GE has made significant organizational changes over the past year: The company announced it would move its global headquarters to Boston, it redesigned its performance development and review process, and CEO Jeff Immelt and other executive leaders began talking openly about the company’s aim to re-engineer its culture to foster and promote a “startup-like” mentality.
I’ve been very impressed by GE’s willingness to be so transparent about the company’s new approach to culture, and specifically its openness in communicating through serious corporate change. After speaking with Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Deirdre Latour about GE’s strategy to communicating through change, I'd like to share my own takeaways for some best practices for all corporate communicators.
1. Integrate internal communications with external communications for the most effective brand storytelling.
As Deirdre describes, at GE there is "no longer a divide between internal and external communications." GE aims to communicate to its employees about big changes first, helping them understand the personal impact of any change and provide context. In doing so, they've built a culture that is open and transparent and have been able to translate that into the external domain.
GE recognizes that, as a brand leader, internal changes are of interest to employees' families and friends, prospective employees, customers, suppliers and surrounding communities, so they "want to be sure that everyone can get the information they need." It's a modern approach to recognize that what employees hear, everyone hears. Organizations can help contextualize and shape that perception when they themselves manage external communications of internal change -- and not leave it to their employees to do for them.
2. Deliver your messages to people where they are already seeking information.
GE has embraced LinkedIn as a publishing platform to communicate cultural changes -- going so far as to publish emails to GE employees verbatim. While it may seem obvious to anyone who regularly checks LinkedIn for news and views (me, for one), LinkedIn has a large, built-in, engaged and professional audience. Plus, as a company that is constantly recruiting, LinkedIn is also the best place for GE to communicate with potential job seekers. While it may seem obvious, many companies are still using their own websites, blogs and intranets to communicate with their employees, missing out on the opportunity to attract and influence those beyond their walls.
As Deirdre says, "Today we have so much content and so many tools, we're always fighting for people's attention. Just as you would with an external announcement, our internal communications plans look across all the places our employees are active and aim to deliver the message in the right way for those channels -- whether they're internal or external." As in, don't tell people where to go to hear your message; find out where they are reading and interacting with content and meet them there. Similarly, Medium has risen in popularity as a tool for CEOs and other industry leaders to communicate through corporate change.
3. Use your chief executives as your primary spokespeople, and your employees as your secondary spokespeople.
Another major evolution in corporate communications strategy in the social/digital world is the opportunity for a variety of employees to be brand storytellers or spokespeople, a role traditionally reserved for very senior executives. The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer revealed that trust in businesses and CEOs is falling; at the same time, there's a marked increase in the credibility of a "person like me."
To leverage the power of peers, GE encourages its employees to share their own stories. The company has even developed an internal tool and system for employees to submit their GE stories. Then their internal communications team -- like a real editorial team -- works with individual employees to build out the stories and distribute them. Not surprisingly, GE has found the reaction from their own employees to be very positive. They seek to "humanize the change for employees so they understand their purpose and influence" in GE's aim to be the digital industrial world leader.
4. When it comes to balancing transparent communications with real corporate risk, start from a place of "yes."
As a corporate communicator who is often faced with the dilemma of "what to share, when, with who, and how much," the balance of being transparent while maintaining a positive corporate image can feel very subjective at times. I love GE's approach to determining what is appropriate for public consumption, which Deirdre describes as "starting with the mindset of wanting to share as much as we can." GE calls this "telling our story, our way" and acknowledges that the old way of thinking is to communicate only when you have to or when you are trying to drive change externally or internally.
In today's complicated environment of many different media models and social networks, GE recognizes that you should always be telling your story, in new and creative ways with engagement from leadership and employees, before you need to tell your story. In other words, if people are hearing consistently from you about your company's culture and strategy, this will pay dividends when you actually need their respect and trust.
Transparent, integrated communications that leverages brand storytelling is a great barometer for all corporate communicators -- whether you're communicating through massive cultural change or just telling your story, your way.
