Making meetings matter

When you think about it a huge amount of communication ( or miscommunication) in organisations goes on in meetings. But do we give them much thought? How many of us just accept that many meetings will be ineffective and unproductive?  But there are simple steps that could make all this poor communication, and thus poor management, better.

For a start, are the right people  in the room? Getting the right mix of people is a crucial first step.

This mix of those who “ARE IN”  – includes those with Authority to take decisions, people with access to the right Resources, those with Expertise, people with key Information and finally, those who Need to be involved because they’ll be affected.

In their book, Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There, Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, use the “ARE IN” approach and other techniques to show how meetings can actually be made to matter.  It’s got to be worth a try!

Underestimating the power of the image

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the dispute between the clergy at St Paul’s Cathedral and the protestors camped outside, it’s clear once again that in the TV age the image trumps words.

No matter how eloquently the Dean and Chapter have expressed their case, nothing could compare with the emotional impact of the image of the Cathedral with its doors closed.  Caught up in drafting statements, the clergy literally failed to see that they had already lost the public relations battle.  A loss compounded when high profile resignations followed.

How differently might the crisis at St Paul’s have unfolded if the Dean and Chapter had considered the pictures they were painting in people’s minds when they decided to close the doors?

But we shouldn’t be too hard on St Paul’s. In truth, it acted like so many organisations do under pressure. When most leaders and managers think about putting a message across, their first instinct is to think about what to say.

The proverbs say that actions speak louder than words and a picture is worth a thousand words – what a difference it would make to the quality of communications if organisations actually put those words into practice!

Charities need to manage their image on Google to maintain public trust

According to Richard Sambrook of PR agency Edelman, Google is the first place people go to gather information, especially when they hear about a crisis, so charities must be aware of what content is appearing.

Sambrook said it was crucial that charities understood how they appeared on the web and search engines as this was now the first place that people went for news and information.

He continued that informed publics needed on average to hear something three to five times, often from multiple sources, before they believed it.

Can you afford not to have a communications strategy?

If you’re really good at what you do, does it matter if your communications are rather hit-and-miss? I suggest it matters a lot. In fact, in this economic climate it probably matters more than ever.

At a meeting with a prospective client to discuss a new style for their publications. I asked what they wanted the revamp to achieve. “That’s the problem,” said the marketing manager. “We don’t know.”

As the conversation progressed, a picture emerged of a business in which communication was frequently talked about – with every member of staff encouraged to chip in their view – but where very little actually changed. As another member of the marketing team observed: “We go round and round in circles, but we never seem to make any decisions.”

(Which doesn’t mean, of course, that the organisation wasn’t communicating – because we’re all communicating something all the time, whether we’ve planned it or not.)

Eventually the only member of the team who hadn’t yet spoken, said: “The problem is, we don’t have a communications strategy.”

The business in question was in the hospitality industry. It was evident that when it came to their core operations, they had a very definite strategy. Nothing was left to chance. But when it came to communicating the qualities that made them such an asset to their clients, they were flying on a wing and a prayer. With contracts becoming ever harder to win, their lack of a communications strategy was becoming a problem.

Without a clear strategy for telling your target audiences about the things that set you apart, how will they understand why you’re the best people for the job?