by Marc Wright

fig. The Concern Scale

 

The Concern Scale – sometimes called the Significance Scale - is a really useful tool to employ in developing your communication channels. The basic idea is that the more your messages concern your audience, the more effective you will be by using face-to-face media, rather than any other channel.

This has led to the creation of a scale, which you can use with your managers to agree how certain messages are communicated to colleagues.

The Post-it Note

Consider this scenario: You get up early one morning and make yourself a cup of coffee. Flicking through your emails, you come across some astounding news; you have been accepted for a great job – a job you have long been chasing. But it means relocating to another country.

Your young family is fast asleep and you don’t want to wake them this early, yet you have to go into the office immediately for a meeting with HR. You stick a post-it note on the fridge announcing that you are all moving to another country and sneak out the door.

Sacked by email

Implausible? Impossible? Yet this kind of inappropriate communication goes on far too often in the workplace. UK insurance company, The Accident Group, famously laid off its workers by sending them all a text message, and Liverpool City Council once fired staff by sending written letters to their homes by taxi.

The problem is that we sometimes allow the speed of communicating to override the significance of the message. The result is that your audience may get the message quickly - but they will be far more hostile to the news you are conveying because of the insensitive way in which it was delivered. And if that news requires their goodwill to turn it into action, then you have truly shot yourself in the foot.

So what are the rules of the Concern Scale?

"High concern" messages

For "high concern" messages, use face-to-face communication. What is a high concern message? If the issue involves someone’s job, livelihood, self-esteem or material circumstances, then you really want to communicate on a one-to-one level; and that job is best done by an HR professional or a line manager who has been briefed and trained in communicating the changes.

They must be able to tailor the message to the particular needs of that audience of one; they need to be sympathetic, knowledgeable and capable of giving appropriate news, advice and counsel. They also need time as they will have to coach their colleague through the Change Curve over a number of meetings.

If the changes affect everyone in a team equally, then you can brief them together in a small group (which means no more than the number you can fit around one table). It’s critical to allow them the chance to ask questions and internalise the message. Facilitation of these meetings requires training and skill; people are most likely to change when they see someone they respect within their own work team start to adopt new language and behaviour that implies acceptance of the change. If I see someone who does the same job as me and works in similar circumstances, and they are further through the Change Curve than I am, then I will be more disposed to follow the same journey.

CEO versus Line Manager

Does this mean that you should not use CEOs and senior executives to deliver high concern messages? This is one of the hottest issues in the world of internal communications and you can divide practitioners on this one subject alone.

On the one hand, consultants such as TJ Larkin are adamant that the only effective communication channel in these circumstances is through the line manager. Others, such as the measurement expert, Angela Sinickas, and the social media guru, Shel Holtz, argue strongly for a combination of line manager and senior executive communication. Larkin points to research by the Hay Group, which found that communication from one’s own manager creates four times more employee support than from a senior manager / town hall type meeting, and nine times more employee support than an article in the company newsletter.

Larkin argues that, if time and resources are limited and you can only do one thing, then communicate through line managers. Sinickas and Holtz, on the other hand, believe that it is equally important for the CEO to provide the context of the change; to give the Big Picture.

The best advice we can give you on the current evidence is that if you can do both, then do both. Get out the communication to staff from the top and then immediately go into smaller group meetings with line managers, who have been fully briefed and trained up for delivering high concern messages.

Large scale face-to-face communication

Contrary to popular belief, not all messages in corporate life are negative. A new product launch, the move to bigger and better offices, an improved IT system, the friendly acquisition of another company; all of these significant events need to be communicated internally. The conference or meeting is the place to announce good news so that staff can understand and celebrate together.

If you want your new product to thrive out there in the competitive world, then it’s a good idea to get all staff behind it from the start. Reading about it in the industry press is not going to give that product the same boost as a well co-ordinated and properly communicated internal launch.

Also, do not make the mistake of thinking that what you and the executive suite think is good news will necessarily be seen that way by the rest of the company.

Say what you can’t show; show what you can’t say

Corporate videos, business TV, video-streaming over the intranet – whatever the technical delivery, the power of moving images should not be underestimated. A video has the advantage of being consistent: everyone sees the same programme although, as with all communication, they will take away different messages.

It can describe a new marketplace by showing people using a product; it can demonstrate a new process by people using and endorsing the system. But most of all, video is good at conveying emotion and, in a relatively short period of time, making people feel positive about themselves, their company, or an innovation.

The CEO, if they are honest and sincere, will come across with much more impact in a video than in the written word. However, it’s a big 'if' – few CEOs are natural communicators although they can all improve with training.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words - and moving pictures, with the right creative touch, can be worth a million. But remember: although video is a medium that communicates emotion brilliantly, it is less suited to convey complex information so you may need to back up your video messages with online or printed materials.

Phone

One of the most surprising developments in corporate communications is the decline in use of the telephone. People now use the phone as their forefathers used the letter; for communicating important personal information. The emotional effort required to talk to people on the phone has driven onto email many of the messages we used to give verbally. The reason for this is that we feel more in control with email. We can get our argument out, give orders, ask for a favour... all without the danger of being interrupted or having to think on our feet.

Phone calls, on the other hand, could lead you into the danger of being declined or rejected on the spot. Or worse, you might be talked into something that you don’t want to do. It’s the worry of the unexpected.

And yet the phone is an extraordinarily effective communication channel. It’s what Presidents and Prime Ministers use when they want to get things done. We have therefore put the phone up the Concern Scale, above one-way communication channels such as email, web and print.

Email

Email has become the default means of communication because it is cheap, fast, simultaneous and it requires the minimum effort on the part of the sender. Email has taken over from the fax machine as the medium for pushing out messages. However, it can be resented if you use blanket emails to push out high concern messages. It is better suited to small scale, day-to-day messages, information, requests and for when you want to send back up materials, such as word documents, PowerPoint files and spreadsheets. What’s interesting is that email’s dominance is now being challenged by instant messaging, which has the advantage of happening in real time and is usually unrecorded. 

i-messaging

Instant messaging is the new grapevine – the gossip channel that can go on silently and often undetected in an organisation. Texting provides a rapid communication system when your audience is on the move and it is particularly well suited for giving instructions that everyone needs to know. Like 'the office is on fire'. Otherwise, leave it well alone for high concern messages.

Intranet

The intranet, like the web, is merely a platform for information. It’s where the online elements of your organisation live and 90% of the content is more to do with processes (like phone directories and HR functions) than communication.

However, it can become a very useful channel during change. Because it is instantly updated, you can use your intranet as the repository of information around a major programme, be it a product launch or a hostile merger. As long as your site has credibility, staff will swim through rivers and climb mountains to log on and find out what is actually happening.

Newsletters, Brochures & Magazines

The death of the company magazine or newsletter has been much exaggerated. People prefer to read detailed and background information from printed paper. The reason is partly physiological (the printed word is easier on the eyes), partly behavioural (we were taught to read from books), and partly psychological (the brain absorbs more information when you are reading in a linear fashion). Hyperlinks diminish concentration as they encourage you to think about navigating the subject rather than learning it.

Thus, a well written and designed piece of print can be invaluable in terms of informing staff of the background and deep reasons behind a decision. They also have the advantage of being easy to carry and can be read anywhere there is light. However, they do go out of date the moment they are printed, and they take time to be distributed over any distance so the printed word is used less and less to communicate change.

Web

What is particularly exciting about working in communications in the 21st century is the development of the so-called ‘social media’. These are channels that use the web as a platform for social interaction. The names and vehicles are changing all the time but among those that have found some currency and are useful to the professional communicator are blogs, wikis, webinars and podcasts. They can live on your intranet or just on the net and their peculiar quality is that they allow everyone to be a publisher.

The strength of a blog is that it is the definite personal voice of an individual and it therefore carries the weight and credibility of the author.

Podcasting is effectively a very narrowcast radio programme. It allows people to connect with a community of interest in a programme that can be directed straight to their needs. And, of course, it can be listened to at the audience’s convenience.

Wikis allow knowledge to be available, updated and reactive in the workplace.

Webinars bring training to the desktop, with the added value of a human voice that you can talk to and question. The downside, of course, is that they are 'pull' media – people will only tune into them if they want to. Nevertheless, they are useful as influencers in helping to get your message out.

Conclusion

So how do you use the Concern Scale?

First, establish your own personal concern scale in your working and private life. Think about the significance of what you say to your audience and then use the scale to decide what is the best medium or channel. Clearly, if you are announcing to your loved ones that they are all going to move to another country, you probably want to have a round table discussion about it rather than the post-it note on the fridge.

Then look at using the scale at work. Introduce it into your training with managers and start to encourage a consistency about which channels are used for which subjects. Reach agreement around which programmes need face-to-face communication and which can be handled by print, email or the intranet.

Remember that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus and that the former will always prefer the post-it note while the latter are more inclined to pick up the phone.

So use the Concern Scale to get some kind of consistency based on audience needs, rather than the preferences of the message-giver.

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