EPISODE 170 | Guest: Jennifer Razzano, director of internal communications for 8451
Ever feel like your message gets lost in the shuffle at work? You’re not alone. Many organizations grapple with keeping everyone on the same page, and the fallout from communication hiccups is bigger than you might think.
In this episode, Jennifer Razzano explains why effective communication is much more than a “soft skill” – it’s a vital driver of success. Join us as she unpacks the hidden financial and productivity costs of falling short and learn her expert strategies for building a workplace where people feel heard, valued and connected.
How many hours does each employee waste per week on unproductive communication? The answer might shock you.
- Understand the true financial and productivity costs of ineffective communication.
- Get stats that prove that communication is a “need-to-have” for organizational success.
- Discover the crucial role of empathy in anticipating employee needs.
- Explore how to use the “Think, Feel, Do” model to craft messages that resonate.
- Hear a framework for building key messages (What, Why, Who, When, What’s Next, and How).
Subscribe to this podcast: Podbean | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | RSS
Get specifics for your screen content in our Free Digital Signage Communications Planning Guide.
Transcript
Derek DeWitt: George Bernard Shaw once said, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Anybody who has had to deal with any aspect of communications, be they external-facing or internal, has certainly come across that moment where you think you got something across and then you find out, no, you did not.
In fact, you could say that good communication is more than just a soft skill. That is what my guest today thinks. And we’re gonna talk about some of the principles of effective communication. I’m speaking with Jennifer Razzano. She is the director of internal communications at 8451. Hi, Jenny.
Jennifer Razzano: Hey there, Derek. How are you today?
Derek DeWitt: Excellent, excellent. Thanks for coming on.
Jennifer Razzano: Glad to be here.
Derek DeWitt: And of course, I’d like to thank everybody for listening to this episode of Digital Signage Done Right. Don’t forget you can, of course, subscribe and review and share and all that jazz. And you can follow along with a transcript on the Visix website where you will also find helpful links.
So, Jenny, I love this statement, “Effective communication is more than just a soft skill” because that’s usually what it’s classified as. Oh, it’s a soft skill and so therefore it’s kind of ignored and all this. I’m glad to hear somebody try and, you know, give communications its due.
Jennifer Razzano: Yeah. A lot of people feel like it’s just a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have, but if you think about your weekly average of sorting through emails, chat notifications, meetings, a number of different channels that you communicate in, you probably spend an average of 28 hours doing that. And that really does start to impact the bottom line, especially if it’s ineffective communication. There’s a financial productivity and just general stress and frustration when it comes to internal communications, and there are real dollars and stats attached to that.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, it’s one of those funny things that these tools that we develop that in theory are supposed to save us time, end up doing exactly the opposite. They in fact create more work for us, you know?
Jennifer Razzano: There’s a proliferation of channels and different means to reach people, but I think that in effect has made it more difficult to make sure that your message is relevant and it resonates with people. So, yeah, more channels doesn’t mean better communication. You gotta go back to your core and your foundation of really developing a strong message first.
Derek DeWitt: Let’s talk about some of the problems that this, you almost might wanna call it a riot of communications options and strategies and channels out there, presents. You have some pretty interesting statistics about how many hours a week are wasted and so on and so forth. Tell me about those.
Jennifer Razzano: Yeah. 28 hours per week wasted on ineffective communication and emails. That’s from Atlassian. So, that’s pretty staggering when you think, you know, your typical work week is 40/50 hours, depending on your workload.
Derek DeWitt: Right. Like, that’s more than half my work!
Jennifer Razzano: Exactly. So that gives you a pause and, you know, should raise a lot of eyebrows as well. And, you know, pain.
Derek DeWitt: Right. And as a company, I think this is not cost effective, because what that means is if I’m paying somebody, I don’t know, let’s say $80,000 a year to make the math work, I’m paying $45,000 a year to have this person do stuff that actually doesn’t do stuff.
Jennifer Razzano: Exactly. There’s another stat where it is the perspective of employees. They cite ineffective communication as one of the main sources of workplace failures. So that’s 86% of employees. And then when you ask execs that same question, that jumps to 95%. So it’s a problem.
Derek DeWitt: But aren’t they the ones who are, like, isn’t it kind of their fault?
Jennifer Razzano: In some cases, yes.
Derek DeWitt: It’ll be interesting, and I’d like to get into that bit more in just a little while. But it works out to something like $12,000 on average per employee per year is basically lost.
Jennifer Razzano: Yeah. Due to communication barriers. That’s SIS International Research have that stat. And that’s staggering. I mean, when you multiply it by X number of employees. And the part that makes it most staggering and frustrating is that it is so easily fixable. And it’s not like hitting an easy button. It does take some time and some work to kind of make sure you’re approaching things in the right way. But once you get this mindset, you know, you get in a rhythm with it. So it’s not that, again, this is not like rocket science, but it, I guess is, is more difficult than we realize.
Derek DeWitt: Well, you know, especially as people get older, I think we both know that sometimes it gets harder and harder to get people to sort of change those mindsets. And so, then you kind of go, okay, well look, you know, employees say that bad communication is a big problem. Okay, maybe the bosses don’t care. Maybe when you talk about money, okay, now maybe they’re paying a little bit more attention. But of course, that’s stick stuff. What about carrot stuff? There are positives as well from developing effective communication strategies.
Jennifer Razzano: Yeah, for sure. There’s a ton of research that speaks to that. And it’s like better project outcomes if you improve communication clarity, you know, the overall experience. If people are better informed, 77% are more likely to suggest process improvement. So, that speaks to more of an executive level, you know, hopefully ears perking up. Like, yeah, I want my people to improve things, not just, you know, be robots and do things.
Derek DeWitt: Right. And if they’re making suggestions, that means they’re engaged.
Jennifer Razzano: Exactly. And then Atlassian again reports that teams with effective communication, they’re actually getting projects done 28% faster. Again, a great, you know, bottom line number there, I think that translates to everyone, especially CEOs. And then Harvard Business Review had a stat of 71% of a reduction in error rates when communication is clearly established. So, that’s phenomenal as well.
When you’re in companies that have frontline safety, you know, issues or safety protocols, I should say, those numbers can be life or death in some cases. If people aren’t following something correctly, you know, from a communication protocol or just protocol in general, you know, there can be serious unfortunate injury to people.
So, you know, there’s a lot of different ways to look at this. I’m coming at it, you know, from more of a day-to-day meeting and email perspective. But when you’re, you know, in companies, again, that have frontline associates and manufacturing environments or supply chain, you know, distribution type situations, construction, if something’s not clear, it could be a serious injury or worse. So, that’s just something else to look at too with communication effectiveness.
Derek DeWitt: I’ve had that thought before that I do think it’s funny that you’ll see some companies, for example, you know, obviously let’s say it’s a warehouse or a manufacturing plant or something, on the floor where people can, you know, lose a finger. Yeah, they’re real careful. Everything’s clear. Nobody has any questions. They’re trained; they are backed up. There are checking protocols in place. There are reporting protocols in place for when things either accidentally or through, you know, sloth are missed things that endanger everybody, ’cause that’s, you know, that’s physical wellbeing. And then, you know, you go upstairs into the cubicle farm and none of those principles are being used at all. Those people, it’s like, they might as well just be on a different planet. They work for a different company. I don’t understand why you don’t just, you already have the systems, so just transfer them over to the guys wearing ties.
Jennifer Razzano: There seems to be some type of lost in translation moment, as you say, when you hit a different floor and there’s some type of nuance, or not nuance or, you know, there’s just, again, it’s lost in translation. And just putting your audience first is a great way to start thinking differently about that. And I think that’s where the core of a lot of the problems are. It’s more of a me, what do I want, you know, how do I want this to sound? But you have to really flip the script and put your audience first.
Derek DeWitt: Two things I kind of wanna circle back to are this idea of 86% and then whatever it was, 93, 90% of managerial level people say ineffective communication is the main source of failures in the workplace. And then this Harvard Business Review thing, that 71% of a reduction in error rates when you have clear protocols established. And I think that’s kind of what we’re talking about. What are those clear protocols? Is it always a case-by-case basis? Are there general principles? And how does one transition an existing system that’s maybe ad hoc and, you know, sometimes effective and sometimes not, into one that is clear, and everybody gets on the same page about?
Jennifer Razzano: Yeah. I think that when you said principles, that’s really a great place to start. If you take more of a principles approach, I think it’s easier to translate into different teams and, you know, different types of communications scenarios.
By that, it’s really looking at, again, your audience and reader first. So, you’re swapping places with them, you’re having empathy for them, their situations, what they’re trying to achieve. And when you start with that framework, it starts to, again, flip the script to really enable them to receive information and understand it better, versus you just ticking something off your list and getting it out. So, there’s just a little bit of a mindset change there, and when you do the principles of that, it starts to break open a little more effective communication.
Derek DeWitt: This word empathy is used a lot in these contexts by modern communications people. I don’t know if the big dogs actually know what that means in practice. There are actually certain things you can do in order to achieve that. We’re not talking about that you’re just sitting there at your desk going, yeah, it must be hard for them. Like you know, like, actually, what is it like to be employee A doing their job and then get this communication? What’s happening in their head? Does it interrupt their flow? Does it make them freak out? Does it make them question things? Is it clear? Like, things like this is what we’re talking about when we say empathy.
Jennifer Razzano: That’s exactly right. I think, you know, it’s just always going back to the idiom of, you know, walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. You know, so you’re really just trying to put yourself into their situation. And that’s where I do think it’s underestimated in creating effective messaging and communication in general.
You do have to sit back and think for a minute. You know, you just can’t go and do. That’s where I think a lot of these stats come into play. You have to step back and think, you know, what questions might they have, you know, anticipate needs. What experience am I creating for this team, person, you know, whatever your end audience is. Am I making it too hard for them to try to figure out what I’m trying to say? You know, you just have to really play it back a lot. So, if you kind of just again, swap places with them and focus on their needs, it starts to become a lot more relevant and meaningful.
There is also a way to check this with the AI tool of your choice. So, you could put in a first draft, just get started. So, once you have your crappy first draft, you can take, again, AI tool of your choice, plug it in, just kind of say, what’s missing here? What questions might arise from this draft? Or what am I missing? And it does really help you, prompts you for like some of those hidden spots too. So, there’s a way to have a little bit of a writing partner with AI. And I always have to disclaim any AI with writing. It’s a partner, it’s not a replacement.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, I’m glad you said that because I think a lot of people, at least you would think from some of the media stories out there (though I wonder how many of them are legit), well, people just putting stuff into AI and then whatever it spits out, they copy and paste it, and they go, there you go, there’s my job done. And that is absolutely the wrong way to use it. It’s more like having an informed discussion with, you know, a group of semi experts and going, hey, what do you think about this? It’s a place to workshop, not to just, you know, copy.
Jennifer Razzano: Exactly. It’s a good checkpoint too. I mean, you can do it with a colleague as well. Like, you know, you don’t need to jump to AI. You could, you know, just partner up with someone and be like, hey, what am I missing here? What questions would you have if, you know, you were in this shoe, you know? So there’re, you know, a lot of different ways to go about that, but it does just take a mindset change that you have empathy for who you are communicating to.
Derek DeWitt: So, one of the things we’re always suggesting to people who create and manage the content for a digital signage system is simplicity. Like really get it down to its bare bones. Make it bullet points. You just need a verb, really. You don’t even necessarily need a subject most of the time because the subject is you, the person looking at the screen. So, you don’t even need to say, you should do this. Just say, do this. I don’t mind if a digital sign tells me to just do it because it’s a digital sign.
Jennifer Razzano: Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of ways to translate that into headline messages. Add a QR code if you want the jumping off point for more information to shoot your audience over to an intranet or, you know, a signup form. So, that’s a great way to [make] people feel like, oh, I’ve got all these other details. You know, how can I put all that on a sign? We use the QR code all the time to jump off to more information, and it’s just a great way to complement, to your point, the headline message, getting the attention, getting the core message out there. And then if people really want more to pull up their phone and QR code them out to somewhere else.
And then there’s also a model that we can explore too if we feel like you need more of a model, so we can jump into that as well. It’s pretty straightforward. Think, Feel, Do. So, I’ll break that down.
So, Think is pretty straightforward (actually, the whole model’s pretty straightforward) but it does help you just create that flow of content to get, like I said previously, your crappy first draft out. So, Think allows you to say, okay, what do you want your audience to know? Now, before you go into that, it’s really helpful for you to edit yourself. What are the one to two things you want your audience to know? I know sometimes there might be more than that in your head. Generally speaking, try to edit yourself. You don’t want to oversaturate that message, you know, going off on three to five things. You know, just the simplicity of it. What one to two things do you want your audience to know is the first pillar of the model.
The next one is Feel. What one to two things, again, edit yourself, do you want your audience to feel? And I pause here with sharing this with teams that might be like, oh God, you know, it’s too touchy feely. What do you mean I want them to feel? You know, I don’t want them to feel. So, Feel doesn’t have to be touchy feely. It doesn’t have to be like, I feel, you know, inspired. And I mean, in some cases, yes, hopefully we want to inspire, so that may not be the best example, but it can be straightforward. I want them to feel confident, confident in how to do X, Y, Z. I want them to feel informed. You know, I know what choices I have in my benefits for next year. So, don’t get scared by the Feel.
Derek DeWitt: Right. I mean, it could be, I mean, if your whole thing is getting people to do what you’re asking them to do, I want them to be motivated to go, yeah, I’m gonna do that.
Jennifer Razzano: Exactly. Exactly. So, I just pause there on that one a little bit more because again, sometimes, you know, Feel is, maybe people think a bridge too far, but Feel can mean many different things. Emotions are good.
And then lastly, Do. And this is what do you want your audience to do, obviously. But this can be taking action on something, signing up for those benefits or, you know, going to that training or getting something done, obviously. But it can also be awareness. The Do can be, I want you to understand or be aware of our strategy, you know? And then a longer burn on that, and a follow-up communication would be like, I want you to understand our strategy and create objectives that help us achieve our strategy. So, it can be an awareness piece to start and then follow up communications could drive more action on the do.
But Do is also another one of those where it doesn’t have to always be immediately, oh yes, you know, go X, Y, Z. Do can be awareness. There’s just a watch out with too much awareness. I just want them to know this. You know, you have to again understand, well, why this time? Is it tied something closer to your action? So awareness, a little bit of a watch out there, and that you do wanna make sure it ties to something that has the WIIFM, you know, what’s in it for me. So, it’s fine to just make sure it, you know, people understand like, why are you telling me this right now?
Derek DeWitt: So, I know one of the things you focus on is what you call key messages. Obviously sometimes if you know manager seven is sending something to the team saying, hey, no, seriously, Friday’s the deadline, where are we on this? It’s pretty straightforward. But I think where a lot of this stuff gets lost is in something that’s considered rather throwaway, I think sometimes, which is more generalized communications.
And you have a kind of, an almost like a starter guide to how to actually put yourself in that mindset. Because I think a lot of times we think, oh, it’s a general sort of, this is for everybody or for a lot of people or several departments or a really big department or whatever. And so, because it’s so broad, it must necessarily be shallow, because I don’t have time to make it deep. But in fact, by following your steps, you can make it deep.
Jennifer Razzano: There is a guide that I created to help really everyone in our company understand how to approach, you know, just some general messaging and to drive consistency, and you can use these across many channels.
The one piece that again goes back to empathy is giving people the background. Like, you know, what are some of the contexts of…? Typically, it’s a change; a lot of change in organizations; we’ve experienced a ton of change. So, giving context as to, you know, well, what’s going on? You know, sometimes it’s not a real big thing, but sometimes it does involve like, well, our industry’s heading this way, so we have to go that way; that’s, you know, some of the factors.
And I think leaders are, sometimes they’re ahead of usually the general employee population in terms of knowing what the heck’s going on, right? They’re already down the journey of their change curve or whatever you want to call. They have more access to decisions (obviously they’re making the decisions), access to information. So, giving a little background as to, you know, what’s the context that we’re going into just helps people ground in understanding and I think just learn your business a little bit better, too.
So, don’t jump too far into just what’s going on, what’s happening. Like, give some context to set it up a little bit. And then you do move into, well, what’s happening? What does this mean for the company? What does it mean for our team? What does it mean for me? We all know, but what does it mean for me is usually the most important part. So, you really have to think about those different layers sometimes, and explaining what is happening and articulate as well, if it’s a big change, what isn’t changing?
So, for example, you know, we’re going to enter in this new market, we see great opportunity, what it means for the company is X, Y, Z. For you, you know, you might need to learn more about that segment of what we’re going after. But what isn’t changing is our long-term vision. We are still here to do X, Y, Z, you know? So, if you are introducing, you know, something that’s changing, you wanna make sure you’re grounding, too, in, like, what’s not changing? You know, our vision still this, our customers still that. That helps a little bit with setting things up and not making it feel too overwhelming in some cases.
After the, What is obviously the Why. And a lot of times this does and should tie back to some of the background, some of the context of the factors that are at play. So, what’s the rationale for the change? Why are we doing this? You know, again, what are the benefits to me and the business? So, why is sometimes breezed by? Because again, from your perspective, or if it’s an executive, well, we know why. But you really need to root your message in that for the all-employee, you know, audience.
Derek DeWitt: And I’ll say, I think, I know I only say these kinda…I have this vision, obviously in my head of managers are all, you know, monsters. But you know, this kinda old fashioned type of a person who’s like, the why is ’cause I said so. But that just doesn’t fly anymore.
Jennifer Razzano: Not at all. Nope. You really need to take time here. People will poke holes in rationales, as they should. You know, you’re employing smart people, and you want them to understand and go on, you know, the “journey” with you. But rationale is really important. If you can’t make it make sense for people, they will fill in their own blanks.
Derek DeWitt: Right. And it may be quite fantastical
Jennifer Razzano: Yes. Oh, what they’re really saying by us going into this other market is that we’re closing down this whole side of our business. Like, no. People go to dark places a lot. You just really want to make sure you’re filling that void. The Why is important.
Who is just like a no duh. But I think one thing to think about the Who, obviously in more complex projects and communication in general, you’re going to have teams impacted by either change or projects or launches in different ways. So you will, you know, want to break out your audiences by different levels of impact and really spell out, well, what’s this mean for you?
So again, you’re getting back to that, always, the WIIFM piece, but who does take a minute to step back, and you do wanna make sure like, oh, is this really applicable for all company at this time? Or do I need to let my managers know at this moment, so they’re informed to answer questions from their teams when they do find out?
Derek DeWitt: Right. Or you’re like, hey, software development really needs a lot of details on this, but maybe this other team, not yet.
Jennifer Razzano: Right. Yeah. So, Who starts to get you into communication planning in some senses, so always have your comms partners there to help you through that. But I didn’t want to breeze by that as like, well, yeah, Who is who. Who is you pausing to say, okay, is this message really intended for all at this moment? So, who does need to take, Who the section, needs to take a few minutes to pause and make sure that this is really targeted correctly at the right time.
And When is a branch off of that. Who is targeted at the right time. When is obviously the timing of whatever’s taking place. But there’s also an element of like, okay, you’re telling me we’re entering a new market, you know, going back to my example, so when’s that happening?
Derek DeWitt: How long is it gonna take?
Jennifer Razzano: How long is it gonna take? Is it next quarter? What is the fallout of the When? Are there teams that are going to have to then, you know, shift what they’re working on this quarter now? And so, When takes, again, a little more nuance versus just, you know, at the first glance. When, like, oh yeah, okay, it’s tomorrow or it’s next quarter. But take a minute to look at When in a way that might have more impact on your audience. Again, you’re trying to think about what questions they’re gonna have.
Derek DeWitt: Right. And answer them before they ask them.
Jennifer Razzano: Exactly. That helps everyone, right? It’ll help your managers, it’ll help you. So, that’s where When is a little multilayered.
And then branching off of When, you know, What’s Next. What actions are needed? What do you want me to do with this information?
Derek DeWitt: Right. And what should I do first?
Jennifer Razzano: Yeah. And that goes a little bit back to the Think, Feel, Do. You know, what do you want them to feel? What do you want them to do? Is it sign up for this training now or you’ll find out more next month when we’re gonna take a deeper level into where this market’s taking us?
So, What’s Next is just a nice placeholder, again, anticipating people sitting there and getting this information, like, what do you want? So, take the time to think about that. Again, this will branch into comms planning a little bit because you probably mapped out some things that you do know are next. So, that’s really important to bake into this communication.
Just a subhead under this. It’s similar to Think, Feel, Do where it can be Inform, where you’re just raising awareness, no action needed. Say that, you know, like be really clear. Because sometimes people will just sit there, what do you want me to do? Or, you know, there’s a swirl moment, right? Like, why am I getting this?
Derek DeWitt: Why did you repaint your office? I thought I had to. Nobody told you to do that!
Jennifer Razzano: Exactly. So, that goes back to some of those stats earlier, too. I think there’s a swirl in general when communication comes out and what do you want me to do, why is this happening, you know? If it is just, you know, raising awareness, you know, we’re letting you know this now, no action required. Just read through and understand it, you know, next month, blah, blah, blah. Or it’s action. You will do this; you will do that. Not dictating like that, but, you know. So those are kind of a, you know, subhead of what would fall under What’s Next.
The last one is How. This would go into a lot more planning, and you may not have the answers today. But it’s helpful for you to start thinking along these lines. If it is a bigger org change or like going after new business or any big change, you want to understand how you’re supporting the team. How can people share questions with you, or feedback? You know, how can they voice concerns and let you know, hey, I don’t know anything about this market? How are you training me? You know, this is not in my current realm of understanding.
So, that piece could also, again, branch into comms planning, but it could mean like listening sessions, office hours, training, what resources. So, the How is like how are you getting people through this change? How are you guiding them to, you know, so that could be involved with like guides or FAQs or, you know, just a variety of resources. If they do need to learn new ways of working or upskill in like a new area, how will they accomplish that?
You, again, sometimes are just dropping this communication, which from, you know, a leader executive perspective is like so cool. It’s great news, we’re expanding in this new market. Someone sitting there like, I don’t know anything about that. Like, I’m feeling very uncertain. Like, we’re going into Latin America. Do I need to learn Spanish? You know, like, what’s happening, you know?
Derek DeWitt: Right. The thing you don’t want, especially with something large scale like that, you want to have answered so much stuff, or at least let them know, hey, if I don’t have some of this information yet, I know that it’s in your head and you’re gonna get it later. Because the last thing you want is as a result of the email or communications you sent out, you know, half your workforce just goes right to the bar and starts pounding down shots ’cause now they’re freaked out.
Jennifer Razzano: Yep. And that’s where some of the rumor mill starts to kick in. And you get the swirl. You know, it’s like, oh, you know, they said we’re expanding in this market, but I think what that really means is da da da da da, fill in the blank.
I mean, some of that’s inevitable, right? We’re all human, you know, we’re built that way. But you know, the more you can have this upfront…. It goes back to empathy where you’re putting yourself in their shoes and you’re like, okay, we know this is a great thing. We’ve been studying this market for two years. We’re so excited to kind of pull trigger and go after it now.
They don’t know all of that backstory. They don’t know the journey and all of the great things that come with it. But, you know, they’re looking at it like, I’ve got to learn something new. I don’t know this; this isn’t in my job description. You know, so you want to make sure you’re thinking about how, and this again, is especially with a bigger change, you know, just in this context, how are you supporting people through change? And if you don’t have all the answers, that’s fine, but recognize that it’s a change for people, and you will be supporting them.
Derek DeWitt: Right. Exactly. I was gonna say, it’s a great feeling for the organization, you know, first they go, hey, there’s gonna be new stuff. And you go ah! And then the next thing, basically, before you’re done, the next thing you hear or read is, and we got your back. Oh, you’re gonna have to learn Photoshop? Here’s how you’re gonna do it. We’re gonna assign, you’re gonna do it every Friday from two o’clock on. This is gonna be, of course it’s free because we need you to learn it. So don’t freak out that you’re never gonna find the time to be able to do this. We’re gonna help you make sure that you have the time, because we’re the ones requiring it.
Jennifer Razzano: Yeah, yeah. And you know, just your phrase “We got your back” is awesome. You know, kind of like, we know this is a big change; we support you. You know, just those empathetic messages, you know. It doesn’t have to be this, again, super flowery, over the top thing. It’s just anticipating needs and saying, we know this is a change, even though we think it’s a great thing, we know for you it could mean different things. And we understand that, and we will support you. And you’ll hear from us at this time.
I mean, ideally you already say “we have a plan”, but even if we don’t, you know, you are at least communicating that we know it is a change. The transparency piece comes in there. We know this is a change, you know, we’re currently working on plans to, you know, help everyone through the change. It’s okay if you don’t have it all figured out. But it’s better to say that, you know, it’s a need and you know it’s important to support the team through it, and we’ll follow up in X amount of time, rather than just being like, isn’t it awesome? It’s gonna be great! Like, and everybody’s sitting there like ah!
Derek DeWitt: Good luck. I’m gonna throw you in the water now and I hope you learn how to swim.
Jennifer Razzano: Exactly. Yeah. And everybody’s in a different place on that change curve. And you just have to constantly remember that again, with these bigger projects, that your excitement, your knowledge, you know, you’re way out here and like, I’m adopting all this. And other people, they’re back here are like really skeptical or they’re in denial, you know?
Derek DeWitt: Well, you know, it’s interesting that you say that. I think part of the reason that you overcome that just sort of knee-jerk skepticism is repetition. You know, it’s a truism of the way that human minds work is that repetition makes it true. We know this. This is in everything. If you keep telling yourself you’re a piece of garbage, then you kind of secretly think you’re a piece of garbage. If you tell yourself you’re a rockstar, then you kind of come across a little bit like a rockstar. And we know this in all fields, sports competitions and things like this, especially. Acting, writing, you know, people who rise to the top of an organization will always tell you it’s all about your mindset. you just put your mind to it. And so, part of that I think is simply through repetition.
And I’m not talking about, you know, on your way to work , you’re listening to affirmations. But it occurs to me, there again, I would naturally think this because you know what we do, that’s a great use of digital signage.
Digital signage doesn’t have to be necessarily the first time that someone’s encountered the information. In fact, in many ways it’s better if it isn’t because a message isn’t up very long, and so they have to go, I’m sorry, what? Whoa, hold on, what? Especially with those last things you were saying, the How stuff, and a little bit the What’s Next as well.
When that stuff gets more buttoned down, you can use, we’ve already told you about this, but we’re just reminding you. Here’s an element, maybe if there’s a deadline coming up, use that digital signage to reinforce and just kinda repeat it over and over again so that they understand that they’re in a supportive environment, an environment in which, yes, we are aware of all of this. We know that you got a lot on your plate. You might actually forget something and you’re not gonna go by which email was it? I can’t remember. We’ve already anticipated this, and we’ve broken out the things that we think are gonna need repetition. And we’ve made digital signage messages out of them. Here they are.
Jennifer Razzano: Yep. That’s great. The reinforcement in all channels and especially the visibility of signage as people, you know, are mulling around the office. And you know, it’s a great opportunity. And I’ve seen, too, where some of these bigger change projects, you know, sometimes get a light touch of internal branding. You might put a visual with something that each time you’re talking about it.
And that’s how we’ve used it too, where we, you know, would just pull over the visual from whatever project it might be. And that helps tie that message, or at least that announcement, to the associates, so they’re kind of seeing that headline message. But then we do a little bit of branding around some of the projects, and it just is a nice like, okay, okay, I think I know what that was. I saw that on that presentation. You know, it just brings it to life in a quicker way than, you know, some of these more nitty gritty messages that I’ve talked through.
Derek DeWitt: So, having bad communications in your organization, even a smaller organization, results in, well, people first off, not knowing what the heck they’re supposed to be doing or how they’re supposed to do it. You waste time, you waste money, and you actually create barriers for people actually doing their jobs. And we have research that backs all this up. And we also have research that says that effective communications leads to better projects, outcomes, that projects are finished faster, that people are more engaged and more likely to actively participate in improving things. And all of that really just requires establishing some kind of a protocol system. And that begins in your head, you, the communicator.
The model that we’ve been talking about today is simple, Think, Feel and Do. And it’s all been elucidated by my guest today. She is Jennifer Razzano, director of internal communications for 8451. Thank you very much for coming on Jenny. Super interesting stuff. I don’t know why, but I really, I like internal communications a lot.
Jennifer Razzano: We’re the unsung heroes, I think. But thank you Derek. It was a great conversation, and I appreciate the opportunity to share a few thoughts.
Derek DeWitt: Thank you very much. And again, everybody out there, I remind you that there is a transcript of the conversation we just had on the Visix website. So go there and read it.