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Roger D’Aprix, vice president of ROI Communication, and
author of Communicating for Change is convinced that the
quality of an organization’s internal communication is
determined by its culture. “If the corporate culture is open,
receptive to candor and democratic in tone, organizational
communication will flourish and create a virtuous cycle in which
communication itself will reinforce the openness of the
culture,” he explains. “If on the other hand the culture is
closed, hierarchical and autocratic, communication will be
cautious, highly filtered and subject to endless approval. In
short, it will be limited.”
Leadership drives culture and sets the tone
According to D’Aprix, leadership communication is the key factor
in establishing an open, democratic corporate culture in which
people are free to express their opinions. “Senior leadership
sets the culture of an organization by effectively giving people
permission to be honest and candid and demonstrating a
willingness to listen to conflicting views,” he says. “A wise
leader works to create the kind of culture that he or she
believes will maximize the effectiveness of the organization.”
As D’Aprix points out, new companies that trade on their
values tend to be set up by entrepreneurs who had been
dissatisfied with the culture of the companies they’d worked for
in the past and wanted to do things differently. “They also have
no history so their founders have the perfect opportunity to
create their ideal culture,” he adds.
Even when such organizations grow large, their core culture,
and the shape and structure of their internal communication
continue to be defined by the strong personality of a
charismatic founder or leader. “Leadership sets the tone of the
organization,” says D’Aprix. “People are always looking to the
leadership to set an example. They model their behavior on what
they experience and see and that influence can permeate the
whole organization.”
Helping line managers share culture-shaping messages
According to D’Aprix, the primary role of the internal
communication function is to facilitate the communication of
leadership messages to every level of the organization and make
sure that they’re understood. However, he believes that many
communication professionals focus their efforts in other
directions. “Sadly, their inclination is to become media focused
and reactive,” he says. “They regularly fail to come to grips
with the fact that line management is a critical communication
force. The internal communication function needs to help ensure
that line managers have the necessary motivation, tools and
training to communicate effectively with their teams.”
D’Aprix highlights two important communication tactics that
help to build and maintain effective line manager communication.
1. Establishing accountability
According to D’Aprix, many organizations suffer from a
communication deficit because line managers are not held
accountable for their communication role. “The general
assumption is that communication somehow just happens, but
that’s a naïve assumption,” he says. “The communication function
needs to work with HR and others to establish the necessary
management accountability in the form of positive incentives, so
that people are rewarded for communicating effectively, or there
are negative consequences for people who choose to ignore that
part of their role. Accountability is key to effective
communication down the line, which is an essential part of
building and sustaining an open and positive corporate culture.”
2. Supporting line manager communication
The internal communication function can support line manager
communication in two key ways:
i. By providing training – not so much in skills as in
awareness of the need for effective line manager communication –
and promoting an understanding of this part of the line
manager’s role; and
ii) By ensuring that line managers have the information they
need to communicate in a timely fashion. “When important
announcements or changes are made, it’s important for the comms
team to supply materials, talking points, PowerPoint
presentations or whatever it takes for people to communicate
effectively,” explains D’Aprix.
Line managers’ role in communicating vision and values
Despite the increase in remote working and the adoption of
e-mail, instant messaging, voicemail, texting, blogging, video
messaging and so on in corporate communication, D’Aprix remains
convinced that face-to-face communication remains the most
effective channel for line manager communication. “It’s
incumbent on managers not to rely on technology as a surrogate
for interacting with employees,” he explains. “They need to
understand that one of their primary responsibilities is helping
their teams to understand the vision, values and objectives of
the organization as well as listening to their concerns,
coaching and mentoring.”
Figure 1. The Manager's Communication Model by Roger D'Aprix
To this end, the Manager’s Communication Model that D’Aprix
created over 20 years ago remains valid as it defines line
manager communication responsibilities in terms of providing the
answers to six key questions, each of which relates to a
matching organizational principle (see Fig. 1, above).
D’Aprix maintains that the visual collaboration inherent in
face-to-face meetings is key to engaging employees on an
emotional level and creating a culture of belonging. “People
respond to human touches and look for evidence that they count
for something. Face-to-face communication shows individual
employees that their manager – and by association their company
– cares about them and what they contribute to the
organization.”
Creating a culture of belonging: a joint responsibility
D’Aprix highlights the critical importance of maintaining
dialogue at all levels of the organization in order to create a
culture of belonging. “The effective organization recognizes
that it must build a community of like-minded people who have a
sense of being connected together in a worthwhile enterprise,”
he says.
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