Feb 06 07
It’s A Mad, Mad World
By Renn Vara
Like many companies working with large enterprises, SNP often finds itself moving at light speed in multiple directions. Just this week, we had staff working in Australia, India, and China as well as in Chicago, Seattle, New York and in our home base of Silicon Valley and San Francisco. To be sure, it’s tough to keep everyone motivated and clear on what they are doing. Sound familiar?
For me, I was teaching Speakers Bureau classes in New York City early in the week while also editing two high-level executive messaging videos via the web. I found myself running from my customer job site back to my hotel in 20 degree weather to get a web connection so I could review and edit the work our team was doing back in San Francisco. At the same time, I had my car waiting out front to take me to JFK so I could teach Content Development classes in Mountain View the next morning. And of course, with Treo in hand, email and phone calls never stopped.
Needless to say, I missed my flight. So in between reviewing video screens sitting in my hotel lobby and giving moment-to-moment IM updates to my customers, I was on the phone with JetBlue trying to secure a seat on the next flight out to San Francisco. Like most things, despite the moments of intense doubt, it worked out. Our customer’s were happy with our work and while I did arrive to the West Coast at 2 am to get to my 8 am class, I was able to end the week alive, well, and still happy to be able to do what I do.
This is what life is like for many, many employees of large enterprises, particularly they work in sales. So if you’re in corporate communications, and you have to reach people rushing from urgency to urgency, what can you do to get your valuable messages across? If I’m that person, and you need to reach me, here’s what you have to remember:
- Put yourself in our shoes and assume you are the least important person we will talk with in any given day. It’s not necessarily true but it is. Get over it.
- Bottom line everything, every time, everywhere.
- Consolidate your email messages whenever possible. The biggest complaint we have is “too much email.”
- Only use voicemail when there is true urgency to the message. When you do use it, keep it short, to the point and actionable.
- Think through your agenda and put it into context with our reality. For example, is it more important than an immediate customer request? Doubtful.
- Edit everything you create so that we see the words as pictures rather than tomes. Bullets, bullets, bullets.
- Develop a communication system that teaches us where to find what we need, when we need it. For example, a weekly email with limited words and links to relevant resources and content connected to a portal that is well designed with rich media for those of us with ADD. The perfect world.
- And in the end, own your problem and never blame us for not utilizing your communication vehicles. It’s your fault always. Figure it out without judgment.
I know, easier said than done. But as they always say, “that’s why you get the big bucks.” Oh, and in the process, you undoubtedly have your never ending ringing/pinging Treo or Blackberry, urgent requests, and far too much email to answer. Welcome to the new mad, mad world.
