It is not enough to develop a communication strategy, but it is necessary to conceive communication as a component of the company's strategy.
The topic of organizational communication is widely spread today. Doing an Internet search for articles, documents, materials that cover, from the theoretical elements to the most recent practical experiences, the communication process that takes place in business organizations, is not difficult.
An analysis of this extensive information tells us that, even when the opposite is attempted, organizational communication is presented as a phenomenon that is studied to know it and / or to improve aspects of the process that are negative for the interests of the company, it is that is, that in some way limit or do not favor the achievement of strategic objectives.
Thus, in practice, the communication specialist of business organizations spends much of his time researching and trying to "improve" the communication of the company with its audiences. To do this, it segments and characterizes the audiences / target, performs image studies, internal communication audits, and then proposes to senior management a communication strategy in which the communication objectives, the recipients of the messages, the messages have been defined., the means, the feedback mechanisms and the budget.
From this practice it is as if the logic that worked was that the top management says to these specialists: «Here is the company, this is its business strategy, its structure, but we did not achieve the results we want, now it is your turn to you, through a communication strategy try to fix things ».
What we intend to demonstrate with this work is that communication must be treated as part of the company's strategy, be part of the analyzes from the beginning and must be conceived as a component of the system. If since the first steps of the company's strategic process are being carried out, communication, both internal and external, is not taken into account, very little can be achieved when the specialist later tries to "fix things".
The strategic process
Many authors agree that the first step in this process is the definition or updating of the MISSION and VISION.
MISSION can be defined as: «the fundamental purpose for which the Organization was established, a set of commitments that the company adopts in relation to the different groups of people that come together in it, benefits that the company will offer to society in general; Your clients; the shareholders or owner (s); Company staff".
The VISION consists of "projecting, based on the current situation of the company, the place in the market (positioning) that it aspires to occupy in a time horizon of 1 to 3 or more years".
The MISSION and VISION must therefore effectively communicate that purpose and that desired future.
Based on the "7 Cs of efficient communication" model, these seven aspects should be considered in its development:
1. Credibility
2. Context
3. Content
4. Clarity
5. Continuity and consistency
6. Communication channels.
7. Auditorium capacity.
It would seem that taking into account these «7 Cs» is sufficient for the Mission and Vision to act as a guide, as guiding elements of the strategy and that in this way they will be understood, accepted and, therefore, modify attitudes of both the internal public and the public. external public of the company.
But the matter is much more complex. Let's go back to the origin of the most widespread communication model: the Shannon model. In the 1940s, a theoretical model was developed and released in various fields, which was initially called Information Theory. This model arises as a by-product of the war effort made by the allies to defeat the Nazi-fascist axis. Its main purpose was to maintain a constant issuance of instructions to the war pilots and to know if they had been captured. Of course, looking for a way to encode these messages so that even when the enemy intercepted them, they could not understand them. The basic model was the Emitter - Medium - Receiver, with the addition of feedback. The most detailed model included the encoder (s), channel, message, and decoders.This model, known as the Information model, from Shannon and Weaver, was applied to many other fields, in particular to the nascent cybernetics, or machine management system, where Wiener put it to efficient use.
This model is taken, in the 1950s, by social scientists and transformed into a theoretical communication model.
Regarding this model, J. Manuel Calvelo Ríos, Director of the Specialization in Communication for Development, of the National University of Tucumán, Argentina, points out: «It must be borne in mind that the model was born in a military structure, which is one of the most vertical structures that society has produced; it originates from the need to give orders, which of course will be followed without question; It sends messages from the one who has power to the one who obeys, from the one who commands the one who obeys, from the superior to the inferior, from the dominant to the dominated, from the one who knows to the ignorant, from the top to the base of the pyramid. They are messages for a "black box": if the answer is positive, you will receive some kind of gratification; if it is negative, a sanction. Thus we have a military nomenclature. The recipient is called a "target audience" or "target" and,Of course, when you have a target or a target, the most powerful communication guns available are fired at you. It is shot to kill. It is part of the ideological foundation of the model ».
This analysis of Calvelos Ríos makes us reflect on a new communication paradigm and a different way of applying the "7 C" model in the process of developing the Mission and Vision.
1. Credibility
To achieve credibility it is essential to involve people in the process. Hence it is necessary:
- Achieve the wide participation of company personnel in the elaboration of the Mission and Vision. Have information about the benefits that society, customers and workers expect to obtain from the company and incorporate them as essential elements of the Mission and the View.
2. Context
For the message to adapt to the realities of the environment, there must be an open dialogue. It is not a matter of persuading the public, but of assuming as a mission and vision what those publics expect from the company.
3. Content
In order for it to have a meaning for the public of the company, in addition to the benefits, the Mission and Vision must express the essential values of the company, those that represent the way of thinking and feeling of the workers and society. Values such as willingness to learn, to share knowledge, to use creative and innovative capacity at work, respect for the client, the environment.
4. Clarity
Of course, the most important thing is that both the mission and the vision are written in simple, clear and precise language. With the same codes of the interlocutors (internal and external public).
5. Continuity and consistency
It is not enough to study the frequency of repetition of the message, but it is necessary to have full coherence between what is said and what is done.
6. Channels
With the internal public, the most important thing is to keep the channels "unlocked". A permanent dialogue with all the company personnel that is evident in the way of conducting the meetings, conducting the assemblies, listening to the criteria, circulating information, accepting initiatives. With the external public, through giving timely responses to their needs, attending to complaints, claims.
7. Auditorium capacity
This aspect is taken into account from the very conception of the elaboration, because more than a patient audience that is presented with a Mission and a Vision elaborated by others, they have been participants in its formulation.
In this way, the Mission and Vision cease to be messages that the company must communicate efficiently to its publics, to be products produced through an efficient communication process.
A second step in the strategic process is the preparation of the Strategic Diagnosis. At this stage open communication with the public remains essential. Can anyone doubt that those who best and most clearly know how to describe the essence of the company's problems and achievements are the workers, the customers? Making a diagnosis without taking these criteria into account would not make sense.
The own elaboration of the Diagnosis, when it is through participative methods, is creating the bases to improve the communication problems of the company. On many occasions, highly specialized functional structures; the management style of the managers, have encouraged that each area and sometimes, each worker, only knows what it is up to him to do. So it is not strange that in the participatory process of preparing the diagnosis, when specialists from different areas meet, they realize that for the first time they are listening to what is happening in another department, what others think. That is why it is important to take advantage of these discussion spaces in addition to identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats and Opportunities, to minimize semantic, cognitive, psychological barriers,administrative until that moment have been present in the communication process.
The Strategic Objectives and the Strategic Plan should be developed after the Key Results Areas have been identified. These should not be associated with areas of the structural organization of the company, but are scopes, central axes of the strategy in which all the efforts and resources of the company must be concentrated.
In this way, the Strategic Objectives of the company are not the sum of the objectives of each Department, but are the objectives that allow achieving the Vision of the company and for which everyone should strive. When not proceeding in this way, it may be the case that the members of the Economic Department feel identified, or see their goals reflected only in those strategic objectives that refer to economic indicators; those of the commercial department, only in those that indicate sales figures, etc. And when this happens there is no more efficient communication between the Departments, since each one is concerned with "their objectives".
The process of identifying the Key Results Areas and the Strategic Objectives must be the result of multiple group discussions between members of all areas and levels of the company. This also creates a commitment: the objectives cease to be "those of the company" to be "those that we have proposed."
A last element and not for that reason the least important, is the Design of the Organizational, its structure. The organization must respond to the adopted strategy, that is why it is important to start from 0, break paradigms of specialization, centralization and departmentalization that at that moment become an obstacle to achieving the designed strategy.
What is required is to design an organization that:
- Allow the company to constantly 'monitor' the environment in order to anticipate change. Be flexible and timely in decision-making. Communication flows quickly through both formal and informal channels. Provide work-related information and performance analysis of it to all members of the organization. Teach members of the organization to recognize and internalize the goals of the organization. Provide feedback to managers about the current problems of the organization. Have group meetings between the members of the sub-units, work coordination meetings between those responsible for the sub-units, regular analysis of the performance of the activities of each program or sub-unit,as well as the common objectives that a set of sub-units have within the same scope of action.
In short, an organizational design based on Efficient Communication.
