Effective communication is a critical success factor in developing and deploying an organisation’s strategic initiative and change. There should be effective communication between the strategic planner and stakeholders of the organisation in the process of strategy development.
Achieving a successful and sustainable organisational change will need specific requirements to be met. One of the essential requirements is the commitment of employees in an organisation. It is worthy to note that without effective communication, there can be no successful change process.
The absence of effective communication is a major cause of misinformation, poor planning and poor employee engagement within organisations. To ensure continuous effective communication within an organisation, every employee, especially managers, must communicate effectively.
A recent study on the impacts of face-to-face meetings and audio/telephone exchanges on the performance of organisational strategies within public organisations revealed that audio/telephone exchanges and face-to-face meetings positively affect effective organisational performance in the Nigerian Communications Commission (Cross, 2020).
Similarly, in a strategy retreat session carried out by pcl., employees of a client organisation were asked to state the company’s vision and mission. After a few minutes of deliberation, it was discovered that none of them was aware of the company’s shared mission. The pcl. team also asked the managers to share their budget for the financial year, which they could also not provide.
During our engagement, it was observed that although the organisation is fully functional and income-generating, there was a steady decline in revenue. This challenge was indirectly linked to the continuous disruption in the flow of information across the organisation. This negative disruption affected the reporting structure, employee engagement, performance, and profitability of the organisation.
The development and adoption of a defined communication strategy represent a significant step for any organisation. For many organisations, adopting the strategy represents a cultural shift toward communications and a clear recognition that all the organisation’s efforts have a communications element. It is noteworthy to stress that an effective communication strategy cannot be implemented in isolation from the organisation’s key stakeholders.
In creating an organisational communication strategy, the following processes are essential:
- Identification of key participants/stakeholders of an organisation, as well as their role and commitment to the organisations’ strategy or change process
- Observation of the existing communication structure
- Adjustment of the existing communication strategy, the objective of this adjustment should include informing stakeholders of ongoing/upcoming change, building stakeholders commitment to a strategic framework or change process, stimulating stakeholders to action, and providing feedback and support to all key stakeholders.
- Development and identification of all communication channels; This process is to help identify and outline the audience, messages, senders and communication channels that will serve as the basis for executing the communications activities.
At pcl. Strategy and Operations Transformation Unit: We understand the importance of communication in strategy development and deployment. We develop and deploy robust communication strategies for organisations that seek to revamp or optimise internal and external communication structures.
Send an email to strategy@phillipsconsulting.net to start your scenario planning journey today.
Written by:
Wonu Salawu
Senior Analyst
