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May 25, 2005

So many choices, such high expectations

As I remind clients all the time, employees’ expectations about internal communication are influenced by their experiences with external media.

We’re living in an era where information choices abound. If, for instance, I want to find out what the weather is going to be like for Memorial Day weekend, I can: Visit any number of Internet sites. Listen to a news radio station (weather “on the 8s”). Turn on the TV. Look at the map in the newspaper. And, unfortunately, all the predictions are the same: In the Northeast, we’re going to have a lousy weekend. Sigh.

This experience of choice—and the feeling of control that accompanies it—was dramatized recently by a media strategist named Dave DeSocio, who spoke at a gathering of cable sales executives in Chicago. Mr. DeSocio, who works for an agency named OMD, attempted to quantify the phenomenon of choice by sharing the following fun facts about TV:

• The average TV viewer changes channels 8,000 times a week.

• There are only 18 TV shows with an average Nielsen rating of 5.0 or higher. By contrast, 1,723 shows deliver less than a 1.0 rating.

• The No. 1 show for kids is not “SpongeBob SquarePants” or, in fact, any other kids-oriented show you could think of—it’s the Super Bowl, the same TV event that’s No. 1 for virtually every other demographic. In fact, the Super Bowl is now one of the few television experiences that are universal across ages, genders and ethnic groups.

Interesting stuff to amuse (or bore) your friends, but what does it all mean? “According to Mr. DeSocio, these facts demonstrate the increasing personalization of media. “People don’t watch TV. They don’t listen to radio. And they don’t read magazines. What do they do? They make personal choices,” he said, that transcend media vehicles.

How is this relevant to employee communication? I’ll answer a question with three of my own: Are you giving employees a sense of choice? Can they choose among different vehicles, for example, or is there only one way to get information? Can employees decide how in-depth to go to learn about a certain subject, or do they have to slog through a thicket of information to get what they need?

If you don’t give employees control over communication, they may choose with their feet, deciding not to participate in communication that doesn’t meet their needs.

It’s your choice.