Views from the SCM Summit - day two, part one

Another good, thought provoking day in Kensington today... Day two of Melcrum's SCM Summit was an interesting journey through the world of employee comms and engagement. During the nine hours between 0800 and 1700 we covered a host of hot topics, including communicating outsourcing, recession-proofing the iC function, line manager and leadership communications, working in partnership with HR, alignment of internal and external comms, and corporate reputation. It was one of those days where there are just so many ideas, theories, concepts and case studies that you come away with your head hurting (or maybe that's just because of my limited brain space?!)

Early bird delegates like me were greeted with a pre-conference session on communicating an IT outsourcing deal - not standard breakfast fodder granted, but interesting nevertheless. While we tucked into our bacon butties, Michael Nord showcased a change communication programme Fifth Business had developed to support the outsourcing of a client's data centre organisation to T-Systems. It was a nice example of how to design and orchestrate a complex, international, multi-channel change comms programme.

There are one or two communication practitioners who have an almost innate ability to cut through the bullshit and get straight to the heart of the matter. US practitioner-commentator Steve Crescenzo is one. Our very own Bill Quirke is another. And this session didn't disappoint. In his usual enigmatic yet straight-talking way Bill suggested how internal communicators might want to respond to the gathering economic storm clouds.

His premise was simple - if we don't hold a mirror up to ourselves pretty damn soon, someone else will do it for us - and we probably won't like what they find. He was talking about the dreaded cost and efficiency review or, worse still, the unilateral cost cutting that often accompanies increasing use of the "R" word.

Paraphrasing John Lennon, he suggested that for many communicators "life is what happens when you're too busy planning - or looking at best practice". His remedy is to take action to ensure internal communication is focused on delivering the right business outcomes. Activity and value are not, he suggested, the same thing - you can be pumping out bucket loads of award winning content, but not making a blind bit of difference to the stuff that matters to the CEO. Sensible, compelling stuff - it was a much needed wake-up call.

For those brave enough to glance in the mirror he suggested reviewing your iC function in four key areas - customers, channels, capability and capacity. The starting point is to identify the burning priorities of the business - just what is keeping the CEO awake at night? Force the top team to be really selective about this - a potentially painful process as adding real value is likely to mean sacrificing some of those pet projects. Once agreed, align behind them and de-prioritise everything else. Decide who is important - who you're there to serve (CEO, COO, HRD, Facilities Manager, Chair of the Social Committee?) Understand where your time and effort currently goes and then ensure you channel it in the right direction - in supporting and enabling the business priorities. Consider outsourcing the lower value activities. Define your offering - your value proposition - and ensure your internal clients understand what you do and don't do. Review channels for effectiveness. Up skill or, if they don't have the right competencies, replace team members.

All this was music to my ears. Too many comms functions remain disconnected from the business of business - focused instead on what AstraZeneca's Mary Lynn Carver described as 'vanity PR' the day before. Too many practitioners get seduced by fluffy and potentially ambiguous concepts like culture and engagement, forgetting that we exist for one reason - to drive the organisation forward and help deliver its vision. Let's be honest, the sort of robust, comprehensive 'roots and branch' analysis Bill describes is long overdue for many iC functions.

More observations to follow tomorrow....

Lee Smith on Oct 16 2008

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