Internal Comm Best Practices

What an exciting day I had yesterday!

I was invited to give a two hour long seminar on Internal Best Practices to members of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce as part of their summer series, Chamber U.

My motivation for this topic comes from the merger that my company went through in 2008. The company formerly known as Blesco was purchased by a Germany headquartered company, viastore. Now viastore we have combined two companies and cultures here in the US and we also regularly communicate with our colleagues in Europe. Many exciting challenges have popped up as a result.

Simultaneously I began my Masters in Communication at Grand Valley State University. As part of the program I am doing three independent studies. I decided one would be around exploring internal communication at various other successful companies while incorporating my own research and experience.

I thought sharing this information with others was a great next step and a good motivating factor for me to kick this study into gear!

So far I have met with four area companies:
A medium sized manufacturer
A large insurance company
A small public relations firm
A large bank

The information I've gathered so far has been very interesting.

As a first step to the seminar I used a fun tool I recently discovered called "Mind Mapping" to understand and map out everyone's expectations of the seminar. We then re-visited that at the end to make sure we did touch on all the expectations.

Earlier in the summer I attended a Chamber U session given by Pondera Advisors - a leadership training company here in Grand Rapids. The speaker lead us through an activity where we thought about our own personalities and how we best respond and communicate.

I thought this was an important next step for my lesson.

We must first examine and think about ourselves before we can begin to know our audience. How do I best communicate? What do I respond to? In what situations do I prefer what medium? Once you go through this self-realization process it's then easier to understand the messages you're sending out and then how others are receiving them.
This exercise also demonstrated one method for better understanding your audience. Each participant could then take this activity back and present it or demonstrate it to their internal audiences to better understand how to communicate with them.

The next part of the seminar entailed information sharing about the main topic areas under internal communication realizing that it was high level information that everyone needed to then take back and think about how to apply in their own organizations.
Here are a few topics:
Why? What is the importance of internal communication and what can a strategic plan foster within a group
Know your Audience - who is it that you're trying to communicate to
Mediums - discussion of the different forms and tools to use for internal comm
Relevant Messaging - developing messaging that is relevant for the specific groups you're communicating to
The Future - how is the changing workplace going to impact internal communication?

Lastly I went through the take aways I've had so far from my meetings with the four companies.
Here are a few highlights:
Identification of the natural process of how internal comm grows and changes as the company does, i.e. starts out as an HR function, addition of marketing, two channels then integration into one.
Employee Engagement - how to ask and involve your employees in the process
Top-down Communication methods: CEO Lunches, Regularly scheduled company wide meetings, writing a column in the newsletter, having buy in on all programming
Internal BEFORE External Comm Focus - creation of ambassadors!
Share the Good News too!

The program was very engaging and well received. Discussion and ideas were fostered.

I came back and share my excitement with viastore's President. We then mind mapped a whole plan for how I would continue to develop and research this topic engaging our customer and supplier base along with those I was already talking to.

This is a topic that is relevant and important for any company and anyone. Communication and relating to those around us are what makes us valuable and indispensable employees!

Stay tuned for more results!

Please message me if you'd be willing to help me with this process either by allowing me to interview you about what your company is doing or by allowing me to present and engage your employees with my findings.

Keep it Simple

In this article, Shirky talks about how many societies have failed as a result of complexity. He sites several examples of companies and scenarios that were unable to compete because of the complex processes and infrastructures they had in place.

http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/04/the-collapse-of-complex-business-models/#comments

This is a conversation that's been going on for years now. We are over-saturated with media, communication, information. We are the most educated we have ever been as buyers.

But we're getting sick of it. How do we manage all the information coming at us? How do we filter in order to find the messages that we want to hear?

You can see the shift into simpler times. People are starting to think more about their minds and bodies. They're taking care of themselves more. People's houses are getting smaller. We're starting to save more as a result of the recession. We have staycations and would rather spend time at home with our families then travel the world.

Communication is getting shorter and more simple - Twitter! What's the bottom line? What's the point? Is this our impatience or the fact that we receive 3,000 messages a day?

How does this apply to the highly technical, industrial world of automated systems? Material handling systems are extremely complex but replace fairly simple functions. How do we simplify our solutions? How do I simplify our communication? How do I create a relevant message of simplicity to the marketplace?

Start Local, Think Global. Better serve those in our community and make their material handling processes more simple, then outsource that process.

The Difference is ACTION - Scott Baker, CEO, National Nail

Today at lunch a group of eight of us from viastore went to hear Scott Baker, CEO & President of National Nail talk about Servant Leadership.

This guy was right up our alley, preaching to the choir, walking the walk so if we've heard it all before what did he say that we can take and create ACTION with?

That's my question, here are my notes, we'll see if we can get to an answer along the way.

Servant Leadership is not just for churches and non-profits. When Mr. Baker was talking about National Nail he shared their purpose and vision: To Connect with Intention. To be Respected, to Earn that Respect and to Serve.

As a CEO, Mr. Baker asks himself: Are our employees better people because they work here? Are you a better person because of where you work?

Leading is not a position, it's a choice. That reminds me of the book our company recently went through as a group: You don't need a Title to be a Leader. Everyone is a leader and the impact we all have on those around us is astounding.

Mr. Baker lead us through an activity where we listed words that we thought made a strong leader: passion, courage, vision, driven, goal oriented, focused, conviction, respect, integrity, motivated, persistent. Then he divided the area under a strong leader and we gave words for two different types of strong leaders: those that are motivated for self: pride, arrogant, selfish, insecure, manipulative, ego and those that are motivated by others: giving, humble, compassionate, caring, vulnerable, transparent, available, teachable, self aware.

It's the difference between asking, "what I successful?" vs. "was I significant?" or "did my life positively impact others?"

Success to the outside world is never enough - you'll never have enough "stuff".

There is no division of personal life and business life, there is no acting one way here and another way there. There is only life. This resonates with me. With how transparent we are with social media and Internet, how accessible with are with phones there is no separation anymore, which is why it's more important than ever to love what you do and live what you do. It's not wrong or bad to always be working if working is making life better and life is making work better. What's the difference?

It is a constant battle to not always think of yourself first. It's human nature. You have to make a constant, conscious effort to think outside of yourself and think about how what you're doing impacts those around you. This has become most apparent to me recently as a result of getting married. It's not just me anymore. I have to think of Adam in every decision I make, every action I take, every activity and event I commit to, it's a paradigm shift and a good one.

Mr. Baker talked about their upside down org chart where he's at the bottom. He made a reference to the roots of a plant. It's his job to help everyone else in the organization get better, grow, flourish, everyday!

Are you FAT? He asked are you Faithful? Are you Available? Are you Teachable?

Steps to Leadership Maturity:
You must first commit in your mind that you are going to serve others.
You must surround yourself by people with the same goal.
READ
Go where leadership is taught
Apply - Practice.

It is not enough to go listen to speakers and to be reinforced in what you already know. The difference between you and the other 100 people at the same talk is that YOU need to create action. This is my first little piece of action...

Keeping an Outward Focus

The President of my company sent me this article and challenged me as to how our company can develop creative ways to keep an outward focus.



This article talks about a company whose focus is on monthly dividends and they created a fictitious character, a 75 year old retired school teacher who relies on these dividends, as their focal point to keep everyone focused on what they're doing and why they're there.

Define yourself: what does your company do? what does your company not do? who does your company serve? what does your company stand for?
These basic questions are the building blocks for every communication campaign moving forward. Who is your 75 year old school teacher?

For viastore it's about making the quality of life for those working distribution and warehousing better. It's about helping companies deliver their products accurately and fast, saving operating costs and reducing overhead so they remain competitive.

Not only does identifying who you are what who you serve help you create a better message for the market place, it also give your employees purpose. It puts a face to their day to day activities, it humanizes the processes.

Sam Adams Touts their Low Market Share

The President of viastore came to me today and asked me to check out a commercial he had seen about Sam Adams beer - ironic because he's a pretty good teetotaler but regardless he thought the idea of Sam Adams promoting the fact that their market share was so low was an interesting topic.

I did some research, read some articles and interviews with Sam Adams CEO, Jim Koch.

Comparing themselves to the Porsche brand, Jim Koch describes Sam Adams: "Our destiny is to remain very small. We don't make a mass-produced or mass-marketed beer. We make a very flavorful beer that really only appeals to 5% of beer drinkers. If we were a car we'd be a Porsche. Everyone is familiar with it, but the market share is probably what ours is. We make quality, and that's really the American beer drinker's only hope going forward: to take pride in the quality of American beer because the quantity is owned by foreigners."

How does this translate to my business? How does this translate to your business?

viastore has always sold on value, not price. viastore prides itself in being creative, having a strong engineering force, being flexible and nimble, in the ability to manufacture custom products as if they were standard. But is that what our customers want? Do they want material handling equipment and systems that are built specifically to their application or do they want a system like their competitors, their neighbors, that's cookie cutter, standard, proven? You could argue pros and cons just like you could argue that it's better to make Bud Light because the majority of people drink that over Sam Adams.

As the American buyer becomes more and more overwhelmed with choices, as more and more technical and manufacturing jobs get shipped overseas and as more and more processes become automated attention is being shifted toward the creative, the aesthetically pleasing, how can we create value for a commodity like conveyor? With value adds like creativity, beauty, environmentally friendly, clever engineering and design. By creating art, just like brewing a high quality batch of Sam Adams brew.

“Internal Communication Best Practices“

Major Points:
Results of my Independent Study: Interview with local company’s communication and marketing managers
Top down Communication Ideas
Having a Consistent and Meaningful Message
Communication Ideas and Tools across departments
Tools for Collaboration

Expected Outcomes:
Insight into successful local company’s communication practices
How these insights apply to your company

“You’ve got a great product or service – now tell people about it!”

Marketing & Communication Tools for your Small Business

Major Points:
Who is your Target Market?
Focus on Relationship Marketing
Developing a Meaningful & Consistent Message
How to Break through the Noise
Comments on Social Marketing
Finding Marketing Tools that are best for YOUR business

Expected Outcomes:
Ability to identify who your target market is and where they are
Real examples of what marketing practices work and what doesn’t
Where to invest in marketing (even without a budget)