Culture & communication define who you are

I was in Seattle last week for Ragan’s 4^th 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.