| It’s all about behavior, if you ask Angela Sinickas. As president of Sinickas Communications Inc. and a measurement missionary, she preaches the need to first define desired employee behavior, communicate it, and then observe whether it happens.
Business strategy defines direction, and certain behaviors get you there. “Focusing on behavior change is definitely not something most communicators have done for very long,” Sinickas said. Internal communication professionals have honed strategic messages about the company vision and progress toward company goals in formal media like magazines, videos and intranets. Yet as Sinickas points out, “face-to-face communication is critical in changing behavior.” No surprise, then, that training supervisors and providing them tools for passing along strategic messages occupy a chunk of a typical internal communication plan. However, research in workplace culture shows another face-to-face factor affecting behavior: peer-to-peer communication.
Shaping behavior starts the first day on the job, as a new employee begins adjusting to the company. Typically, the new employee gets an I.D. badge and signs benefits documents, as an unblemished picture of the company comes into focus during a formal orientation. Next, the supervisor explains job processes and expectations, with visions of this newcomer becoming a model employee who will earn a perfect performance evaluation. Ideal and real blend as co-workers explain reality. Which part of the dress code is truly enforced? What does the boss really mean when he or she asks you to work late? Why do we like working here? Culture is passed on.
The case for conversation
Company culture provides employees with a sense of identity with and commitment to the company. In conversations, employees arrive at a common meaning for what goes on at work. People learn more about true corporate culture from co-workers than official orientation, according to A.L. Wilkins’ research on cultural audits. As each new person arrives, co-workers get another chance to talk about how they think and act. Fellow employees tell stories about the boss, things that have happened to co-workers, or how the company deals with certain situations.
In a sense, all employees — not just new hires — arrive as newcomers at the same-but-changing company where they have worked for years or decades. Marketplace pressures reshape old companies into new ones through restructuring or redefined missions practically overnight. Employees find themselves labeled brand ambassadors for new products and services sold to different customers in an unfamiliar global competition. So, acculturation happens not only to new hires but also to all employees.
The challenge for internal communicators
With peer-to-peer conversations being the most significant factor in shaping culture, and therefore behavior, how can these conversations be managed so that workers help move a company forward?
“It should be done in a planned way,” said Merri Spaeth, president of Spaeth Communications. Give employees — particularly a network of explainers and motivators — grist for workplace conversations. She advises providing headlines and then proof: facts, third-party quotes, and anecdotes that make good stories to tell again and again.
Storytelling, social interaction, and gossip are “rich” channels, unlike formal corporate media such as handbooks, memos, or newsletters. Conversation helps people truly understand an issue and see its relevance, leading to behavior change. Of course, formal channels still increase awareness and provide useful information.
Peer-to-peer conversations can be classified into three general categories.
1. In personal conversations, people offer thoughts and guidance on personal issues or share personal situations. These discussions may not relate to strategic objectives, but they do build relationships among co-workers that ultimately affect culture and communication.
2. In task conversations, co-workers discuss the day’s assignment or team projects. A supervisor might join this conversation, sometimes with guidance from an internal communicator.
3. In organizational conversations, employees get the inside story on changes and company news. Organizational scuttlebutt can potentially compete with or compliment formal communication. Who shares this workplace wisdom? It’s not the supervisor; it’s a peer opinion leader.
Conversation does not have to be face to face, and increasingly it isn’t. A 2004 American Management Association study found that 31 percent of workers use instant messaging for online personal chats, ranking talk about the company as the third-most frequent topic of conversation.
Propel the message
Partnering with peer opinion leaders, resourceful internal communicators paint a picture of desired behavior and reasons for changing “the way we do things around here.” It requires rethinking the basic model of communication in which a sender transmits a message to the ultimate receiver. Communication professionals send corporate messages via an intranet, town hall meetings, bulletin boards, or any number of media. A different communication model applies when opinion leaders propel information. In this two-step flow of communication, a message moves from the sender to an opinion leader, who then takes over to push information along to other people.
However, this additional layer does not replace the need for formal media. Opinion leaders devour formal communication, making them ideal partners for transforming workplace conversations — a.k.a. the grapevine.
Any effort to give attention to the grapevine will take some corporate executives by surprise. “They have no opinion of the grapevine. They just don’t factor it in,” Spaeth said. For others, mentioning the grapevine makes them shudder. Its reputation may be undeserved. One study of the grapevine in a company with 600 employees and 67 managers revealed some surprising and some common sense truths about workplace conversations:
• The grapevine fires up in response to formal media. If not much is being communicated formally, the grapevine remains relatively quiet. This is consistent with findings that opinion leaders consume formal media then talk about it with co-workers.
• No one person leads opinion all the time. For communication professionals to influence conversation, they need to include more people as liaisons, specific to the topic.
• People prefer to talk with someone at their own level, not someone up the ladder. Managers may influence task conversation, but not organizational scuttlebutt.
• People in staff positions are more likely to talk with people in other departments. Keep this in mind when designating opinion leaders for your inner circle.
Despite being pervasive, the grapevine has escaped being directly managed in most companies. Research by Crampton, Dodge and Jitrendra found that 92 percent of companies had no policy to deal with the grapevine. In fact, most observers dissuade management from even truing to control the grapevine.
Forming an opinion leader team
To capitalize on interpersonal communication opportunities, Jack Pyle, APR, president of Face-to-Face Matters, recommends starting with respected members of the staff, elected spokespeople, or project managers. Ask them: “Besides you, who do people trust?” You’ll get a few names. Before long, you’ll find the same names repeated. These are peer opinion leaders.
Another method of identifying opinion leaders is to observe who talks to whom, gather names through questionnaires, or even plot connections with sophisticated networking software. Once this team is assembled, let opinion leaders give their opinions. “Peers must be invited to participate ‘because we value your opinion,’ not because, ‘we think you influence your co-workers.’ Being a shill for the company isn’t a popular role for most employees,” Pyle says.
Opinion leaders can be particularly effective in helping frame a message so it makes sense to workers. Shel Holtz, president of Holtz Communication + Technology, relates a case where opinion leaders were identified and brought together to help plan communication. “We incorporated almost all that input into our plan, which gave them ownership of it. When colleagues ran to them and asked what they should think, they all voiced unwavering support. It was, after all, their plan. It worked like a charm,” he said.
The goal is changed behavior, which happens best with influence from peers. Communicators who understand and harness the power of workplace conversation have one more way to affect behavior through communication.
© 2005, Sheri Rosen. This article first appeared in Communication World, March-April 2005, published by the International Association of Business Communicators.
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| Unveiling grapevine conversations:
Four facts about employee opinion leadership
1. Opinion leaders are exposed — or expose themselves — to media more than other people because they like being considered “in the know” by their peers. Employee media have less influence on workers facing information overload, but opinion leaders depend on media for timely facts for influencing others. They convey important points in conversations.
2. Opinion leaders are not supervisors with authority over a distinct organization. The communities of workers they influence are fluid and overlapping, not necessarily defined by function or location. Or so it is in Western cultures that value informal idea exchange. People in Eastern cultures may be more comfortable with clear structures and leaders who lead. In companies with a mix of employees with different cultures, it may be even more critical for people to clarify accepted practices and expected behavior.
3. Opinion leaders tailor their messages. They know co-workers well enough to share pertinent information, and through conversations, co-workers come to a shared meaning that creates behavior consistency. Skill at tailoring information gives opinion leaders influence.
4. Opinion leaders are well-connected people who span gaps between one employee community and another. This “social capital” identifies a good opinion leader more than any specific personality trait.
One company’s conversation starters
A global network of employees-turned-explainers represent a key tactic in the communication strategy at Engelhard Corp., headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey. Kevin Kelly, who leads internal communication, recruited 100 people from 50 facilities worldwide to disseminate and collect information, facilitate dialogue at their sites, and serve as brand ambassadors.
“They start conversations,” Kelly said. “They provide additional context for information from corporate communication. They provide anecdotes from their locations that back up key points.”
With help from local managers, Kelly methodically identified natural leaders and good collaborators who are networked across their businesses and are people co-workers go to for information or opinions. “We deliberately did not look for HR people or leadership team people,” he said. “The last thing we want is for the network to be perceived as a management effort to control information.”
Membership in the global communication network is not a full-time job, but Kelly promotes it as a developmental opportunity. The team shares e-mail, has an intranet site, and takes part in Web seminars and teleconferences to stay aware. Kelly also schedules face time both as a group and individually when he visits a company facility. “You can only do so much electronically. It’s about trust,” he said.
Kelly helps opinion leaders appreciate what counts in communication: “[It’s] not a new logo or tag line — it’s the actions each of us takes as employees.”
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