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June 27, 2008
High school yearbook
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My son just graduated from high school and, a few days before graduation, brought home his yearbook. This was unlike any yearbook I had ever encountered, but was completely in tune with what the Millennial generation expects from communication: |
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Visual. There is almost no text in the entire yearbook—the messages are conveyed almost entirely through photos and art. |
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Photoshop. And speaking of photos, the yearbook staff made liberal use of Photoshop, using basic shots and their wild imaginations to create collages and fantastic images. |
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Fun. The Class of 2008 didn’t take themselves too seriously (I’m proud to report that my son was voted “Class Clown”) and if they could make light of a topic, they took the opportunity to do so. |
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Cultural references. These Millennials are steeped in popular culture, and they co-opt television shows, music and movies to make their own statement. |
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Community. My son and his friends cried at graduation (he’ll appreciate me writing this) because they realized that their close-knit social network will never be the same. This generation is all about bonding, and the yearbook reflects that. |
| Does your internal communication have these characteristics? If not, how are you going to communicate with the Millennials? |
Posted by Alison Davis at 10:07 AM | Comments (2)
June 14, 2008
Inspiration (?)
I read a lot of weird stuff, about topics that are directly or tangentially related to communication. Sometimes all that content comes together to form a complete and elegant perspective. Other times, the flotsam and jetsam just sits there, like junk at the edge of the pier.
I bring you some of it, messy as it may be, hoping it will strike a chord and inspire you:
Women think differently. I can hear all the guys out there saying, “No, duh,” but this is actually useful: Scientists are beginning to prove that the women in your audience actually process communication differently than men do, according to this blog. Maybe that’s why all those facts you’re sending aren’t getting through?
Mobile (phone) marketing is coming. I am trying to keep up with the field of mobile marketing, because there will come a day (mark my words) when all employees will have a handheld PDA/phone/camera/whatever device and we’ll have to communicate to them. In this most recent column, David Koretz, a guru in this field, makes some provocative predictions. (Free registration required).
People don’t notice smaller packages, just higher prices. “Half gallon” ice cream containers are downsizing again—from 1.75 to 1.5 quarts. Lots of other makers of packaged goods are following suit, according to an article in USA Today, in an attempt to raise prices without appearing to do so. (So if you downsized your publication/website/other vehicle, would anyone notice?)
12% of Fortune 500 companies have a blog. Many communicators I talk to are still nervous about leveraging social media like blogging for internal communication. Yet increasingly even large corporations are embracing social media externally, according to B&B. Data you can use to make a case?
Posted by Alison Davis at 10:39 AM | Comments (1)
June 06, 2008
Town halls: “A great conversation”
I’ve been thinking a lot about town hall meetings these days, since I’m preparing for a web workshop on the topic. Apparently, Sen. John McCain also has town halls on his mind, as evidenced by his invitation earlier this week to Sen. Barack Obama, asking him to participate a series of 10 such sessions.
Why does McCain endorse town halls? Because he believes they offer a forum for the presidential candidates to engage in real dialogue (not packaged or spun). Wrote McCain in his letter to Obama, “What a welcome change it would be were presidential candidates in our time to treat each other and the people they seek to lead with respect and courtesy as they discussed the great issues of the day, without the empty sound bits and media-filtered exchanges that dominate our elections.”
McCain cited a 1963 agreement between President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Barry Goldwater for “flying together from town to town and debating each other face-to-face on the same stage.” (Kennedy was assassinated before the campaign began and the town halls could commence.)
How does this relate to the kinds of town halls that we get involved with: internal forums where senior leaders share information and engage in dialogue with employees?
Here’s the connection. Just by using the term “town hall,” you create high expectations for participation. Town halls are connected to the roots of democracy (invented by the Greeks and Romans). And in the United States, town halls have long been symbolic of the ability of ordinary people to speak freely.
So, if your town halls are static and one-way, you have two problems. The smaller problem is that 45 minutes of PowerPoint followed by listless Q&A is a boring way to spend an hour. The second, and more significant, problem is that employees’ expectations about their involvement are not being met, which means a missed chance to engage people.
Next time you’re planning a town hall, think about the potential of the format. And, remember what John McCain said this week: “The town hall . . . is the most effective way for democracy to function.”
And Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe agreed, “Town halls (allow) a great conversation to take place.”
Posted by Alison Davis at 10:27 AM
June 03, 2008
Ban the “and”
As part of a communication measurement project, a colleague and I asked to review the company’s employee engagement survey to see if it contained any communication questions.
The survey did, indeed, ask about communication. But before I could focus on that, I was immediately distracted by another issue. Overall, the survey contained many questions with significant flaws: unclear, difficult to answer, poorly written. The most obvious problem was the proliferation of “and” questions—those that ask about more than one topic in a single question. Here’s a sample:
1. “Employees and supervisors are held accountable for quality.”
2. “Communication from leaders is meaningful and effective.”
3. “Changes in communication from leaders and managers occur as a result of my feedback.”
4. “Managers in my group communicate goals, strategies and performance to employees.”
5. “Employees are encouraged to communicate their opinions and ideas to their managers.”
(Note: All questions are statement questions that ask employees to indicate their agreement according to the five-point Likert Scale, from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”.)
What’s the problem? “And” questions violate an essential rule of survey questions: To be specific so that respondents can provide a precise and unequivocal answer. As a result, “and” questions create a potential conflict where one part of the question may be true, and another not true.
For example, in question 1, employees may be held accountable, but supervisors may not. And, in question 4, managers may always communicate goals, but only occasionally strategies and never performance.
When faced with an “and” question, respondents tend to split the difference—choosing the neutral or “sometimes” response to manage their confusion. This leads to data that’s at best inconclusive, and at worst misleading.
So, please, write questions that only contain one concept per question. Ban the “and.”
Posted by Alison Davis at 08:33 AM