Speaking to our network of thousands of communicators you begin to hear a lot of similar themes. Some of the most common revolve around demonstrating the value of communications and moving from a service provider to consultative partner with the business.  While I am cautious to use the term “silver bullet” there is one change you can make that will make serious progress against all of these: the way you take in requests from the business.

I believe there are two different types of communicators: the order-takers and the value-creators. Let’s play out an everyday situation to see if you can identify which one you are.

Situation: A business partner comes to member of the communications team and asks for an employee video to be created around the company’s focus on safety.

• Order-taker: “Absolutely, we’d be delighted to help with this important strategic priority. Let me get an understanding of the key messages you want to send and we’ll use our expertise to create a video that is both engaging and memorable for employees.”

Doesn’t seem too bad.  They are using their expertise in communication channels to help create a much more compelling video than the business partner would do alone.  The main problem here is that the communicator is assuming that a video is the right answer, jumping straight to the solution.

• Value-creator: “Great, happy to help.  Before we start talking about the video, it would be good to get an understanding of what it is we want to achieve and see if there are alternative ways communications can help you reach your goal…”

The first path is output-focused, reinforcing the perception of Communications as a service function and setting you up for a tricky time demonstrating value.  Even if you create the best video ever and all employees see it, it will be hard to demonstrate that the video alone was responsible for any changes in overall safety targets.

The second path is outcome-focused, reinforcing the perception that Communications is a strategic business partner that can work with you to help solve business challenges.

4 Steps to Become a Value-Creator

Here is some guidance on how to take the outcome-focused approach to project intake and set metrics upfront that clearly link communications activity to business outcomes:

1. Define the business problem: The simplest way to understand the problem you are dealing with is to clarify what is the current state (e.g., 3 fatal incidents and 15  minor incidents in the past year) and the ideal state (e.g., zero incidents). The gap between the current state and the ideal state is the problem you are trying to solve.
2. Understand the root causes: This is a really important step and one most overlooked by both communications and business partners – thinking through all of the different reasons the ideal state is not currently happening. Depending on the size of the problem and its strategic importance you might choose to conduct research at this stage either through focus groups with the audience or simply going out on the floor and talking to people to understand the real issues. If you are more strapped for time, you can brainstorm with the business partner what they see as being the current stumbling blocks to success. You’ll want to push them to think from multiple angles (i.e., it might not  be just an awareness problem but that certain systems or messages from leaders force prioritization of other activities.)
3. Agree on appropriate problem for Communications to solve: based on the root causing in step 2 you now want to redefine the problem to a tangible outcome that Communications can solve e.g., managers talk about safety but the messages they send actually say productivity is all they really care about.
4. Set metrics to measure success: Now that you have identified the objective for Communications you can develop a metric that will measure the success of the initiative. In this case it may be a quick poll or question added to an existing employee survey to see whether employees feel managers are equally weighting safety and productivity.

By taking this more consultative approach to communications you are adding value throughout the interaction with the business partner (x`helping them see their problem in a new way) as well as coming to agreement around an objective that you can help solve and measure progress against.

While this approach might be the right one, I am not saying that it is either easy or natural for a solutions-oriented communicator.  The value-creator is more of a communications consultant and requires new skills. Take our communications competency diagnostic today to get a read on which skills you could be improving for the modern communications environment.

For more information on an outcome-focused approach to communications planning check out our newly released planning toolkit.

CEC Related Resources:

• Building an Outcome-Focused Communication Plan Toolkit
• Toyota Problem-Solving Process
• Communications Measurement and Reporting Overview
• Consultative Skills Workshop Materials
• Communications Planning Resource Center
• Skills Maturity Assessment

CEC Related Blog Posts:

• Rethink Your Approach to Planning
• Communication Plans that Drive Performance