Cutting through comms is what matters.
By Cliff Ettridge 04 Feb 2009.
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I’ve been working with the comms guys down at Gatwick and what’s interesting for people working inside that business is that, despite all the doom, gloom and economic meltdown, this business is looking fit for the future. There’s no collective wringing of hands from the top, but more a determination to lead by example and communicate with clarity and consistency. They’re getting a real cut-through on their internal communication and you sense that’s helping keep people focused on the job in hand.
When you’ve worked with organisations that are regularly exposed to crisis then you quickly see how these lessons form attributes that become the cornerstone of everything you should do. It becomes all about the operation, and anything else, pure internal marketing or just sitting on your hands and doing nothing, is ineffective.
No strangers to rough conditions
The organisations best placed to see themselves through the current economic turmoil will be those that have learned from constant exposure to rough seas. Gatwick isn’t a business in crisis, but you could be forgiven for thinking so, were you to rock up in Blighty for the first time today and pick up any one of our daily newspapers. It is a business that gets more than its fair share of attacks from the press.
All this rough treatment has had an effect on the way we’ve planned communication with people there. We’ve worked at rules of thumb like keep it simple; focus on operational communication over and above anything else; and give people the daily information they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability (and in difficult surroundings). We’ve found that just delivering communications about operational excellence is what matters as the first base point. And, ensuring that leaders at a local level are seen to be delivering, that is the second base.
Tackling uncertainty head on
Will the economic downturn affect Gatwick and other airports? Will its people suffer from a buffeting of morale? It's a ‘Yes’ to both questions I believe. But is a place like Gatwick sturdy and ready to take on difficult trading; is it ready to keep its people updated with daily information that reaches the front line fast? You bet. That to me has been the result, good and disciplined internal communications – stuff that makes business fit to work and fit to meet the uncertain times head on.
