Member Article

Journey from strategic to effective communication

Continue on your journey to Connected Innovation as we move from Strategic to Effective communication with collaboration experts Arkadin.

As the way we work continues to change with flexible practices and instant communication becoming the norm, one aspect that has not changed is that it is all about the people at the heart of your business. The key to success rests in enabling strategic, effective and flexible communication between your people, the key to success is Connected Innovation.

A quick recap of our journey so far: Strategic

In the previous phase of our journey towards Connected Innovation we looked at how strategic alignment between your people and your business goals:

• Fosters a culture of collaboration
• Sparks creativity
• Heightens employee engagement
• Unlocks the full potential of your workforce

Moving towards Effective

Throughout the ‘Effective’ phase of our journey we will be looking at:

• How to increase productivity and ROI across your business
• How to enable your people, through technology, to share their knowledge
• How to drive faster, more informed, decision making processes.

What is ’Effective’ about?

It’s all about proving your value. Effective communication and collaboration enables your people to prove their value, in both monetary and cultural terms, to the business as a whole.

The IT department is a key example of a business function needing to prove their worth to the wider business through effective communication, with only one in three IT executives calculating the ROI of their department.

In the shifting business landscape Marketing must also step up and communicate their value effectively, after all, by 2017 the CMO will spend more money on IT than any other department.

’Effective’ means sharing your knowledge

Empowering your people to communicate and collaborate effectively enables them to share their knowledge with the wider business. This in turn enables them to learn from their colleagues and allows everyone in the business to make faster, more informed decisions.

This communication also helps build closer, and more productive, working relationships between previously siloed business departments. IT and Marketing are a prime example of this where 60% of CMOs and CIOs now enjoy a trusting relationship based on mutual respect.

’Effective’ is about getting flex-appeal

Millennials, and the rest of your workforce, are demanding an increased amount of flexibility in the time and manner in which they work. Meeting these demands in an innovative manner is beneficial to both the quality of your workforce and your business’s bottom line.

86% of employees believe agile working boosts productivity.

78% of millennials state that innovation in an enterprise has influenced their job searches.

’Effective’ means keeping control

Effective communication is about instantaneously keeping in contact with various business functions, enabling you to retain control at all times.

Communication in this manner:

• Improves Marketing and Sales alignment, reducing the 80% of leads ignored by Sales.
• Reduces the risk of confidential data being shared across untested or unauthorised apps. ​
• Above all ‘Effective’ communication is about enabling your people through technology.

Continue on your journey to Connected Innovation and discover Effective Communication by copying and pasting this link into your browser: http://bit.ly/1kChRMn

This post first appeared on the Arkadin blog.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Helen Lancaster .