How can your internal communications (IC) make a positive and lasting difference to your organisation? In the last of our series on the Five Step Value Framework we explore how its fifth and final step, Create the circle, can help you when proving the value of internal communications.
Adapting to and capitalising on change is the hallmark of any successful business. For every ingenious disruptor like Uber and Amazon, there are laggards like Kodak or Blockbuster. Want to rent a VHS?
It’s a sobering lesson for anyone delivering a service or making a product that what’s popular today may be obsolete tomorrow. The same arguably applies not just to a business’s offering in the market, but to the focus given to its support functions as well, IC included.
Future-proofing IC
So far in the Five Step Value Framework (FSVF), we’ve looked at how you can demonstrate the value of IC in the here and now by adopting the right mindset, strategy, tactics, and presentation skills.
But how can IC practitioners prepare for the unpredictable and volatile pace symptomatic of so many industries these days? And how can they future-proof the IC function and maintain its influence within leadership in such an uncertain, fast-moving landscape?
Anticipating these challenges, and central to the final phase of the FSVF, is to Create the circle (see below). Bringing together all the benefits of the earlier phases, the fifth step shows how IC professionals can embed clarity of purpose at every level for the long term.
Should a company’s vision change, IC can still demonstrate its value through a logical framework of strategy, execution, balanced measurement and value indicators, which in turn generates further insights that have the potential to inform and influence the original vision.
Proving the value of internal communications
If a company wishes to diversify its offering, tap into a new growing market, launch an innovative new strategy or respond to unexpected competition or threats, the FSVF is the map for guiding employees into this new direction. Both sustainable and measurable, it provides a clear structure that avoids any potential disconnect among the workforce and helps turns them into positive agents of change.
In other words, creating the circle helps an organisation take its people with them, fosters resilience and a readiness to adapt, yet still maintains accountability and efficiency by focusing on (and measuring) what’s most important.
At 44 Communications, our mission is to create worthwhile communication that makes a lasting and positive difference. And as with all positive change, the intended vision and desired outcome needs to be centred in the day-to-day reality of the organisation.
Through all its five steps, the FSVF is the tool you need to deliver this, giving IC professionals the best of both worlds: the freedom to use their talents and ideas in any given situation, but the methodology and rigour to make sure those ideas stick, whatever the situation.
Read the Five Step Value Framework here for more about communicating the value of the IC work you do.
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