I was in Seattle last week for Ragan’s 4th Annual
Employee Communications, PR and Social Media Summit. They always have great
companies at their events – SAS, Best Buy, Disney, Microsoft, and bunch more
you’ve heard of (and some you haven’t). Southwest Airlines is another frequent
partner, although they were not at this one.
I flew Southwest from Nashville into Seattle – I always fly Southwest, unless there is no
other option. In my opinion they’re the best, and second place isn’t even
close. One of the things I enjoy when I fly is reading CEO Gary Kelly’s article in
Spirit Magazine. Almost without fail he talks about the importance of Culture (they
capitalize the “C” to emphasize its importance) at Southwest and how much
attention they pay to their Culture throughout the company. Everyone owns it.
Herb Kelleher, the guy who founded Southwest and its
original CEO, is actually the author of one of my favorite business quotes. He
said, “Culture is one of the most precious things a company has, so you must
work harder on it than anything else.” I agree on both counts. Without a strong
culture, nobody – employees or customers – knows what you stand for or who you
are. I also agree that it is hard work to maintain and protect culture. It’s up
to everyone in the organization to be vigilant and make sure the standards are
upheld and that the organization as a whole walks the talk.
That’s right; you have to work on it. Makes sense, doesn’t
it? Is there any other facet of business that develops the way you want it to
without putting forth a lot of effort? Of course there isn’t – they all require
deliberate, intense effort to make sure they reflect the business you want. Corporate
culture is no exception.
Each of the sessions I attended last week talked at length
about “culture this” and “culture that” when they describe the necessity of
developing an effective internal communications (IC) program. In fact, I’d be
willing to make the case that an effective IC function IS the organization’s culture. When you have a culture of good
internal communication, the company and the employees thrive.
You know what these companies (and a rapidly-growing number
of smaller organizations) have in common? They all have dedicated internal
communications people. It makes sense. What if you gave secondary
responsibilities to other departments in the organization? Can you imagine
marketing also having responsibility for accounts payable or receivable? Or
accounting handling SEO and customer acquisition strategy? How about the folks
in content cold calling in their spare time? Of course not. So if you believe
internal communications to be an important part of your organization, it has to
be a primary responsibility or it just won’t be a priority at all.
Best Buy spent over $200K on their internal social tool so
that employees could communicate more freely. SAS has a dedicated Internal
Communications team that includes a Senior Director, three team members on
Social Media & Technology, six managing editors, an International Liaison
and an Administrative Assistant. And Microsoft’s Frank X. Shaw, CVP of
Corporate Communications has enough clout to speak on behalf of the company on
Facebook when TechCrunch
blasted them.
Corporate culture and internal communications are
inextricably tied – they are who and what an organization is. They define the
personality and behavior of the organization from top to bottom, bottom to top,
and side to side. And neither one of them just happens – they both take work.
Think about it: When something goes wrong – either personal
or professional – doesn’t it oftentimes come down to a “miscommunication?” So
if an organization is able to create an effective, reliable IC program, doesn’t
it stand to reason that it’s something they work at? Of course it does, it’s
what defines them and differentiates them to their employees and customers
alike.
Take Southwest for example. Doesn’t it look like the kind of
company you’d like to work for? They look like they’re having a blast most of
the time – really enjoying their work. The company obviously appreciates their Employees
(they capitalize the “E” in employee too), emphasizes their importance and
expects that the caring will be passed on to the customer – it works! It’s
because of the importance they place on culture and communication.
Another presence at the Ragan conference last week was companies
who, like Southwest, appear on Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work list. And you
know what they all have in common? Emphasis on corporate culture and the
importance of good internal communications.
Not one of those companies said they just let it happen;
they make a concerted, deliberate effort to develop and nurture the culture
they want – and it takes everyone in the organization to make it happen.
Like I used to tell my ballplayers, “Play the ball before
the ball plays you.” It’s the same thing with internal communications and
corporate culture: set the tone before a bad tone gets set. Do your part – it takes
work and it’s everyone’s responsibility to make it happen.
