Change changes everything. With the continuing strained economy and all the tough news for workers of fewer jobs and less spending by industry, knowing what to say and how to say it is more important than ever.
The one thing we can count on? With all change comes some level of fear.
For those in the business of managing or communicating — and let’s face it, to some degree each of us must communicate with others — understanding this over-riding sense of fear could make all the difference when we attempt to convince our audience to take the steps we ask.
Shifting Audiences
Fear is a catalyst of change in and of itself. In better times, our primary audience is likely customers or clients. In these tight times, however, our primary audience almost certainly has expanded exponentially to include employees and co-workers (worried about their livelihood), investors (worried about the bottom line) and vendors (worried about their bottom line).
A fearful audience is on the defensive – with a real willingness, even a need, to get information from as many sources as possible, including sources they know are often less-than-credible, but easily accessible. A fearful audience also is more eager than ever to find that “silver lining,” and they look to us to help find that good news.
Keeping an Eye on Social Media – The “Truth Squad”
Ask managers what fuels the current level of fear among workers, and many will tell you it’s social media. While many embrace social media as the brave new frontier for disseminating information quickly and efficiently, it’s also an undiscovered and equal-opportunity outlet, easily accessible even to those with faulty information.
Our audience’s job, as always, is to separate the kernels of truth from the chaff of rumor. But in times of fear, the kernels become more difficult to find and the chaff becomes thicker and tougher to blow away.
To help our audience succeed, managers and communicators must embrace the need to keep a vigilant watch 24-7.
Now more than ever, monitoring the buzz — in this case the seemingly endless cyberflow of information — for messages that are either misleading or downright untrue is crucial. Our “Truth Squad” must be alert and ready to act, for responsiveness is key. Managers and communicators must identify and counter information that is misleading or downright false.
So What Now?
To maximize the effectiveness of communication in a climate of fear we recommend three direct steps:
- Be Honest. In this time of economic change and broad social media influences, the message must be more targeted than ever. The most important – and perhaps obvious – element is what our mothers always told us – be honest, tell the truth. And speaking of truth, here’s one — if we don’t deliver the whole truth, someone else will.
- Be Personal. Fear both drives the type of message required in a time of heightened fear and also impacts how that message is received. A personal delivery – we’re talking senior managers or decision makers, and particularly when we’re dealing with direct stakeholders – will go a long way in creating a more receptive audience.
- Be Responsive. Respond quickly to negative outside reports and just as quickly to both internal and external concerns. Business generally is embracing more of a “multilogue” than the monologue or dialogue of the past. People want answers, and they also want to be heard. Actively doing both will quell fears faster than any detailed “program” ever could accomplish.
In these complex and difficult economic times, managers and communicators often will achieve among their best results by following three simple steps – being honest; being personal; being responsive.
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Ron O’Connor, APR, has managed a range of business communications teams in support of a variety of goals. These teams have been rewarded with 85 international and national awards for communications excellence, awards he believes recognized programs that were focused on telling the truth, on being personal and on being responsive.
