Moving beyond one size fits all
28th February 2006 by Brad Whitworth
Anytime I see an item of clothing for sale that says “one size fits all,” I run in the opposite direction. It can be a t-shirt or a baseball cap with a Velcro closure, but rarely have I found that one size really does fit all.
The same is true with employee communications. Employees come in all sizes, shapes, colors. We say, as organizations, that we treasure the diversity. Yet our communication budgets are most often so meager that we can barely afford to cover the one-size-fits-all communication programs, let alone think of doing multiple sizes or iterations or tailored content. Those big monies are usually available only on the customer side of the house. For example, British retail giant Tesco (think Costco or WalMart if you’re in North America) sends a quarterly mailing to 11 million customers … in five million versions! It’s tailored to the members buying habits. And yet we struggle to get out one version of a quarterly newsletter to a few thousand employees. What’s wrong with this picture?
Technology is helping us. Portal products can recognize the reader and allow customization of content. RSS feeds and subscription efforts like podcasting give employees a chance to select what they see and hear. Blogging means that others beyond corporate communications are helping generate content.
Yet most of the information we push into the communications system is generated and “controlled” by someone in corporate communications or IT or HR or some part of the organization. How far away are we from the day when internal communications becomes the candid and freewheeling conversation that’s described in The Cluetrain Manifesto? When will the communication be as candid as what’s discussed around the water cooler? Are you there yet? I’d love to hear what hills you’ve conquered in moving away from one size fits all.