Outerstreaming: the fourth communication paradigm.

OUTERSTREAMING: the fourth communication paradigm

EMPLOYEES ARE FINDING UNOFFICIAL, INTERACTIVE CHANNELS THROUGH WHICH TO COMMUNICATE

You grab that first cup of coffee and sit down and tackle the contents of your in-box. It's barely visible beneath a stack of videocassettes, photographs, graphics, fax copy and newsletters that have come in from around the globe. You log on to your desktop computer, where you find a backlog of electronic mail. And there's the computer bulletin board to check.

Just another day for an NBC network news director? Wrong. It's just another day for the average corporate communication manager.

What's the source of all these messages? They are all unsolicited, employee-produced contributions to the flow of corporate communication. What's the year? 2020? 1995? It's starting to happen already.

When it comes to production of good, high-quality communication tools, expertise remains an important ingredient. But the tools are available to virtually everyone. Today there is more raw computing power sitting on the average employee's desk than existed in entire divisions or corporations 25 years ago. And employees are becoming increasingly more sophisticated in its use.

Inside the corporate world, this combination of widely accessible technology and individual skill and creativity is fundamentally changing the attitude about communication, as well as the course of information flow. Time was, the company grapevine or a photocopied cartoon tacked up over the water cooler were the only sources of information outside the mainstream of traditional, sanctioned corporate communication. These days, employees at every level are engaged in "outerstreaming," communicating with each other outside the mainstream of communication. They're using computer bulletin boards, electronic mail and other "unofficial" and interactive channels.

Corporations have a choice: They can tap into this energy and profit from it, or they can ignore the realities of the changing communication environment--and suffer its disruptive influence. Because outerstreaming is more than just new gadgets and boxes; it's actually a new way of thinking.

As a result, the key challenge for the corporate communication executive in the 1990s will be to figure out how to access and capitalize on the creativity of the entire organization. Rather than trying to force information through traditional channels, or even creating radical new channels, we need to shift our concept of control of communication channels. In its place, we need to create a supportive environment in which new channels can be created--and used--by anyone. Our role will be to harness the energy of these new channels to accomplish management objectives.

The Fourth Paradigm

We are experiencing a fundamental shift in the model of corporate communication. In fact, a new model is emerging. We at Praxis call it the "fourth communication paradigm."

What are the first three paradigms? The first paradigm is hierarchical and unidirectional. Communication flows from the top down only, and there are few mechanisms for feedback or information generated from other levels. Following World War II, corporations structured on the military model of top-down information flow flourished. The communication process was used as a power base and control device.

In the second paradigm, there is a bilateral information flow. A second paradigm communicator would be handing down orders and information, but also getting feedback through sanctioned corporate channels. An example of bilateral information flow might be the time-honored suggestion box.

The third paradigm, which is where most of us find ourselves today, is characterized by multi-channel, multi-directional communication. With the proliferation of technologies at our disposal, we have developed many distinct channels of communication that are functionally based. For instance, multiple newsletters targeted at different audiences within the company--the sales force, the middle manager, executives. There are often separate newsletters on quality, productivity, and products. And with the increasing availability and cost-effectiveness of desktop publishing, multi-point teleconferencing and business television networks, managers and employees can communicate across organizational and functional lines as never before.

The first, second and third paradigms all share one common characteristic: The organization creates the communication channels. We are about to enter the fourth communication paradigm, in which the members of the organization create their own communication channels. More and more, employees are becoming the hubs of their own communication networks. They are using the tools that were once available only to a select few within very large organizations to originate sophisticated communication messages. And just as the printing press affected the flow of information in society in unanticipated ways, changed political structures and, in fact, stimulated the Reformation, so the availability of analogous technologies in the hands of today's workers has basically changed the fundamental flow and characteristics of information within the corporation--in effect, stimulating the communication revolution.

Multiple Channels

Where once we had limited media, now we have multiple media. Before the printing press, communication was restricted by technology and the limited number of channels--troubadours for the masses and a few hundred scribes and letter writing for those who could read. Accessible, affordable technology has exploded the number of communication channels. What used to take dozens of people and tens of thousands of dollars to produce in video or print now takes one person with a net investment of US $10,000 to $15,000. And costs for videocameras, VCRs, computers, fax machines, and cassette duplication are rapidly dropping.

The computer bulletin board has become a corporate newspaper, as people create their own networks, their own channels. We are no longer physically, temporally or functionally constrained. From our laptop computers, not only can we trade stocks all over the globe, we can edit and publish an in-house video.

The rapid growth and widespread availability of technology has even affected the way we express ideas. Once, we had ideas that were media-specific. If we wanted to create something visual, we used photography or illustration. To create something technical, we probably stuck to words and diagrams. To create something that was motion-controlled, we had to use video and film.

Today we are entering an era of non-media-specific production, or integrated media technology (IMT), where one keyboard--and one operator--does everything once, and the output can be in the form of slide, print or even video.

In the Fourth Paradigm communication model, people who need information and people who are sending information will be actively seeking each other, with an impressive array of tools. That means that information flowing through established channels (even new ones created as fast as the need is perceived), will no longer be the primary form of corporate communication.

The New Model: Information Tide

In the first three paradigms, where mainstream communication is the norm, a message is packaged into a unit and sent through an established channel to an identified audience that is waiting for the information. It's a basic sender-receiver model, with information flowing primarily in one direction, rather than in both directions simultaneously.

The model has changed from one of sender-media-receiver, feedback monitoring to one where sender and receiver are one and the same. Information movement is more like a tide, ebbing and flowing through multiple channels of distribution, using multiple technologies and programming formats.

In the society at large, this same phenomenom is evident in the primetime US television program "America's Funniest Home Videos," a show created entirely out of programming material generated by the viewers. Increasingly, we see the same "reverse information flow" in home video footage shown on local news programs, and in narrow channel publishing, characterized by the growing number of specialty newsletters and magazines. Anybody with access to a computer can access sophisticated databases.

Corporate video departments are also beginning to function as outerstreamers as corporate-produced programming finds "new" distribution channels outside the company. For instance, in the US:

* Southern New England Telephone's hour-long program "Vietnam: A Chance to Understand," was created to be shown in local schools before airing on Connecticut Public Television. An employee communication program on Lyme disease using SNET medical safety experts was shown on several Connecticut cable TV systems.

* "All in a Day's Work," a fifth-anniversary television program created for employees by AT&T's corporate video department aired on the national Arts & Entertainment cable TV network six months later.

* A 20-minute training program called "Profits and Laws," produced by Citicorp's TV Center, ran on New York and New Jersey cable access channels and won a regional Emmy award.

Where once only network news producers could strive for an Emmy, now corporate communicators have an equal shot. The barriers are falling fast. How long before your associate down the hall is entering her own program?

Challenge/Opportunity

Within this new world of corporate communication, there are many opportunities for the old pros, if we can meet the challenges created by the new environment. And the first challenge for professional communicators is to understand what's happening.

We must find ways to allow access, create a positive environment, and synergize executives' needs with employees' resources. Riding the waves of the future will require abandoning "mainstream" ideas, like broadcast and narrowcast information delivery models to create a new model of three-dimensional information flow that includes the marketplace, employees, management and other stakeholders.

The second challenge is to tap into the energy rather than trying to control it. We need to find ways to encourage people to go outside of the mainstream, established communication channels without subverting them, to use outerstreaming as an adjunct to or amplifier of the primary information flows.

Communication executives can harness this added power by creating context, recognizing successful accomplishments. For an employee video called "One Day in the Life of Levi Strauss & Co.," shot in September 1988, the video communication department at Levi Strauss gave cameras to 35 employees and asked them to record images they thought reflected a normal day. This footage was combined with images shot by professional crews in 52 locations in 20 different countries for the final 48-minute program.

The third challenge for the communication manager in the 1990s will be to educate executives about what is happening. We can help them implement a set of communication ethics, beliefs and principles for using the power of the emerging, dynamic information environment in which every employee, every customer has a voice.

EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION MOVES AROUND AT AMERICAN GREETINGS 

"If you really want to manage change, you need to have a dialog with employees, and the most vital part of that dialog occurs between supervisors and employees," said Mary King, employee communication manager, American Greetings Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio. King was quoted in a recent issue of HR Reporter, a human resources newsletter. "We are still using print media," she added, "but we see it as a support function, not as the end-all, be-all." In recent years, American Greetings has moved the communication function from public relations to finance and human resources. King explains: "We went through a shift in focus and values in communication. Now, we see public relations as more image-building, with more of a marketing mindset." "We see HR as a more logical place for employee communication because we see it as an integral part of training, and as a two-way dialog between management and employees." While locating employee communication in the human resources department works well in some organizations, it clearly is the exception among IABC members' organizations. According to Profile '89, 23.8 percent worked in a department called "communication," while 6.4 worked in one called "human resources" or "personnel."

Chris Campbell is president of Praxis Media, a communication management company, South Norwalk, Conn.