Communicators: Stop delivering news, start changing behavior
Tired of writing stories no one reads? Here’s a three-step process that delivers messages employees want to hear.
May I rant for a moment?
Right this minute, all over the world, communicators are knocking themselves out to deliver organizational news that nobody wants or needs.
We’re exhausting our resources—not the least of which include our own time and our audience members’ attention—making sure people know who won the corporate billiards tournament, how many tons of concrete went into the new headquarters building, and how thrilled we are to support the ballet’s spring season.
We’re doing battle with approvers over whether to use “that” or “which” in the fourth paragraph of news stories that nobody reads. We’re struggling to help content experts trim their 6,000-word essays on the award that engineering won to the 30 words it actually deserves. And we’re smothering our readers with inconsequential “blah-blah” when it doesn’t even serve the organization.
The worst of it is: This is not our job.
Start doing your real job
Our job isn’t to deliver news. Our job is to communicate information that helps our organization meet its bottom line business goals.
That means using a communication process to identify those goals, then developing communication tactics—including editorial—to help us get there.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today
Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.
