New McGraw-Hill Marketing Book Includes Culture as a Topic

McGraw-Hill just published a terrific new resource in July 2010. Marketing DeMystified, by Donna Anselmo, provides the practical how to' knowledge and best practices on all facets of marketing. Chapter 8, Incorporating People and Culture includes my anthropological perspective on this very important topic.

Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work

Anthropologist At Work Now on Examiner.com

I've recently landed a new publishing venue for my articles under the Business & Finance channel of examiner.com. As the NY Business Communication Examiner, I publish articles on  all matters of business communication, the role of culture in communication, and the unique perspective of a business anthropologist on the work environment.

View and comment on my articles as:
http://www.examiner.com/x-63033-NY-Business-Communications-Examiner.


Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work

Lead with Your Organizational Culture and Achieve Better Business Performance

CULTURE POWER©

Community
Create a sense of community through actions. Organize work in collaborative ways; tear down silos; define, communicate and reward the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that help the company succeed.

Unique brand personality
Set your brand apart through consistent messages and employee actions that are tied to desired client outcomes. Brand from the inside out so that there is a seamless understanding of what your company represents and why it’s different than competitors.

Longevity
Create a vision of long-term sustainability that aligns company culture, strategic business objectives, business health, and employee performance.

Tools for learning
Provide the technology, access to information and people, and role-specific training, so employees can perform at their best.

Unlocked potential
Require employees of all levels to learn new skills and knowledge. Conduct annual organizational talent assessments to better align talent with emerging business needs and demonstrate the strategic link between professional development and business success.

Robust performance
Evaluate the impact of all operational areas, including communications, on bottom-line performance. Identify and implement changes to improve effectiveness and ROI.

Engaged employees
Create an environment in which people and ideas are valued. Provide opportunities for employees to participate in projects that grow your business and stretch their skills.

Positive purpose
Be clear about your business mission; tell and show each employee her/his importance to the business’ success.

Openness and opportunity to innovate
Encourage the flow of ideas across the organization, acknowledge that good ideas come from anywhere, are appreciated and vital. Reward appropriate risk-taking.

Wisdom
Tap into the collective wisdom of your employees. Document and share this wisdom across the organization.

Energy
Energize employees with challenges to improve the company. Energize clients with fresh insights and relevant information.

Resilience
Build in organizational agility with decision-making, problem-solving, operational and communication strategies that make it easy to do business with you and a place people want to work.

Communication Choice Affects Productivity,Brand Value and Performance

In every era, as new technology becomes available, we have to figure out the best way to incorporate our new tools into the mix, as evidenced by an 1890 New York Times article.[1] With so many options these days (email, cloud computing, conference calls, web and streamed meetings, voicemail, texting), how business people choose to communicate within their own walls has implications beyond personal preference.

While electronic communication is critical to global business and yields tangible benefits such as cost savings, shortened response times and simultaneous connection to multiple parties, a company may be less efficient and than it believes. Increased productivity and better financial performance do occur when communication content and vehicles support business objectives and include the purposeful exchanges of ideas and information. Yet, it’s rare that companies routinely apply this simple, common-sense ‘test’ to internal communications.

The powerful role of internal communication in all aspects of business warrants more attention and active decision-making by executives and managers[2]. Today’s executives are stepping back to examine their employee communications and assess whether their choices are helping or hindering their business and what communication vehicles say about the culture of their organizations.

At the center of this issue is the fact that communications reflect what a company values, from whom, and within what context, as well as implicit or explicit rules about expected behaviors that will help or hinder the business performance. In other words, communications tells us a lot about an organization’s culture, such as:

• Who communicates with whom (vertical and horizontal) and under what scenarios?
• Who decides what gets communicated, how, and when?
• Are there stated and/or implied communication preferences (electronic, face-to-face, phone)?
• Is information shared in ways that promote open discussion and trust?
• Do executives / managers encourage and role model communications that support alignment of objectives, organization of work, employee engagement and reward?
• Do all forms of communication mirror company mission and support desired beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that add to company success and positively represent the brand personality?
  
  By following through on some basic business steps, executives and managers can help ensure a company’s communications contribute to productivity, efficiency, and financial performance.

Be strategic. Start by asking what are the critical success factors for the business and what communication plan will support it (type of communications, vehicles, frequency, other)? Then, use the most appropriate communication tools/vehicles to complement, reinforce, and share important information. It’s not a technology vs. personal communication argument. Information sharing, and thus problem-solving, should drive these decisions. Answer these questions to choose the best mix of vehicle(s), format, and frequency.

• What is the purpose of sharing this information?
• What do I want employees to do -- read it or act on it?
• Who needs this information and why?
• What's the best way to provide this to the appropriate parties (how they need to use it, will understand it, other)?
• Are there time constraints for communicating this information?
• Is this an issue that is better resolved through discussion (phone or in person)?
• Are there roadblocks to productivity and what do we change in our communications to address this?
  

Consider the relationship between employee engagement and brand value. Companies that promote a work environment in which employees email others in the next cubicle rather than converse face-to-face (or via phone) can develop organizational cultures in which employees feel unconnected from and not engaged with colleagues and employers. This disconnect may result in low-performance behaviors that dilute other productivity gains and erode the company’s brand with its customers and partners. Because accountability can seem distant with the ability to ignore, delete, or remotely avoid issues (and people) with a click, executives need to pay attention to communication more than ever. There is plenty of research on the cost of a disengaged workforce.

• Disengaged employees cost U.S. companies as much as $350 billion annually in lost productivity[3].
• Only one in five workers give full effort on the job, 8% are fully disengaged, and 71% fall into the massive middle of partially engaged or disengaged employees.[4]
• In good times, top talent is usually loyal, but in a downturn they may become anxious, frustrated, and disenchanted. Also, in a downturn your competitors may target your top people. To keep employees engaged, energized, and motivated, organizations must make them feel secure and confident that they play a critical role in the business.[5]

Apply the criteria of substance and relevance. Technology has set an expectation of immediate response to everything. Some circumstances demand such speed, most do not. Many issues demand thoughtful consideration.

• A false sense of urgency leads people to believe that speed trumps content. Companies are not game shows. A quick response is worthless unless there’s substance. Companies are better served when employees take time to problem-solve, so that their contributions, regardless of how these get communicated, will be valuable.
• Overuse of flagged email is the electronic version of ‘crying wolf’. If you want credibility in crunch time, avoid tagging everything urgent. If you absolutely must receive an answer from someone who’s in the same building as you, there’s nothing like face-to-face communication.
• Insist on and role model minimal use of cc/bcc and ‘reply all’ email functionalities, which are time-wasters. Make it known that email is most effective when there is a need to circulate reports/data, quickly alert employees about a problem that truly needs an immediate response. Most executives do not read cc/bcc messages and reply all scenarios can result in hours (sometimes days) of threaded comments without any productive work as an outcome[6].
• Communication is valuable when the content is clear, easy to comprehend, and relevant. With email, a reader’s interpretation of a message and need for clarification require at least one additional, sometimes more, emails to the sender, making this inefficient for certain types of communication. In other cases, the reader may have formed an unfavorable impression that is not easily overcome. For one-on-one communication, going down the hall, or at the very least, initiating a phone conversation can be more productive.

Tap into the power of personal connection. Interpersonal skills remain essential no matter how much technology is used.

• Where logistics permit, encourage and use face-to-face communication to create a sense of belonging to a community, strengthen the mindset of working toward a common goal, reduce a sense of isolation, and reinforce mutual acknowledgement / agreement about expected and outlier behaviors. When not possible, find ways to tie virtual team members to the organization. This includes identifying beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of a virtual team/community that align with business goals and objectives, communicating these, and then fully incorporating these into performance management programs.
• Creative sparks generated by conversation in the moment are different than email exchanges. Notably, technology companies recognize this. As much as those companies use technology to communicate, they organize work groups in spaces where people readily interact face-to-face to ‘brain storm’ or exchange ‘aha moments.’ These companies understand the power of matching communication methods with objectives. Being present causes the parties to focus what’s communicated. It’s common for employees of all levels to respond to email or do other work while on a conference call or even at meetings. Lack of focus means lower productivity (longer meetings, calls or follow-up emails to repeat information) and possibly inaccurate use of vital information. Some managers have gone so far as to force employees to leave all e-devices (phones, PDA’s, laptops) at their desks when they attend a meeting.
• Keep in mind that face-to-face communication provides more information about the message to recipients than communication that is solely through written form. Visual and vocal cues (body language, voice tone, among others) provide a context for understanding, opportunity to clarify intent, and strengthen the relationship between sender and receiver.

Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work

[1] Changed Conditions.; We Are More Dependent On One Another Than Our Fathers Were. From Detroit Free Press, July 27, 1890.
[2] Secrets of Top Peformers: How Companies with Highly Effective Employee Communications Differentiate Themselves. The Methodology Behind the 2007-2008 Communication ROI Study™, by Richard Luss and Steven Nyce, January 11, 2008.
[3] Gallup, Peter Flade, Director of Finance, "Employee engagement drive shareholder value," Feb 13, 2008.
[4] Towers Perrin 2007-2008 Global Workforce Study.
[5] Workforce Management 12/18/08.
[6] New York Times. Corner Office: Kasper Rorsted.No Need to Hit the ‘Send’ Key. Just Talk to Me, August 28,2010

Culture as Soundtrack

Do you have music playing while reading this? How is your choice of music affecting how you feel right now? Are you feeling relaxed and want to read something light? Are you moved to dance to the music? Do you read/work faster when you listen to music with a faster tempo? Are you someone who sings along to the music (and know every lyric)? Are songs with lyrics distracting when you need to do work (and you play only instrumentals during those times) or is your concentration the same with any type of music?

Think of an organization’s culture as a virtual soundtrack of the work environment. It’s always playing in the background in a continuous loop (whether you’re actively listening to it or not, whether you’re unconsciously mouthing the words or not, whether you’re stirred to action). It sends subliminal and direct messages to all those within hearing range (remember that hearing and listening are not the same). That’s why the culture you choose and nurture is so important to the ultimate success of your business.

All the questions I asked at the beginning have a counterpart in the work environment. Do your company’s oral communications as well as leadership behaviors set the tone that will yield the results you want? Are your employees energized and itching to get out of their seats and take action? Does your company’s performance go up when you introduce technology that is meant to ‘speed up’ productivity? Are you creating distractions that prevent people from doing their best for your company?

As with all business decisions, you have to start with the end in mind. What is the most important thing your business needs to accomplish? What needs to happen to make it so? What beliefs, actions, values, and traditions (culture) will help your company to achieve your goals? Is your culture working for you? If not, what needs to change?

Your company’s culture holds a lot of power. Listen to what it’s saying. If it’s getting your organization to dance, that's great. Otherwise, it may be time to switch to a different soundtrack so you can use your unique organizational culture to gain a competitive advantage.

Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work

The Power of Storytelling

We all love stories. From the time we come into the world, people tell us stories. As we grow older, we read stories and we tell our own stories. Some stories are personal, others professional (bios), and sometimes we tell stories for others – business or volunteer for nonprofit).

Why are stories so powerful? Stories have power because they:
· Give voice to our dreams and hopes.
· Tap into our emotions.
· Express creative thought.
· Pass on knowledge that comes from experience.
· Create and nurture collective memory.
· Tell where we’ve been (legacy) and where we are going (envisioned future).

Why do we tell stories (purpose)? We tell stories to:
· Educate (transfer knowledge and traditions).
· Communicate/uphold social and cultural customs, social structure, expectations of behavior.
· Create and reinforce social and cultural bonds (among social, economic, other groups).
· Explain the world (belief systems).
· Entertain.

Sometimes a story has multiple purposes. These stories can have the greatest power because there are many, layered meanings that reinforce each other and give deeper value to the messages.

For societies that did not (and some surviving ones that still do not) have a written language, storytelling – what anthropologists refer to as oral tradition – was the only way to communicate information critical to basic survival and explain the world. There’s even specialization in the storytelling. Some stories were known and could be told by all the society’s elders. Then there were stories that were meant to convey special knowledge and were told by particular individuals in whom this special knowledge resided by virtue of their roles, such as a ritual/spiritual leader or healer.

Even though our society has written language and sophisticated technology to communicate with more people, more quickly and in different geographical places simultaneously, the purposes behind the stories remain the same. The stories are there to help us make sense of the world and our place in it, and to share it with those who, by necessity or invitation, are in our circle.

What are the more important things you need your stories to say about your company / organization?

Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work

Lost in Translation: Tips for Ensuring Your Audience Understands Your Message

When we travel to another country and do not know the local language or have only rudimentary foreign language skills, we expect that some of what we say may not be understood by the other party (the native speaker). We are prepared for potential misunderstandings and may even see these exchanges as a source of humorous anecdotes with which to amuse our friends, families, and colleagues upon our return to familiar ground (literally and figuratively).
However, it’s no laughing matter if your prospects/clients, colleagues and employees, strategic partners, or other important stakeholders and constituencies don’t fully understand or misunderstand what you want and need them to know. This is particularly critical in today’s multicultural work environments and global marketplace. A dictionary will give a word’s definition (and a Thesaurus will give you synonyms), but your ability to communicate successfully also depends on the nuances to word usage that can mean the difference between getting your point understood and creating a communication blunder with tangible negative consequences. We sometimes mistakenly assume that two parties who ‘speak the same language’ – that is both parties are native speakers of the same language, such as English – receive the same message when they hear/read the same word(s). Experience shows that if you ask your management team, staff, and clients to define familiar terms such as leadership, value, planning, strategic, communication, and performance, you will get responses that vary greatly, not in the literal sense, but in the interpretive sense. Context and perspective act as translation filters and these filters determine whether our intention has been communicated in addition to any facts.

Here are a few tips to ensure that your intended messages are received:
· Understand your audience’s perspective on the topic. This helps you identify what part of what you want to communicate will be perceived as most important / of interest, the level of detail you will be expected to provide, and what you want the recipient to do with the information (read and file for future reference vs. take specific action).
· Understand the cultures of your external audience’s organizations. This gives you clues about preferred communication styles as well as how they speak about their organizations. You want to mirror that.
· Know your audience’s preferred vehicle for receiving communication as well as what you have determined to be the most effective one (defined as more people understand your message, less or no need for repeat communication and clarifications).
· Clearly communicate what you mean when you use a specific term or phrase. For example, when you tell others that the goal is “effective communication” or “sound financial performance”, it is up to you to define what behaviors demonstrate this, quantitative and/or qualitative examples of what these look and sound like.
· Speak/write using simple words. Avoid jargon, abbreviations, and acronyms. The same acronyms/abbreviations can mean very different things to different groups. I’m sure you’ve conducted an internet search on an acronym only to find many results that are not the one you expected.

Remember to start by asking “Why is it important that I communicate this particular content to this specific audience?” When you communicate with purpose and clarity, your audience won’t need a translator.

Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work