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Develop Effective Internal Communications |
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Implement ways to get messages received and understood. |
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Sears tracked the links in the chain of cause and effect running from employee attitude to customer behavior to profit. It modeled how an increase in employee attitude changed behavior and drove an improved customer impression which resulted in a measurable increase in revenue. |
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Awareness of this employee-customer-profit linkage made Sears management determined to give every employee the information needed to develop an enlightened opinion about how to do his or her job better. Town meetings were held to spread the word and get employees initiating improvements. A corporate university was established. All of the training was focused on changing employee perceptions and attitudes so that attention and behavior would be focused on customers. Operating managers changed their behavior toward employees, and front line employees changed their behavior toward customers.
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Note the sequence: The change in behavior at the management level caused the change in behavior at the front line. Behavior is a form of communication. Management must walk the talk. |
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Chief administrative officer, Anthony Rucci, says, "Unless you have a trained, literate, motivated, competent work force, and give them decisionmaking authority, you don't get satisfied customers no matter how good the merchandise is. The right work force creates customer satisfaction, and that produces superior financial performance." |
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We receive and process so much information so fast that it's easy to hear only what we want to hear. It's becoming increasingly difficult to break through the clutter and get our message communicated to our own people. |
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Effective internal communication happens only as the result of a well designed plan. This plan is organized around the understanding that all messages are not delivered in the same manner. Good news may need to be delivered only once to be heard. Instructions and changes that disrupt existing paradigms must be communicated in several different ways and often repeated before people will accept the new information. In these instances, a single method of communication is not enough; every message needs to be reinforced by using different means such as one-to-one meetings, department meetings, and interactive forums. |
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