Consistency makes communication more inspiring

The greatest revolutions in our history hint one thing in common, and that is consistency of the message. Be it the Renaissance, the French Revolution, the war years, among all these centuries, the most consistent were only able to build a great brand, one that inspired change, one that inspired trust. Irrespective of the context, the magnitude of delivery, or the medium employed, the message sand its delivery stayed consistent with the most trusted brands, most memorable stories. Now why are we talking history here, in the times that is largely driven by technology, innovation, and now a more paradigmatic shift in the focus on the involvement of more reasoning?

Communication at most becomes effective, only when the message is consistent across all touchpoints. Irrespective of the organization we are working for,or the cause we stand for, there is a strong need for a check, if our message is consistent among all the stakeholders, customers, investors, society, employees. Remember a child learns a language, when the messages are consistent and the words are repeated again and again. We somewhere forget to take this principle into communication. If a brand thinks communication is corporate communication team’s responsibility, then we have grossly mistaken, every moment that the brand lives, every stakeholder who is impacted, is into communication.

Not everyone can wear the same shoes on this journey, sizes differ. But everyone needs shoes to journey well, that is we need to remember. Imagine, a brand where every stakeholder converts into a brand ambassador and speak the same message, and the messages are based on their experiences with the brand. Here are some aspects of the brand’s journey that we now need to focus more intensively:

Define Stakeholder journeys: Most brands since their inception, till they journey, just send out messages. Nothing wrong in it. But it is incomplete. Every stakeholder is a different context, the loyalty with the brand differs grossly. It helps immensely to define a logical and more realistic stakeholder journey and ensure there are continuous engagement with each one of them. And engagement should always be meaningful and measurable.

Communicate to your employees what your customers experience:

Honestly, most business strategies preach to be customer-centric, but miss out the reverse messaging. If it’s not a dialogue, it surely is an unknown silo that we create. Ensure at all points, the customer feels heard and is served in the most agile way without any bureaucracy. And ensure too, employees who serve customers directly or indirectly, get to know what all the customer goes through while having business with your brand. Taking it further, the prospective customer, prospective job-seeker and stakeholders alike are heard well. At the end it only serves your brand in becoming a truly listening organization.

Repeat the core message in every interaction: Be it the Annual General Meeting with your investor, be it while answering a customer query or even a performance review of your employee, ensure the core message gets repeated. Leadership rarely know that all stakeholders interact beyond the definition of work and build perception, basis which they decide. This builds phenomenal trust. And trust inspires loyalty for your brand. The truth is we still operate in a very traditional way, having functions and businesses who follow protocols that are hardly collaborative. It is essential now more than before to have enough resources assigned, who ensure consistency and message effectiveness.

Ensure consistency in experience of Technology platforms for all stakeholders: We have apps, algorithms and innovation still continuing. We invest a lot on these too. But is the technology the same for all stakeholders? It may not be. However, it is much needed, stakeholders experience what the soul of our existence, that is the customer goes through. Equally important is how consistent is our leadership standpoint to all of them. We can’t speak different messages to different stakeholders. If at all possible, bring all stakeholders to the same platform. Imagine the media, the investor, the employee and most importantly the customer are all together on your social platform. Bringing them is not tough, engaging them into an ongoing dialogue is an opportunity never explored.

These are the times when we need to be more committed to collaboration, not just platforms, but the people we deal with. Collaboration multiplies the message beyond human calculations. To all those in leadership, communication and those involved with brand, these are most promising times in human history to build in consistency as a key parameter of all that we communicate. Build TRUST!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multiply the message, not just amplify the tone

THE MESSAGE IS THE SOUL OF OUR PURSUIT
It’s often interesting when we see communicators no matter wherever they are, whatever the context they fit in, they all have the same concern that the message doesn’t translate into enough action or somewhere it gets lost. We mostly spend all our time, energy, money and more to ensure for our own profit or our ‘success’. Communication succeeds when our message finds it’s champions to multiply. And anything that is worth meaning for the future, multiplies. Relevance of the communications pursuit entirely depends on this dictum. Here are some of the key considerations in making our message truly inspiring:

What is the message?
We have conceived the ‘message’ as a noun. It isn’t. It inspires an action, an essential verb for the brand to live. The message must connect and converse with its recipients and help build a community of trusted and engaged champions. Our message in communications is neither the language, nor the approach for delivery, but the potential meaning for bringing a positive change for the recipient. Only when the recipient sees the visible change, the message becomes more credible. There are very few communicators in our history who could deliver the message positively without a more time-bound visible change. We often craft the message either in our personal branding journey or for the corporate brand we are hooked to with an anticipation that our audience will decipher exactly what we intended at the beginning of the communications process. A lot may be attributed to our ignorance or laziness in ensuring consistency of the intent all through. The message is the soul of communications.

Do our stakeholders communicate our message exactly we did to them, is the chain of thought the same every time? Most cases, the answer is no. They will only when they see enough meaning that appeals, that promises the change in the state of things, mostly positive.

Consistency writes Trust
The smallest startup as well as the biggest conglomerate communicate with their employees, customers, investors, partners, and everyone else. There is no denial to it, but the message largely gets fabricated every time we meet a different stakeholder. That builds distrust and an untraceable discontentment. With of course the evolution of business, professionalism, and the growing urge from every stakeholder for transparency and accountability. The tone, the medium, the context may change with time and space, but what continues to inspire consistency is the willingness to build everything for the brand around trust. As they say “Consistency is key to success”. Remember every leader of whatever fields they represented, what made them credible is the untiring continuity in their pursuit and the passion all through their journey.

Technology isn’t a myth, it is here to stay
When was technology not present in the story of our civilization? The making of fire, the invention of the wheel, the cave arts, the scripts that recorded the message, the digital platforms that exist on the principles of collaboration, all efficiently stay relevant to every time period they existed. These all helped propel growth and endure trust. Of course, the speed of message delivery and expected agility of action has gone up significantly. The legion of leadership in technology has multiplied on the basis of very human principles like transparency, speed, communities based on collaboration and the like. The most social media platforms that we use today are based on these principles. As a communicator, it is important to leverage technologies that not just engage your audience, but those as well that have the ability to record it for our collective future, those that helps us write a well collaborated story by the leaders and their audiences. Technology will evolve as the context changes, so will the leadership in communications, but the essential message transforms like the most meaningful river through the terrains as well as the winds that keep changing. Robotics, artificial intelligence, social media, augmented reality, are all means in our evolution and of course contribute to the life of the message, making it better every time. These are not tools or platforms to amplify your standpoint.

How can the message multiply?
When we send out the message we intend and look forward to a certain impact, an uncertain action. We seek soulful confirmation for the message that we craft and deliver. The message is much more than the perception. It becomes inevitable to ensure that our message travels from known recipients to unknown, from seen audience to those that are unseen, from lives impacted to those that can be touched. Message alone has the power to travel across space and time. The greatest legends, epics, folklores, stories of human and supernatural have all transcended over time and space because they multiplied through their recipients every time it reaches them. Our message has the ability to multiply only when it is honest, connects with the principles of existence well and ensures consistency in creating value for everyone who comes in the radius of it’s influence. The famous saints, Jesus himself had followers who multiplied his message, Krishna through the Bhagvad Geeta encapsulated the principles and purpose of life which resonated with everyone who read it through. In recent times, the greatest revolutions like the Renaissance, the French Revolution, and many more like these were all messages multiplied and hence listed an emotional registration for millions of both known and unknown recipients. Address every soul, every audience well that has the potentiality to multiply your message.

The recipient does matter the most in communications as well as the value we create for them.

REPUTATION ISN’T A MIRACLE

What differentiates your reputation and does it answer the need of your customer? Not just weave stories well, but also ensure the experience you offer is the best among your competition. Is there a gap between the brand promise and brand experience? No one to blame, fix it soon in alignment with the collective pursuit. Here are some thoughts from my journey and may help you decide:

Do you have a Reputation framework?

Being in communications for a decade and half I must admit none of the places I worked had a reputation framework, but each one of them had an insatiable dream to be the best brand. And same is the state with other brands too, where my network of communicators work. Am not negative with them, but disclosing what perturbs. The customer needs something, we make something else that won’t work, as their choices are led by innovations arrived at by the competition. Pause and rethink, the perception that drives your stakeholders and your audience. If the need is not addressed you are not the choice, but a baggage for your customer. Dissonance does more damage to any brand than anything else. Series of consultants making millions of presentations and advices, even some of the global ones if brought onboard won’t serve, unless the business and its people are in alignment with the time and effort they spend every passing day. Most leaders honestly today dream for reputation, but hesitate to have a framework for the same in place. Is it inclusive? is it intuitive? Is it inspiring at all? Not just being logical but one with the dexterity of being decisive and create meaning enough for the future helps build the best brand.

Catch an animal from its head, a human from its heart

Almost two decades back on a winter morning with puddles still filled with the left-over rains and a distant sky blurred with fog, I had a learning that continues till now. I was trying to catch fishes with a Sadhu (Indian Hindu monk) standing beside me and smiling. I failed after sometime, trying hard my luck and the Sadhu said, “Catch an animal from its head, a human from its heart”. I got the message and tried again and clicked. Since then have followed it and seen it work every time.

No matter what we are in our journey, the very idea of conversing and listening especially helps get our message across. Our personal brand succeeds when we create value for the ecosystem we operate in, the more the value, the longer the brand stays. Whether it’s a toddler fumbling words or a manager at work or even an old acquaintance signaling a message, do listen to it. Have seen true leaders pausing and listening to it, sometimes they help if they can, else comfort the soul with enough hope.

We are dealing with humans, and they go by their heart. Respect their existence, their journey, their stories as much as you want yours to be delivered. It works almost instantaneously.

Successful corporate brands are a collection of personal brands

From Google to Apple and Tata to Tesla it’s always been a tale of inspiring personal brands that these entities have been revolving around. They ignite hope and nurture their audience’s dream, make their idea in short, a relevance for millions of humans they don’t even know. It’s the people, the leadership in them that organizations must endure and inspire to be the message in everything they think, say, and do. However, the story has been a bit different; a huge gap between the corporate and personal brand. Have seen great leaders when not in alignment with the corporate brand leave, seeking for a better time, somewhere else. The running doesn’t stop till they realize it’s a community of collective leadership that builds brands that stand for centuries. Imagine the greatest leaders you know come together and work on a common project assimilating their personal hopes, and making the corporate brand a cause to believe in. Magical it would be!

Time is the greatest currency

Yes, it’s always about the timing. Whatever you are in awe with is largely because you experienced it with a time factor embellished. An Apple iPhone is a serious hit today. Had it been a hundred years back customers would have bought something else largely. Timing defines the context for your brand, hence make the most of it. ‘Candles in the Wind’ still is a great song because it came as a tribute to a great brand exactly when it’s audience were seeking for it. It wasn’t created as a need but as an appealing message. Craft your pursuit in alignment with the meaning that your audience seeks. And ensure it stands responsible for the generations to follow.

Of course, there will be tempests, but stay determined like the mast of your ship. When confronted with a crisis always remember the saying: “a stitch in time, saves nine”. The experience so far has been interesting, brands that were alert while they voyaged could stitch it on time for the common good. Size doesn’t matter in bringing in transparency and accountability for the brand. A customer is a customer and has the power to amplify your experience to the best.

Reputation is a great responsibility!