What challenges do Internal Communication professionals face in 2014?

A recent study, State of the Sector, by Gatehouse asked Internal Communication professionals what their priorities were in 2014.

"The four top answers were similar to 2013: improving electronic channels (61%), leadership communication (61%), developing/refreshing an IC strategy (60%), and improving communication planning (52%). Enhancing line manager communication, building the IC team / capability and restructuring the IC function appear to have lost ground over the past 12 months."

Clearly more progress needs to be made in 2014 in areas such as improving electronic communication channels, leadership communication, developing an Internal Communication strategy, and improving communication planning.  But how do you develop your Internal Communication strategy?  Or how to you improve your electronic communication channels?

Capita Learning and Development offers a Diploma and Masters degree in Internal Communication accredited by Kingston University, designed to help Internal Communication professionals face these challenges. The Diploma and Masters programmes equip students with a depth of knowledge about communication, people and organisations, providing the knowledge and gravitas to operate at a senior level.

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Meet Rachel Miller, an Internal Communications Diploma attendee, and Director of All Things IC. Rachel tells us more about what she learned on the course,  the advantages of taking an Internal Communication qualification and how it helped her start her own Internal Communication consultancy.

How can managers step up to the challenge of managing remotely?

In days when going to work meant commuting to the office and sitting at one’s own desk, managers were encouraged to be present – to keep their eyes open and their hands off and promise the metaphorical open door.

Working from home

But what about in days when being present means occupying virtual space and the door has been replaced with a portal? How do managers maintain the correct level of contact with their teams whilst ensuring effective performance and appropriate behaviours?

To understand what to do it’s worth understanding what has created the need to manage remotely:

• Virtual teams created by the availability of technology
• Matrix management created by the need to be leaner, more effective and more responsive to client demands 
• Flexible working environments (e.g. working patterns, working space configuration)  created by the reaction to customer/user demands and the social needs of workforce

The challenges presented by these newly created environments, means that the manager must be aware of, and support, the shifting needs and feelings of many:

• Those taking the step into remote working for the first time
• Those experienced members of the team who need to retain a sense of belonging whilst maintaining the motivation to achieve
• Those working in virtual teams who may been spread throughout the country or the globe  
• Those on the team who do not have the opportunity to operate remotely and often openly deride their colleagues for (cue fingers indicating inverted commas) “working at home” 
• The manager who must tussle with the potential feeling of  loss of control

When developing his “Action Centred Leadership” model in the 1960s and 1970s, John Adair could not have anticipated the increased significance it would have taken on but never have the underpinning needs of its component elements  –  to manage and develop the individual, grow the team and achieve the task – been more relevant.

Of course in there are some very simple management actions like keeping electronic diaries free of unnecessary meetings and placeholders but it goes way beyond that. This is about setting conditions and environments for matters like communication, performance objectives and expectations from all. So what good practices can managers adopt?

Get the team emotion right

• Consider the effect of motivation of those working at the office versus the perceived (and often real) benefit for those working at home
• Remember that new working arrangements cause a shift in behaviour with the team (they are reverting to storming) so is it time to reconsider the ideology of the team – how do we work together, what is expected of each other, how do we communicate, what does respect look like, how do we deal with issues and problem, what does “belonging” mean and so on)
• Consider the practical (e.g. time) and cultural elements of global virtual teams  
• Develop the collective maturity and capability of the group so that you can progressively increase group freedom and authority 

Get the individual expectations right

• One size does not fit all – what feels right and gets the best out of one relationship doesn’t work for another. Start with the default position of asking the individual what they need to make remote working effective and come to agreeable solutions
• Develop individual freedom and authority - avoid overcompensating for not having sight of individuals. In remote situations “management by exception” has to be the de facto approach – agreeing standard communication up front and agreeing what constitutes exception situations when additional communication is required
• Remember that recognition and praise is not as immediate or ad hoc so take the time to provide this – it means even more when working alone for periods of time to have effort and good work acknowledged
• Remember that working in isolation is not necessarily always felt to be a reward (or indeed a preferred way of working) – what motivation does the individual require and how can you provide this? (NB – motivation itself is a huge topic and is covered in other blog articles)   

Get the performance management of the task right

• Manage by outputs and outcomes not inputs or process 
• Be accurate in your expectations surrounding deliverables (measures, timescales, strategy and tactics responsibilities), objectives (accountabilities and measures) and task (standards, quality, time and reporting parameters)
• Consider what resources (physical and emotional) the individual requires
• Do they have a support network provided? 

In achieving the right balance in all these, the manager has the chance of nurturing a successful remote working environment and step up to effectively perform the sole responsibility of managing remotely.

Written by David Mathieson, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

How To Change Your Company Culture

Barclay’s recent job cuts announcement includes a vow to ‘change the corporate culture’ of the organisation.  How realistic is that as an aim?

Organisational Change

New CEO Anthony Jenkins is wise to say that it will take ‘five to 10 years’ to embed genuine change. Culture is the very essence of an organisation.  There is a debate about whether culture is something an organisation “has” – a characteristic which can be changed in the same way as new equipment can be bought or processes introduced, or whether it is something an organisation “is” – so fundamental to the DNA of the organisation that it permeates all elements of organisational life.

Cultural models reflect this complexity. The well-known cultural web developed by Johnson and Scholes provides one illustration. The web is made up of a number of elements:

• The events and stories that people talk about
• The rituals and routines that show what is important and what‘sanctioned’ behaviour is
• The symbols, from the organisation’s brand and buildings to the language that people use
• Who has real power – to keep the status quo or make improvements
• What controls are in place – both measurement and reward systems
• The formal organisational structure – showing both who and what is important

At the centre of these six elements is what Johnson and Scholes call the ‘paradigm’: those deep unstated assumptions about the organisation that are so taken for granted, people don’t even know they have them.
To make it worse, few organisations have a single culture.   Subcultures proliferate – forming for reasons as varied as the requirement for an R&D division to work in a particular way to make its contribution, to the different basic assumptions that contribute to the world view of people from varying national cultures in a multi-national organisation.

So is change possible?  Yes, but it is important to recognise the limitations and risks.  As well as multifaceted, culture is multi-layered.  Ed Schein, father of organisational cultural theory, paints a picture of the levels of culture: Artifacts– things that can be seen, heard and touched as soon as you walk through an organisation’s doors.  Espoused values and beliefs - what people say is important. And finally – the basic, underlying assumptions that form the beating heart of the organisation. These assumptions build up over an organisation’s lifetime as a result of people finding a way of being that ‘works’ and works repeatedly when tackling challenges. That level of ‘taken for grantedness’ is tough to permeate – which helps explain the anxiety and resistance that can scupper the most well-meaning change efforts.  Though it also means that there are times where it is obvious that ‘the world is shifting’ when cultural change is the most likely – as it becomes increasingly clear that the old ways of being simply just won’t cut it for the future.

Changing culture means being in it for the long haul, taking a holistic approach – and recognising that intended changes often end up having unexpected consequences. No blog post could do justice to the complexity of what is required. A few pointers, in particular from a communication perspective include:

• Clarity. Populate the cultural web to understand where your culture is now, and where you need it to be
• Help people to ‘unlearn’:  use communication to help show why the current way of being just won’t work for the future. Better still, find ways people can find this out for themselves (e.g.: ask groups to conduct their own market research) 
• Support leaders in being tangible and explicit about what is changing (and what isn’t).  Highlight role models to help people ‘reframe’ their thinking.   Engage – providing structured opportunities for people to make their own informed decisions about solutions.
• Provide a safe environment.  Fear of failure or looking stupid is a big stumbling block.  Listen to understand concerns, then communicate the support that is being put in place.
• Recognise the power of the peer group – especially in the digital age.  Nurture and support ‘informal’ leaders
• Publicise and reinforce successes – and encourage people to do the same through internal social media platforms.

Liz Cochrane

Course Director, Masters in Internal Communication Management