Top 4 Reasons to Formalize your Corporate Communications Framework
Posted by ET Group on December 1, 2013
In my last blog I explained what a Corporate Communication Framework (CCF) is and what it should look like. In this blog I want to answer the question – Why bother formalizing the CCF at all?
After all, chances are no one is asking for your organization’s CCF.
But, there are a number of compelling reasons to spend the time to get this down on paper. Here are the top 4 reasons why a Corporate Communications Framework should be formalized:
#1. Competitive Advantage
Formalizing the CCF is the first step to getting your organization to becoming a more collaborative organization. Firms that collaborate better perform better.
#2. Clarity
Clarity on which communication tools your organization uses enables greater collaboration by eliminating confusion.
The types of communication tools and the quantity of communications tools are constantly expanding. This expanded choice opens up possibilities. But it can also cause confusion and disarray. Sorting through the choices and the disarray is important.
The new technologies and feature creep within existing communication tools are blurring the lines of differentiation between the tools, which can in turn:
- Result in different parts of the organization using different tools for the same functional purpose. This often leads to ineffective communication and supports siloing within the organization, not collaboration.
- Lead to duplicate licensing – paying more than once for the same communication tool capability.
#3. Focus
Wikipedia Excerpt
“If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, it will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death.”
Having a good CCF in place means that the communications tools become enablers in the background infrastructure and your employees can focus on their jobs.
Time spent getting communications technologies working or sync’d means less time working on the job. People might think they are accomplishing something by getting the technology working but this has a huge cost impact to the business. Using work time to get communications tools working is another example of the Boiling Frog Syndrome (see Wikipedia excerpt) at work.
Getting technology tools functioning should not be a part of your meeting time. A perfect example is Skype. Getting Skype to work in corporate meeting environments, which it isn’t designed for, often leads to spending up to half the meeting time getting the technology to work. What you thought was a FREE communication tool is all of a sudden costing you a lot of money. But like the frog being slowly boiled, you may not be aware of this cost.
If the technology works without spending time getting it going, you can focus on the tasks at hand, and move your business forward.
#4. Accelerating Your Corporate Culture
With a well thought out and optimized CCF, there are more options available for what content is created and how it can be communicated. The people responsible for the Corporate Communications Strategy in your organization will have greater communications capabilities available to them. Having more choices and options on what content they communicate and how they communicate it means, they can communicate richer experiences with greater impact and can accelerate the messages that shape corporate culture.
We can make our organizations better at communicating by formalizing our Corporate Communication Framework. The CCF is a critical piece of a corporate collaborative ecosystem (CCE). Taking the first step of formalizing our CCF can be transformative.
Once your CCF has been formalized and optimized, make sure you review the CCF at least once a year. The rate of change is accelerating and communications tools are always evolving. The CCF should be a living strategy in your organization – like a movie, not a picture or snapshot in time.
The second step to transforming your organization is to move more of your organizations communications to Real Time. This can have a profound impact on your business. I will discuss this in more detail in a future blog.
If you need help sorting out the patchwork of communication tools in your organization and turning them into a tapestry, we can help. Contact us.