Friday September 28, 2007 
Friday September 28, 2007 My sister, who is older and wiser than me (Sorry, sis! I know, I know, you're not that much older than me!), once commented that it seems people come to their careers in one of two ways. Some people just grow up knowing what they want to do. My sister wanted to be an attorney, my husband a physician, my cousin both a musician and a lawyer (she recently retired from labor law, working with musicians, and now teaches the viola - talk about having your cake and eating it, too!). Others, like yours truly, set out without a definite path. We take various jobs along the way for various reasons, and if we're lucky, end up in an interesting place well suited to our skills.
I don't know anyone who said, "When I grow up, I want to do employee communications!" Yet there's a bunch of us out there who have fallen into this odd way to make a living. Over the past two weeks, I've met communicators from 20 different states here in the U.S. plus South Africa, Canada, Chile, the U.K., Slovakia, Singapore, to name a few.
We have a lot in common - for example, we pretty much agreed that our profession has undergone huge changes in the past 10 years, and is now set to undergo another major shift. But it's our differences that make for an interesting story.
Here at Sun, we pride ourselves on our global workforce, but we struggle on how to communicate and behave in a global manner. Well, imagine you're a telecom company - such as T-Mobile, MTN Group or Zain, and you decide to grow through acquisition. When these guys acquire a company, they often acquire a portion of the globe that they weren't in before. Based in South Africa, like MTN? To grow, you're now dealing with other parts of the African continent, with vastly different cultures than that of South Africa. And you're now in the Middle East, where once again you face huge societal differences. (BTW, their very clever way of bringing people together is to introduce a new way to greet each other and answer the phone: "Y'ello!" See, their brand color is yellow and... well, anyway. Darned clever. And effective. Wish I'd thought of it!)
Talk about change management and communication! So it was a true pleasure to rub shoulders at this Jacob Fleming conference with the resourceful, creative and smart communicators who help lead their organizations through change.
From there I moved on to Chicago where I was privileged to give the keynote address on social media at the Melcrum Conference. The crowd was enthusiastic, excited and engaged, leading to many terrific conversations about social media and other communication challenges. There were many presentations, such as Roger D'Aprix's excellent and moving address about our profession, that will stick in my mind for a long time. But for now, let me leave you with the advice given us by David Grossman, CEO of Chicago-based dg&a:
My Summary of dg&a's 7 Must Do's for Communicators:
- Daring discipline in planning - excellent execution doesn't happen without careful, thoughtful planning.
- A method to your greatness - set service level agreements, pay attention to messaging, increase your efficiency with common templates for strategy development and measurement, tie your work to performance management systems for maximum impact
- Drive the business goals
globally and locally - don't be a headquarters geek or a silo
servant. Look around and make sure you're aiming at the right
audience - and results.
- Conversations rule -Nothing has as much impact as a conversation between two people. Communicators need to be ready to ask the tough questions, change the dialogue, listen well and encourage others to listen well.
- Continually upgrade the skills in your group - don't get stuck with yesterday's standards. Push the limits; insist that everyone stay up-to-date and try new things
- Meaningful measurement - that which you measure is that which gets done. Look for ways you can impact the bottom line, increase key indices around employee engagement and productivity.
- Unparalleled strategic counsel - be a business person first, and a communicator second. You'll be amazed at the increase in your impact
Accidental communicators? Well, yes, at least for me. Accidental contributor? Not on your life - that's all planned, worked on and driven with passion.
Posted by terrymckenzie ( Sep 28 2007, 08:00:00 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]
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Loved #1. That's what workforce planning is. Having the time of my life in new job. Hope all is well with you.
PS Similar to your experience, I didn't dream of becoming a workforce planner when I grew up! But did dream about being a business woman....
Posted by sheila couch on September 29, 2007 at 07:46 AM PDT #