By Mike Wellman

It’s not often that you hear the words “banjo” and “communications” in the same sentence.  I think most CEOs would be hesitant to put the boy banjo player from Deliverance up on a podium, much less put him in charge of their reputations!  As silly as the concept sounds, in many ways we have become a fish out of water in our own field, and it turns out that a banjo-player is the exemplar for learning how to adapt.

In the recent documentary, Throw Down Your Heart, a favorite musician of mine, banjo player Béla Fleck, journeys to several countries in Africa to play the banjo with local musicians—rare collaborations that produce a whole new type of music.  In taking this journey, Béla hoped to challenge his own abilities and grow as a musician as well as dissociate the banjo from stigma and reveal its ancestry as a descendant of African instruments.  His journey as a “stranger in a strange land” parallels recent sentiments I’ve heard from communicators’ less voluntary journeys, and I think we can only hope to emulate his success in adapting to a changing environment.

It’s fascinating to watch Béla listen, learn, and create beautiful music that transcends linguistic and cultural barriers.  He’s able to move people and create something that’s almost magical. That said, there are a few practical lessons from his experience that progressive communicators have also been learning (some, albeit, the hard way):

1.)    Be ready for a journey and open to the possibility that things can be done better.  If you don’t recognize that things have changed and are not willing to embrace change personally, you may find yourself feeling “out of place.”

2.)    Go back to your roots.  Think about what you’ve been trying to do with communication since the beginning (for example, get people to share information, comply with policies, or work together to achieve great outcomes), and re-examine whether what you’re doing is currently working.  If not, start over with your objective in mind.

3.)    Listen and respond to what your audience is saying and doing.  How well do you really know your audience?  Béla listened to the other musicians before joining them to become more aware of what he could add, and communicators are becoming more effective by listening more closely as well. (CEC members: Chevron reaped tremendous rewards by rethinking how it views and segments its employees’ communication preferences.)

4.)    Don’t try to take over new tools: instead work with them and blend in. The most successful communicators make their messages “flow” in ways that match how the audience currently communicates.  After all, if you use a djembe like a snare drum (akin to tweeting about your traditional press release), it’s just not going to work.

The transformation of Béla’s music and deepened ability to resonate with his audience feels like something that we in Communications would like to do, too.  While we don’t need a banjo slung over our back to do that (though if it helps and your CFO approves, go for it!), the core tenets—being open, listening, and adapting—are absolutely vital to making our efforts successful.

Are you interested in seeing how leading communicators are adapting to change? We’re posting updates on what we’ve been hearing here.  What is the biggest change you’ve had to make to adapt?