Overall, the group has been keen on building efficiencies, and they have focused on moving from lots of local decisions being made to a more central head-office function.This is a position requiring someone to be quite pro-active, strategic and with a personal presence to influence and lead others. With better internal communications change can be more effectively managed.This is a global role and, as all business is conducted in English, strong writing skills are important. No other languages are required.Base salary of 120 –140KCHF (£80 –92K) plus bonus which historically has been 12 –20% as well as package of other benefits.Although Switzerland has a higher cost of living than England the taxes are less.The company has an excellent reputation and is one that is both professional and friendly.Please forward CV and cover note to todd@shipleytodd.com. A full job description will be forwarded upon receipt. (Of course please mention you saw this at The Intersection).Todd CivardiShipley ToddTEL: +44 (0)207 384 1252MOB: +44 (0)7957 156 418
“There’s a big gap here” said my colleague Sven, holding his arms in the position of a hungry alligator’s jaws.
“The top is what we’re doing…and the bottom is what our bosses understand.”
The alligator impression came on the back of another demand from “Above” to produce the same deliverable in yet another form of packaging, but it also reflects the challenge a lot of internal comms and change folks seem to be facing.
Part of the challenge may be our inability to frame our ideas succinctly enough for the technically-educated senior managers to whom we report. Part of it may reflect these managers unease with altering a status quo that they are nonetheless on the record to change. Or, more perniciously, there may be deep distrust of the more counter-intuitive approaches that are coming into fore – the social and behavior innovations which offer much promise in accelerating and embedding change, but present stark challenges to those who cling to a belief in hierarchical control.
The problem with counter-intuitive solutions is not necessarily whether they work, or whether they can be proven to work (with the successes of more enlightened practitioners adding daily to the knowledge base). The problem is that embracing them means both to accept that conventional wisdom may actually be wrong, and to accept the risk involved in doing something that “just doesn’t seem right” even if there is proof and conviction on the other side of the table.
Having the courage of one’s convictions as a practitioner is necessary if we strategic communicators are to progress as a professional tribe. But such courage alone is not sufficient.
The likes of McBostocenturebooz are all too happy to sell in old-fashioned, top-down, one-way cascade processes as “change communication”, and do so in a way that appeals more to executives’ sense of authority.
So, how do we win these battles? I haven’t figured that one out, but I see two angles. The first angle that could prove useful is that of risk management. Intuitive, linear approaches like cascading seem to be de-risked, when in fact, they host the very risks implicated in many if not most change failures. Their linear appeal papers over the ability of resisters, and particularly resistant middle managers, to subvert, sabotage and savage any changes, almost guaranteeing failure without embedding some upward accountability.
But the second angle is more tricky. How can you sell “upward accountability” in an environment where the CEO likes to say “this is not a democracy?”
In my view the normal workplace is no less democratic than a traditional Western country. Employees are allowed to make most of their own decisions. They associate and communicate mostly with whom they please, and ultimately make the decision of whether to show up for work on any day and whether to do their work or something else with their time.
But I view the workplace through the lens of my training as a politico and a social researcher who has come very late to corporate life. Articulating it – and the modern tools and tricks of change communication – through the frame of a technically trained senior manager whose job is on the line is proving far more of a challenge, so far.
In my latest post for Melcrum’s Internal Communication Hub, I take on the current concern about confidentiality – its future viability, and the likelihood of a backlash against transparency from old-school corporate managers.
The article, which can be found at:
http://www.internalcommshub.com/open/professional/toptips/confidentiality.shtml
also delves into specific challenges facing communicators in this environment, and some insights into how to communicate effectively even if channels start to close.
