Communicate Seven Times in Seven Ways

The rule of seven is a marketing rule, but it applies to business and management as well. The rule says that you need to tell your message to prospective customers seven times in seven ways. The rule is not scientific and finding data to back it up will be difficult, but consider your communications with your spouse, significant others, kids, and staff. How often do they get the message the first time?

Consider the noise in the environment. How many messengers are you competing with? In the workplace alone, you are competing with other staff, managers, deadlines, TPS reports and Facebook to name a few. It should be no surprise that you will have to communicate your message multiple times to your staff.

Seven different ways of communication are also important. Anyone with a teaching or facilitating background can tell you there are at least four learning modalities: visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic (hands on). To people with these backgrounds, communicating seven ways just makes sense. In what ways do you communicate with your staff? Here are some ideas to reach achieve those seven ways of communication.

·        Face-to-face is always a good option, especially if you only need to talk to a few people.

·        Gemba walks are an advanced management by walking around. There are many articles about gemba walks, but the foundations are to go and see, ask why and, respect the people. Some will argue that this is not the proper use of a gemba walk. While that is technically true, I would argue that the mid-life crisis parked in your garage might be just for touring, but that doesn't mean you cannot use it to run to the store for groceries. Practice using your gemba walks, that way, when you really need it, you can use it.

·        Use posters to effectively communicate the organization's message. Properly created, posters can draw your staff attention to the message and effectively communicate it. Just make sure that this message is one you are practicing. If your message encourages, openness, honesty and integrity, make sure those are values you are practicing. If the message does not pass the laugh test, don't post it, otherwise your staff will not take you seriously. If you are unsure how the message will be received, ask someone you trust to tell you the truth. If you don't have that, you have bigger problems than can be solved here.

·        Video presentations distributed through email or an organization's television bulletin board system are a good idea. According to a survey by clearchoice.com, millennials say the optimal length for a video is less than two minutes. The survey also revealed that four times as many millennials prefer to watch a video than read an article that contained the same information.

·        Emails are fine, but be careful. Too many emails, too often and your email becomes the victim of the daily delete. Keep the emails short and provide bullets if needed to break up long blocks of text.

·        Staff meetings can be effective, but like the emails, too much of a good thing is too much.

·        Training sessions ensure the message is focused on the desired topic, but death by PowerPoint is a real thing. Choose your facilitators wisely.

·        Company blogs and other social media are becoming popular ways to deliver messages and can be very effective is the message is carefully crafted.

           All of these are effective means of communicating your message to staff. I'm sure there are many others not listed here. If you have other effective communication methods, please PM me with your methods and how they helped you.

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Read my article about strategic plans: https://www.linkedin.com/post/edit/6536030911736135680