A Day at Works

While talking about communication, usually we focus on the message, media, and noise.
In traditional command-and-control paradigm where authocratic leadership style is considered the best prescription, communication means flow of information from the top to the bottom to ensure orders are understood and implemented. In a cut-throat competitive environment, where decision should be make on the spot where problem happened, firm needs to leverage people’s mind (creativity, knowledge, etc) and their heart (commitment, passion) then command-and-control paradigm is no more appropriate. More democratic approach such as participation and delegation are considered more productive, then communication role is also changed.

Communication: from giving order to aligning mind and heart
In command-and-control environment, Leader’s objective is to make sure order is understood and implemented as is. Thus when employees do not agreed or in a doubtful, then Leader make a discussion to ‘enforce’ management idea, to provide reason and evident that management’s idea and decision are correct thus must be conducted.
In more participative environment, Leader wants gather people idea and make a commitment of vision, mission, goal and strategy. In this environment Leader make a dialogue to gather new idea and understand employees position, then make a commitment which accommodate every side of position into a vision, mission, goal and strategy. The aim of dialogue is not to define which idea is better but to gather more idea, to get understanding why other people have different point of view and what are their feelings. So Leader is not communicate in mind level but more on heart level.
Thus when Leader wants employees to have sense of belonging, participation and commitment then communication in term of securing flow of right information definitely is not enough. People will not follows someone who is right, but will follow someone who is care about them.

To make a dialogue, Leader must position himself in the same level with employees,.. and without prejudice.

My company conducting data mining to personalized marketing communication. Although we have captive customer, we think public should know about us. Rather than conducting PR campaign, our communication mgr starts to conduct SMS blast and SPG event. I think he is not aware that we use personalized media, but expecting mass result (menggarami laut). This is a classic problem in defining Mission and Media.

Another blunder is a campaign to increase awareness of public and customer which is affluent, -a big spender (imagine our car buyers who spend IDR 100 mio in one transaction, and approx. IDR 500,000 quarterly for car maintenance service) using El-Shinta Radio talk show. The first problem, it is not frequent, the second, it is not targeted to desired customer. Can we imagine Avanza / Kijang owner tune in El-Shinta at 9.30 o’clock in the morning? Why not listening to Trijaya, Radio One, Cosmopolitan, Delta, Pass, Kiss or Mustang…… A friend of mine, smiling as hearing this campaign, and asks “Customer lu supir semua ya? Knapa ngga campaign ke Mall, Café or University? Kalo mau mass, daripada radio mendingan majalah yang lebih segmented, dan awet usianya de….” Yes… I just smile back and change the topic.

Once again, a simple marketing communication sacred 5M (Mission, Message, Media, Money, and Measurement) is not understood, or have forgotten because of its simplicity compared to sophisticated CRM.

According to Freud, and later by Neuro Linguistic Programming we can classify peoples to Visual, Auditory or Kinestetic. These 3 types differ in their styles of learning – thus as businessman it is crucial to understand how actually we can influence them using media, and personal selling.

Visual people learn because they see. They will have a tendency to get attention, because they are well dressed in bright colors; or their facial expressions and gestures will attract you, and get you to look at them. They have a tendency to stand face to face with direct eye contact. They also tend to be humorous or funny and even risk making fun of others. In contrast they are not comfortable talking about highly emotional subjects or in conversations which are too serious. To speak and act quickly and be frequently impatient with others is a strong sign for being visual, even if all visuals are not like that. They can be more or less shy or out going depending on the person. As well you will notice that they access visual representations by looking up very often when they are talking.

Auditory, different from Visual people, learn from their ears. They hear well and passionately (wants to listen and to be listned), and also speak well. They may be carefully dressed or perhaps not, wise or “caustic” depending on the desired communication. These persons are an easy conversationalist in formal situations: family gatherings or professional environments, revealing their sense of humor in the context of a story rather than by making faces ar acting out a story. They easily and readily organizes group activities. You will notice that they often access to auditory mental representations by looking side to side when speaking or thinking about things.

Kinesthetic peoples are more personal and more intimate, showed by their tendency to physical contact, “feeling” word, or slower/ lower pace of gesture or voice. Their style of dressing are not dictated by fashion or good taste but are made sensual either by the use of pleasant and comfortable materials or by sexy look. They often speak less than others and communicate by innuendo which can lead to great “complicity” with certain people or great misunderstanding with ohers.

So certain media fits well to certain type of people…. as well as sales approach….