Communication strategy during a time of strategic planning

Written by Lee Hopkins


Continued from page 1

2. Tell everyone ASAP Feedback to all those affected should take place atrepparttar earliest possible opportunity —- preferably first thing next morning, beforerepparttar 107967 rumour mill has had too much time to gear up. A useful strategy is to have planning meetings on weekends, with repparttar 107968 staff briefing occuring first thing Monday morning.

3. One meeting to bind them all Aim for one single briefing or feedback session, rather than multiple sessions where watering down or distortion ofrepparttar 107969 original message might occur. Thankfully, technology largely allows such a singel session to occur, even across multiple timezones. In such an instance, scripting ofrepparttar 107970 communication would prove a valuable tool to consistency, especially whererepparttar 107971 text ofrepparttar 107972 session will appear on a company intranet.

4. Follow up and re-purpose A follow-up message (via audio, video or even simple written) to all fromrepparttar 107973 CEO, emphasingrepparttar 107974 key points, is very useful. It too can be re-purposed to appear onrepparttar 107975 company intranet, or as a briefing to investors andrepparttar 107976 marketplace.

All of this might seem like overkill, a tremendous amount of effort for very little gain. But such a view must be evaluated againstrepparttar 107977 fact thatrepparttar 107978 long-term strategic plan will drive repparttar 107979 company for anything fromrepparttar 107980 next five to fifteen years.

Investing time atrepparttar 107981 beginning to 'get it right' will pay massive dividends overrepparttar 107982 longer term.

When you match consumer psychology with effective communication styles you get a powerful combination. Lee Hopkins can show you how to communicate better for better business results. At Hopkins-Business-Communication-Training.com you can find the secrets to communication success.


Dialogue: the four dialogic principles for successful communication

Written by Lee Hopkins


Continued from page 1

4. Understandingrepparttar purpose ofrepparttar 107966 message Before even beginning a communication process, it is vital to understand whatrepparttar 107967 customer or employee knows and feels about you andrepparttar 107968 ideas you represent. Knowing this helps you decide repparttar 107969 purpose ofrepparttar 107970 message.

Akin to Maslow's psychological heirarchy, there are four levels of purpose, each of which pre-supposes and relies onrepparttar 107971 existence ofrepparttar 107972 previous level. They are sequential and it is not possible to achieve an objective until all levels are completed, in order and fully.

The levels, in ascending order are: Awareness > Understanding > Conviction > Action

4.1: Awareness Let's take as an example a company attempting to differentiate itself inrepparttar 107973 marketplace, withrepparttar 107974 end goal of bringing someone to make a purchase of their service.

Without bringing your existence torepparttar 107975 attention ofrepparttar 107976 prospective customer you cannot move on torepparttar 107977 higher levels. Indeed, even internal communications often fall short on this point: they fail to restaterepparttar 107978 context ofrepparttar 107979 communication, which is in effect 'awareness'.

4.2: Understanding Once a prospect has gained awareness, they are then ready to move on to understanding what it is that differentiates you from repparttar 107980 'noise' of your competitors. They will need to understand what specific qualities YOU bring torepparttar 107981 marketplace.

This level is vital to internal communication:repparttar 107982 biggest block I come across in assessing why an internal communication has failed is not thatrepparttar 107983 staff don't know 'what' is going on, but that they don't understand 'why' it is going on.

4.3: Conviction Customers now have awareness and understanding; they now need convincing that your service is right for them.

Even more importantly, they must be convinced that YOU must be their supplier, because YOU have a distinctive competence that meets THEIR specific needs.

4.4: Action Finally, this conviction in you must be turned into action. It is up to you to decide what action they should ideally take -— a phone call into a sales office, perhaps, or a request for a consultant to visit; even a request for further supporting literature.

In internal communicationrepparttar 107984 primary level is all to obvious —- action. Yet unless those who are to deliverrepparttar 107985 service are made aware, helped to understand and are convinced they will not deliver effectively or efficiently.

Conclusion ========== Atrepparttar 107986 heart of all management lies communication, and successful communication is not a one-to-many transaction, but a dialogue between interested parties. Successful dialogues rely on four principles: Reality, Reaction, Co-ordination and Purposefulness.

Understanding whatrepparttar 107987 other's 'reality' is, giving and receiving appropriate reactions to feedback, co-ordinating coherent messages and understandrepparttar 107988 purpose of each message are repparttar 107989 four key principles for successful communication.

When you match consumer psychology with effective communication styles you get a powerful combination. At Hopkins-Business- Communication-Training.com you can find the secrets to communication success. At Hopkins we show you how to communicate better for better business results. www.hopkins-business-communication-training.com


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