Well, all of these have a part to play. And the last two are particularly important contributors to the sense-making process that sits at the heart of the informal coalitions view of organizations. But to leave it at that would be to miss the crucial role that others play in the dynamics of organizational change and business performance. Who are the most significant people when it comes to communicating in organizations? Is it the Internal Comms department? Or line managers? Or is it, perhaps, those influential, ‘tuned-in’ and/or well-linked individuals, who have no formal comms role but who seem to be highly active informally?
The need to make sense
As human beings, we each need to make sense of the world around us and to author our part in it. To do this, we take whatever cues we can from the diverse mix of formal events, everyday happenings, and other people’s words and actions. We perceive, interpret and evaluate these cues through the conversations that we have with others (and with ourselves) as we navigate our way through life.
Some of these interpretations will be congruent with the current conceptions that we have of our self, our roles and our relationships. Others will create some dissonance. Either way, we continuously draw on this interpretive mix in the ongoing construction of our identity. And it is this that enables us to go on together as individuals in a relational world.
The critical thing that I want to highlight here, though, is that everybody does this. Not just a selected few. And they all do it all of the time.
People take whatever opportunities they can to make sense of what’s going on - and to talk about ‘their take on the world’ with others. These conversations follow no set or predictable pattern, whether in terms of their timing, content or outcome. But all of them help to shape people’s understanding and determine the actions that they and others will take.
Emergent outcomes
What happens ‘overall’ then depends on the complex interplay of these local conversational interactions, both within and beyond the formally recognized ‘boundaries’ of the organization. Managers can act with specific intentions in mind, encourage the process, and seek to activate particular informal influence networks. But they can’t control the pattern and content of the ensuing conversations. Nor can they mandate the outcomes that will emerge.
The most important communications, then, are not those that line managers have with staff. Nor are they the formal messages that communication specialists craft for managers and others to ‘deliver’. They are the conversations that people have with each other – throughout the organization – as they go about their work and as they interact informally together.
And it is not simply the actions of a seemingly influential or well-connected set of individuals that determine the outcome of organizational change and performance - important though these people can be. Everyone is a player. People continually exchange stories, as they go about their everyday activities; and, in the process, they co-create the future. These stories blend their perceptions and interpretations of formal messages with their own experiences of the day-to-day reality of organizational life. This process is self-organizing and the outcomes emergent. It is not about "getting the message across". It is about joint sense making and relationship building.
The leadership challenge
The challenge for those in formal leadership positions – throughout an organization - is how they might participate in this process in a deliberate, informed and organizationally beneficial way.
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Earlier posts on organizational communication include:
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