Is Corp-Speak Smothering Communication?

I'm considering sending this memo template to every corporate communication department leader listed in the worldwide corporate communication department leader directory. I'm going to encourage every professional communicator to send this missive to his or her CEO. As a courtesy, I wanted you CEOs to have an advance copy.

Here's the bottom line: If you don't have a corporate communication department, get one. Attach it to your office. If you have one, use it. Professional communicators can help you manage your internal, external, domestic and non-U.S.-based audiences. You need the service.

Memorandum

TO: CEOs

FROM: The Corporate Communication Department

RE: Your responsibilities for the new employee contract

You may have the problem. Information asphyxiation could paralyze our organization.

Whether you realize it formally or not, you and this company's work force have moved to a new work-place protocol. Almost everyone on your payroll is aware of working harder and longer with fewer resources and even fewer assurances. You're the one employees blame for the "new employee contract," as some of your lieutenants have euphemistically labeled it. (you know. The ideological contract containing the harsh rhetoric of downsizing, restructuring, asset redeployment, core business concentration and a host of other '90s-born business tenets: "You have a job, but the work environment is dynamic and fluid. It will change, especially if we are to remain competitive in a global market. Don't expect lifetime employment.") But, most of your employees don't know why they're working more, because many organizations (not just this one) practice--or tacitly endorse--an information vacuum. Information asphyxiation develops easily in that empty environment. You know that working without business information will event ually cause productivity, morale and job satisfaction to wither.

The vacuum resulting from information asphyxiation causes employees to create their own -- usually incorrect and often ridiculous -- reality. Any number of recent historical media events show you the consequence of withholding, covering up, lying or selectively revealing information. No, this does not mean you have to reveal proprietary information or trade secrets. It only means that you can and should trust your employees to work with you when they know and understand the company's proverbial big picture.

Professional corporate communicators know that the balance between information asphyxiation and patronizing Corp-Speak tips delicately with each new message. Consider your internal, external, domestic and international audiences. Do you know what makes them unique? Your corporate communication professionals do. Are you prone to delivering messages that have worked in the past? Your corporate communication staff can help you avoid condescending and hollow platitudes such as "People are our most important asset." You and workers at every level within this organization know the part of the new employee contract that says everyone is expendable. This company's most important assets are what our people know and how they apply that knowledge.

Independent Confirmation

Don't accept any of this without corroboration. Call your peers, discover the extent to which information asphyxiation has hindered major initiatives and ask them about pitfalls. CEOs who managed major cultural and business shifts all have stories. Many of them will have wisdom only hindsight brings. Some recent examples: the role that Boeing's CEO said communication should have played in that company's merger with McDonnell-Douglas. What lessons is Mr. Bronfman learning as he amalgamates Seagram and Universal? Pick Mr. Shapiro's brain about culture clash issues he foresees with Monsanto and DuPont. A phone call will reap you an earful of shoulda-done suggestions, including elevating the information flow process to fundamental status.

Everybody Wins

Who wins when you beef up this company's information flow program? Everyone. You win because combining a formal and informal information flow program (walk-arounds, small luncheons or kaffee klatsches, in-house focus groups or polling) can bring you several results: visibility, credibility, often buy-in and, most important for you, immediate, unfiltered feedback. Employees win because they understand your position, the company's status and their ability to influence the company's outcome. The kind of employees you want in this organization should be motivated to help, especially if they are shareholders or share profits. Fast, frequent and factual business information is value you can add to help ensure this company's success. The company wins because its business image will be burnished into that of a cohesive, dynamic, secure organization that treats all its audiences like partners.

There's an extra benefit in all this for you. Think of a robust business information flow program as a test or a winnowing tool. If, after hearing from you and your direct-reports regularly, employees whine and complain and moan, they may not be the people you want representing the company to customers or clients. Employees who fail to grasp the value of the information you deliver may not be the caliber you want making decisions that affect the company's future and the morale of people further down the reporting chain.

Your Responsibilities and Rewards

You have responsibilities in the new employee contract. Think of business information flow as your "deliverable" in this company's work arrangement with employees -your part of the new employee contract. As in formal contracts, there's an exchange required. You have to give something in return for employees' compliance with a new work pace and environment. You give information, which provides facts, context, explanations and next-move directions. In exchange, expect cohesiveness to germinate, a degree of understanding about tasks and goals to develop, a possible rededication to productivity and, if you're lucky, a few ideas you can use.

A potent information-flow program is not for every CEO. It will work only for those who want to grow.

Peter Lichtgarn, author of The Corporate Communicator's Quick Reference, has managed domestic and international corporate communication programs for the past 18 years, New York City.