Do you want to change culture in an organisation?

To do this you need to learn how to communicate effectively with your team members and other staff. That’s what we’re going to focus on in this blog post, how to compose fresh and effective regular communications and reminders to let people know how well they’re doing and how far they’ve come.

Let's dive right in shall we?

Are you doing enough already?

Whenever you're trying to change culture, one communication at the start of the project is not enough, two communications throughout the first year of the project is not enough, essentially taking a minimalist approach to communications is going to make you forgettable. You've got to communicate to people regularly through a variety of different ways, be it email, social media or in person. Be present, be helpful, and de diligent.

We tell our customers they've got to send out a communication of some sort every quarter at the very least, telling staff why they should participate and what the benefits of the system are for the staff members.

You can download various templates for making announcements in your organisation right here.

Keeping up with the communications

You've got to keep these communications fresh, because if you send a communication every quarter, you're going to be competing with all the other communications that go out within your organisation. You've got to keep the communication enjoyable, interesting and use new information - think of yourself as a sort of journalist, picking the best data and angle for your story to grab the attention of your readers.

Give yourselves a pat on the back

Everybody loves a pat on the back, praise drives us. Everyone likes positive reaffirmation of what they're doing. It reminds them that they're on the right path. It motivates them to do more, and it reinforces the idea that the behavioural change that they've gone through is the right thing to do. It reminds them everyone else is doing it, but also that their personal contribution has been important.

The X Factor

You may not be allowed a quarterly message because reuse, or whatever change you’re trying to make, isn’t deemed exciting enough. So, get creative. Make it exciting, make it appealing, make it readable and shareable. Also, don’t just rely on the all-staff email system or the internal newsletter, you know for a fact that not everybody reads the whole thing!

So, how to make reuse communications exciting? Well, that’s going to be on an organisation-by-organisation basis, so we can’t give you that answer, but we can tell you how to find it. Get your creative minds together, brainstorm, make things current, relevant and interesting, use popular culture, use staff interests, find influencers within your organization and use the news headlines for inspiration.

Go beyond the staff newsletter - get on Twitter and Instagram sharing pictures of the hard work, get on the flatscreen in the lobby, get a link on the website homepage and create a buzz.13 top tips.

Consistent value

Alternatively, create your own newsletter! Find all the people that are interested in the project or culture change and get their email addresses. You might be thinking you're not techy enough for that, but there are so many easy tools for making newsletters, and so many great businesses who are winning and making huge gains off the back of these sendouts.

If you consistently provide value in say a sustainability, procurement or facilities newsletter that goes out once a month, you’re going to build a following. If you educate and inform others in your organisation, you’re growing an important list of members who are subscribed to your ideas and when the time comes for action, they are your biggest supporters and most likely to follow your instruction.

As long as you work hard to keep your content interesting, funky, fresh, lighthearted and educational, you’re going to get your newsletter opened and read. That means your department is going to have more of an effect, so when your newsletter or communications continue to grow, it brings others in and makes it a team activity. Those people in your office are probably sat with internet facilities available all the time - so put it to good use!

Look how far we’ve come, we’re at the end of the blog post! 

You can download various templates for making announcements in your organisation right here.