What am I talking about?
Back at Frankfurt School, our Professor for HR and Change Management, Patrick C. Flood, has this always occurring method of letting the whole class stand up and repeat ten times loud and clear, in total fervor: COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION. A very strong lesson for all of us, internalizing how important communication is, especially in a transforming environment.
We see it in our daily lives: Different communication styles lead to challenges. Increased now, with new communication tools and different work requirements. However, there is a lot of advice out there regarding efficient communication in teams, for tough conversations or on how to communicate while managing company reputation.
I still remember my media training with Professor Caroline Dale Ditlev-Simonsen at BI and wish that way more corporate speaker and CEOs would have attended such a training. How to communicate and address the relevant points for your audience in a not misleading way is challenging. And many fail.
Still, my impression is that communication overall gets better – thanks to Twitter and a more digitised world (Helloouuu smilies, stickers and gifs!). At least when we look in our private lives and in how companies communicate with their external parties – great websites, PR releases, snackable videos, Instagram and Twitter accounts… Yet, there is still a long way to go for internal communication.
Why is this important?Why is this important?
Communication is such a strong tool. Used in the wrong way it can be a quick death. Internal communication needs to provide the most important information in a snackable and easy-to-work-with way to all employees. Further, employee engagement should be the currency of any internal communication team. When employees are fans, they feel connected and empowered by their work.
How to do it?
We come from a time when we only communicated to inform. Nowadays, we communicate to collaborate. By communicating at the ravages of time, meaning, always be open-minded to new ways of communicating, success is on its way. Affected by an ongoing digitalisation, which comes in waves, also communication styles and tools change over time. It is never done. This illustrates, why we only can successfully transform companies with a strong, inclusive and modern communication department.
I am lucky to work for a company that is always developing, changing and improving its corporate communication. For example, read here about Microsoft’s strategy to win hearts and minds. And yes, this is the nerve in our time. This is how people want to communicate. Not only in their private lives, but also at work. This is the way, how companies can become successful. Follow Bianca Bauer to stay up to date about best practices and latest trends.
Microsoft uses its own products. Yammer is our internal community platform, which I completely misunderstood at the beginning, after joining Microsoft not knowing about the great capabilities existing already out there.
Today, I check Yammer several times per day. Not only to see what’s new in my office, but also to connect with women across the whole company, to address technical questions to the real experts and to reach out to colleagues of all subsidiaries to not invent the wheel twice.
Then, there is Microsoft Stream, a video platform I not only love for finding consumable content, but also because it is inclusive by design with automatic audio transcriptions and subtitles. Stream is the platform for video communications, in form of an archive for employee-event live streaming or generally the place for all internal video material.
Not to forget about SharePoint on which we build our intranet providing all the relative steady content such as tools and services. I use SharePoint to find information about our upcoming Christmas party, to book my travels or coaching sessions.
So, these are already great tools to engage with my outer loop, to make me feel part of the Microsoft community, in a fun way, in which I can easily consume all relevant information.
But internal communication does not stop at the outer loop. A top-notch communication is necessary for every team which wants to be successful. This is nothing new. But I already mentioned, communication is changing over time too. Therefore, Microsoft introduced Teams two years ago, THE collaboration platform. We do not communicate to inform anymore. We communicate to collaborate. Great thing, Teams offers everything what we need to do so. And it does not matter what kind of team wants to use it. It is adaptable to meet the needs from marketing over sales over development to project teams and many more.
Let’s reinvent internal communication
Let’s stand up, for a better world, a more efficient work environment, less stress, more clarity, a community environment, trust and inclusiveness, colors and happiness, and repeat with me, in total fervor: COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION.
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This article was first publish on LinkedIn on December 7, 2018: The Power of Communication | LinkedIn
