Global perspectives: tell us about a recent best practice that got results for your organization.

CANADA

Having completed two mergers in two years, we determined that our best practice is researching primary messages prior to communicating them, rather than coming up with messages and testing them later. In both mergers, we anticipated significant stakeholder push back and were able to avoid and minimize it by crafting reassuring messages that matched top concerns. In particular, messages that reassured credit union members that there would be no major changes to staff and no closure of the retail branches. Cur customers were concerned about our staff and how the mergers would affect their jobs. The messages appeared in all our communication vehicles, and we also tested message acceptance with polling along the way.

GAIL PICKARD, ABC 

Coast Capital Savings Credit Union

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

UNITED STATES 

When a seriously ill patient mistakenly received an incompatible heart-lung transplant, the United Network for Organ Sharing used widespread coverage of the event as an opportunity to provide information about how the nation's transplant system works and to convey the need for organ donation., Our two-person media relations team responded to each media call, numbering 50-plus daily. Most of the resulting coverage, which ranged from network TV and major national print publications to local radio call-in shows, explained the transplant system, and many stories highlighted the importance of organ donation. Although a negative situation generated a media frenzy, it resulted in increased public awareness of the nation's organ shortage--something we would not have been able to achieve normally.

ANNE PASCHKE

United Network for Organ Sharing, Richmond, Va., USA

LATIN AMERICA

Measuring results and monitoring progress is the only way you can really know what your audience needs. Otherwise, you are just guessing.

Measuring results is a great tool to show that what you have done adds value to your company, while monitoring progress can help you correct deviations and identify new trends.

We use qualitative analysis among various audiences--media, customers, employees and other decision makers. When we identify areas for improvement, we use the results gathered as a primary data point for planning follow-up action. Our efforts are acknowledged by our audiences and generally, reflected in later surveys. They see that we value their opinions and that we make every effort to please them.

MARIA SOLEDAD ECHAGUE

Dow Latin America

Buenos Aires, Argentina

EUROPE

When Danish software company Navision was acquired in July 2002 by Microsoft, PR was handled by 23 highly autonomous subsidiaries throughout Europe. It was our goal for each subsidiary to retain as much autonomy as possible while ensuring that messaging was consistent. We surveyed how each subsidiary approached PR and then hosted a summit where the subsidiaries could learn from each other, Microsoft leaders and seasoned PR executives. The event included motivational speeches as well as hands-on breakout sessions that covered topics such as reactive versus proactive PR and how to handle leaks.

We're off to a good start. Important messages are present in more and more materials. The subsidiaries are asking more demanding questions than before. And they're sharing information among themselves.

ANNE BOVE-NIELSEN

Navision, Vedbaek, Denmark

AFRICA 

The feedback loops in our Group CEOs' quarterly video and written communication with the global employee base were not working. Although we shared the data from employee feedback forms with communication leaders in each business unit and relied on them to work with their CEO to fix the problems, each round of feedback was generating the same issues in many units. All efforts to unlock the blockage by phone, e-mail and video conference failed. Our global internal communication leader then embarked on a programme to visit each business unit CEO. By simply showing up in their backyards, we broke through the clutter of competing issues. Through personal physical interaction that is possible only in face-to-face meetings, we resolved most of the blockages and dramatically improved the programme.

P. MARK DREWELL

Barloworld Ltd.

Johannesburg, South Africa

ASIA 

Every year, i-flex solutions holds an open house where employees get a chance to engage in dialogue with senior management through a question-and-answer session. We also use this occasion to reward and recognize star employees and have a bit of fun. For the past couple of years, as an icebreaker, we have produced a song video that captures the youthful culture of the company and gets employees to tap their feet. At last year's open house, more than 300 employees were featured in the video, shot across three days in our offices in Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai. After the event, employees were charged up and felt good both about what they were doing and about the company they work for.

PETER YORKE

i-flex solutions

Bangalore, India

AUSTRALIA\NEW ZEALAND 

In October 2002, I introduced "Conversation Cafes" as a way of replicating what comes naturally when people interact in the social networks that underpin formal work structures. The cafes are conducted in a public space with no more than four participants, and conversation themes and threads are recorded for later publication on the company's intranet.

The cafe idea has spread rapidly as a bottom-up movement. To protect the integrity of the process and ensure successful application of the primary success factors, we coached 60 cafe "hosts" from all levels of the company. To date, 1,200 employees from every business division have participated in a cafe, and we have seen the results in increased employee engagement measures in our division.

ANNALIE KILLIAN

AMP Services, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia