Communicating Purpose
When launching a new company purpose, of course you will go broad and wide with communications; paste it all over the web, the offices and keep weaving it into every communication you do. That should do the trick right? But please, communication professional, don’t forget one important thing:
“The success of your communication is not what you did, but whether it made any difference.”
Humans are hardwired to seek out purpose, it is the frame of reference for many decisions we make, consciously or not. The last decade has been full of research and debate in the area of business purpose. If your company doesn’t have a purpose yet, I am sure it won’t be long. A big lesson from that last decade is that it is essential to communicate that purpose well.
For internal communications professional this is not just about the promotion campaign or getting the C-suite leaders to talk about purpose, but rather that you make a meaningful connection to employees in every corner of your organisation.
Purpose gets attention, not just because it came from the powers above – headquarters- but because the right purpose reminds me as an employee of the reason I started to work for the company and why I come back every day. Purpose has the potential to unlock why I put in that extra effort to do work that I am proud of today, tomorrow and the next day. I am then more likely to act as a company ambassador. Sounds great, but how do you get there?
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Here are the five things I would advise anyone planning their purpose communications:
Give me the why- Integrate it into your business strategy and performance communications
Make it relevant - The purpose should be high level but designed to be translated
Make it about us - Get social so that purpose gets into the social fabric; conversations.
Make it about me - Get personal and get employees to talk about their own purpose.
Keep it alive- When you are done talking about it, they are ready to listen.
I hope these resonate but I could have written a post about everyone of these … so I will.
Click on the tips above to read my next few posts to give you more thoughts about what each of these mean to me and explain why I think that these are the five things that can make your purpose either your golden goose or the most expensive wallpaper you can buy!
Chaya, Founder of Humanly
chaya@humanlyconsulting.com
DO YOU NEED HELP TO COMMUNICATE YOUR PURPOSE?
At Humanly we have experience of small and large projects that take you from ‘Forming your Narrative’ to ‘Aligning Performance’
We have Proven methodologies and approaches for human centred change and communication. Ready to go packages such as communication skills development courses. We design a solution bespoke fit for purpose each clients industy, challenges, scope and dimensions. And everything in between.
Talk to us about your challenge and feel free to pick our brains to see if we can find a way through it.
