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Getting the Most out of Internal Communication
Maintaining the flow of ideas and information between team members is as necessary to a business as the nervous system is to the human body. Internal communication (IC) is what determines how flexible and responsive your company is to day-to-day challenges. In today’s fast-paced, decentralized marketplace, leveraging the right tools and strategies to make IC engaging, effective, and fun has never been more important. Here are a few tips to help you get there.
The most successful people know how to sell. Sometimes they need to sell their business to prospective clients; other times they need to sell themselves or their ideals. Being able to sell yourself or pitch ideas is about more than being confident.When it comes to pitching something, the key is to speak the same language as your audience. The human brain has evolved drastically over the millennia. It evolved from the old brain, or “crocodile brain,” which developed to process fight or flight responses, to the neocortex, our higher brain that allows us to process complex thoughts and conquer the world.As Oren Klaff, author of the celebrated sales book “Pitch Anything,” points out, when we present our ideas and try to sell something, we use our neocortex. Unfortunately, when someone attends a presentation, they listen with their “croc” brain. It’s the croc brain that decides whether your audience cares about what you’re selling or whether they’ve forgotten what you’ve said two seconds later.According to Klaff, no matter how intelligent your audience is, if you want to get them on your side, you need to act like you are pitching to a crowd of cavemen. No, Klaff isn’t suggesting you talk down to your audience. Instead, you need to learn how to frame your pitch in such a way that your message fulfills these three requirements. Simple —The croc brain isn’t designed to follow complex information. It’s meant to make quick, snap decisions. Run or fight? Good or bad? Yes or no? Your message needs to be simple so it can be processed quickly. Emotional —When appealing to the croc brain, Klaff suggests you “drive emotions with intrigue pings,” which are short pieces of information that spark your audience’s curiosity so they don’t forget about it. Use interest, excitement, or fear to make your pitch memorable. Elevated —We naturally listen to people we respect.The croc brain will follow the person on top because that person offers the best chance for survival. If you want your audience to pay attention the moment you walk into a room, you need to elevate your social standing. Become an expert. This is just the first step in an innovative sales strategy that Klaff has used to earn over $400 million for his clients. It doesn’t matter how good you are at selling yourself or your company, everyone can be better. “Pitch Anything” offers a new strategy that can help you improve your skills, present more memorable information, and close the deal almost every time.
More Chats, Fewer Meetings
Making IC engaging from a leadership standpoint means taking the time to use the right medium for your message. The last thing you want is to have team members sitting through a meeting thinking, “Couldn’t this have just been an email?” Recognizing what you want to communicate and why are important steps in deciding the best way to deliver information. Saving in-person meetings for big collaborative projects and important announcements will add more weight to those moments while allowing communications of lesser magnitude to be handled quickly and efficiently over email and instant messaging. Remote work is becoming more and more common — and it’s a good thing. Research conducted by IBM suggests that remote workers are, on average, more engaged and effective than those who come to the office from 9 to 5. With group messaging apps and cloud-based software, you can keep your team on the same page no matter where they are in the world. The best tools to make this possible will depend on your business, but keeping everyone under the same umbrella of programs, such as Google’s G Suite, is a great strategy to start with. Internal, Yet Global A company’s culture exists within the ways its team communicates. Having avenues available for employees to blow off steam, share funny stories, and stay abreast of each other’s lives are important parts of improving retention and company morale. Even spicing up a companywide email with a well-placed GIF or pop culture reference can do wonders to give your IC a voice unique to the culture and values of your company. Finding the styles and methods of communication that best fit your company takes time, but it’s worth it. Not only will creating your own communication style ensure that time and resources are used effectively, but it will also ensure that your team has a voice. Nailing this key aspect of your business will allow everything else to run far more smoothly. Memes and GIFs Galore
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