Team

Here’s a question for you. Which international, multi-sport event did Australia play host to last year? If you answered immediately the Commonwealth Games, congratulations, give yourself a point, but if you couldn’t recall it, don’t feel too bad; unless you were actually on the Gold Coast in April, it wasn’t something that overwhelmingly dominated the broad stream media.

That’s not to say, of course, that the occasion went unnoticed beyond the attention of locals and sports fans. A client of ours, for example, encouraged teams within its workforce to each adopt one of the competing nations for the duration of the Games. Each team was then encouraged to cheer for their chosen country by decorating their area of the office with appropriate flags and photos, learning a few words of the language, and cooking dishes to share with colleagues.

So far, so good for this fun idea, but what was really interesting about the initiative was the teams’ enthusiasm for the concept. The honorary citizens of India, South Africa, Nigeria and beyond took their flag waving duties seriously. Sporting successes — and others’ failures — were greeted enthusiastically. Colleagues became aware when they ‘travelled’ into another country’s space. Curries were criticised. Pakoras were praised.

For internal communications professionals, this is a story that tells us something significant about how people associate; what started as an ostensibly frivolous idea became so much more for the participants. The lesson is that encouraging colleagues to come together, even when the criteria are random, and they buy into the value of group-identification — and, by implication, what makes their group different to others.

Maximising the effectiveness of how communication flows therefore needs to build upon models that don’t solely focus on personal empathy.

The benchmark of “what’s in it for us?” is just as relevant as “what’s in it for me?”, and while preserving the core sentiments at the heart of a campaign is key, customising elements of material to best fit definable cohorts in an organisation could prove advantageous.

Similarly, ensuring that you’re deploying a mix of channels — so that, for example, mobile or field employees have an equal opportunity to encounter and respond to content — is an equally important element to get right.

By reflecting and benefiting from the very human trait of loyalty to team in your communications strategy — in what you say, and how you share it — gives you the best chance of winning a gold medal for IC success.