Effective Communications for ITSS Managers ITSS Managers Meeting March 3, 2003

Why Communication Matters Good two-way communication is the foundation of: Understanding Trust Community Efficiency Progress Understanding comes from knowledge of values, direction, priorities, milestones, goals Trust comes from having a sense that you can be heard and that you can help determine processes, activities, and approaches that impact your work. It develops over time as a result of seeing consistent follow through on commitments and being consistently treated with respect. A sense of community comes from having a common understanding of expectations regarding values, directions, priorities, milestones, goals. Efficiency comes from everyone having a shared vision and working together as a coordinated unit, based on a shared understanding, a high level of trust, and the sense that we are all in this together. Progress comes from being aligned and working as an integrated and coordinated organization to achieve clearly articulated goals.

Managers are the Key Managers at all levels need to make a strong personal commitment to being effective communicators Managers at all levels, across the entire organization, need to foster two-way communications. We are all responsible, especially at the top. Managers are the vital link between staff and senior management and are in the best position to communicate management’s priorities to staff and to relate ideas and feedback from staff to management.

How Do We Know This? That’s what staff say. The message is consistent across ITSS Communications Survey ITSS Employee Survey Results from surveys done at other companies and research firms Communications and organizational effectiveness theory Studies done elsewhere: 25% of public’s perception of a company is based on how the company treats its employees. - Ogilvy Public Relations 30% of a company’s stock value can be impacted by employee relations. - Watson Wyatt Only 38% of workers say they get the information they need to do their jobs well. - Towers Perrin

Our Communications Responsibilities Listen Initiate Filter (the “right” amount) Interpret & Relate Add Context & Global Perspective Connect Deliver …in a timely manner, to the right people Listen - understand needs Filter - be a channel, not a dam

You’ve Told Us That Effective Communication IS... Having regular one-on-one meetings Having regular staff meetings Sharing information quickly about updates, staff/org changes, decisions Making the tacit explicit Closing the communication loop with a response or acknowledgement Leading & participating in effective meetings This is data gathered from the ITSS Communications Survey, October 2002.

And Effective Communication is NOT... Letting a request for response go unaddressed Sharing information with only some who need to know Passing information to staff without the proper context for them to relate to it Getting input and doing nothing with it Meeting with no point, purpose, focus or result The third bullet is about the need for us to tell staff what the information means to them, how it affects them, and why they should care.

Commitment to Communicate Accountability starts at the top Communicating is everyone’s job Recognize that all of us, as managers, are the vital link in ensuring two-way communication You cannot delegate communication Be a channel, not a dam Quality over quantity It starts at the top. That message is clear from the employee survey results. I hold myself accountable for improving my effectiveness in communications and I’ll be working with the executive directors to incorporate appropriate communications objectives into our performance goals. Successful operation of ITSS depends on effective internal AND external communications. Please work with your staff on communications objectives as appropriate.

Call to Action Be a champion for communication Ask for information when you need it Ask yourself, “Who needs to know this? How quickly? How can I tell them?” Work in coordination with your manager and staff to plan actions based on Employee Survey results Use itss-managers@lists for broad communication across ITSS Chris, this is your last slide. A suggestion for your close: Accept personal responsibility for making changes in your own behavior and invite people in the room to help keep you accountable to this commitment. Then transition to Tom by saying, “Now Tom would like to say a bit more about using the ITSS managers list.”

Using itss-managers@lists Like itss-service-alerts, but for organizational (not operational) news Official grapevine for: new initiatives, project milestones, service changes, new policies or procedures, client info, etc. Managers should: send information to the list sift and pass on relevant information to their staffs Not everything will be relevant to everyone—that’s OK Tom Cramer presents this slide. At the end, he introduces Regina to close.