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THINKING STRATEGICALLY ABOUT COMMUNICATION

Emerging technology has had a profound impact on the workplace and how we communicate. It has enhanced our ability to maintain closer contact with our constituencies and to cultivate relationships with new clients and customers, but it also demands more effective communicators who are skilled at crafting clear and concise messages within tight deadlines.
That requires thinking strategically about communication and recognizing that repairing communication mishaps is costly and time-consuming, if at all possible.
Strategic communication involves four elements: knowing your purpose; understanding your audience; selecting an appropriate message structure strategy; and identifying the appropriate channel. This sounds simple. So why do we often hear the refrain, “the problem around here is communication?”

Knowing Your Purpose
When faced with a writing or speaking task, many people obsess first about what they want to say. They may spend hours staring at the computer screen to craft that perfect opening paragraph, often to no avail. A strategic approach to the task forces you to first think about the purpose and to ask why are you writing or speaking. Then consider whether your purpose will be clearly understood by your readers or listeners. Will they wonder why they received the message and need to scroll through it to determine what you want them to do? Most of us, confronted with such material, will put it aside, close the window, or stop listening. So first ask why, and you may find you will be more efficient and no longer agonize about a writing task or speaking engagement.

Assessing Your Credibility
Assess your audience’s perception of you and your organization. It has a tremendous impact on how you should communicate with them. Consider your initial credibility. What does your audience know about you; about your organization? Do you have a shared history? Or have they no knowledge of you? And once the communication has taken place, how will they

This case was prepared by June West, assistant professor of Business Administration. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright ©
2001 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to sales@dardenpublishing.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. ◊

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perceive you? What acquired credibility do you have? Over the long run, what have you built up? Have you strengthened their belief in you and your work; have you heightened their interest in you if they didn’t know about you? Failure to understand how credible you and your organization are to your audience can derail the best efforts.

Understanding Your Audience
Effective communication involves not only analyzing the situation from your perspective as the sender of the message, but also from your audience’s viewpoint. Tailoring your communication toward your audience’s needs and interests guarantees your chance of being understood and achieving your objective. So what do you want to know about your audience?
First consider if they are a primary audience, one who receives a message directly, or secondary, one who receives your message from another source or may be affected by it. Then consider the audience as individuals. In addition to identifying education, training, age, and gender, attempt to learn about opinions, interests, expectations, and attitudes. As a group consider norms, traditions, standards, rules, and values.
Consider too, how much they know about you and your organization. Are they new constituencies who may need background, or is the audience familiar with the organization and just need updating on a new product or service? This will help you determine how much new information they’ll need and how much evidence and detail to include.
Mary Munter in her book, Guide to Managerial Communication, also recommends thinking about what the audience may feel. The audience’s interests and biases, she says, will have a tremendous impact on your communication strategy. So she recommends determining the answers to these questions:
How interested are they in your message? Is your message a high priority or low priority for them? How much do they care about the issues or its outcomes?
What is their probable bias: positive or negative? Can you determine what their attitude may be toward your idea or request? Are they likely to be favorable, indifferent, or opposed? Is your desired action easy or hard for them? Will it be time-consuming, complicated, or difficult for them to perform?

Selecting an Appropriate Message Structure
Strategy
Once you’ve determined your purpose and identified your audience’s information needs, you must select an appropriate message strategy. Ineffective communicators, says Munter, simply state their ideas in the order they happen to occur while effective communicators think

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strategically about how best to tailor their message to their audience. Two strategies to consider are the indirect and direct approach.
Applying the indirect approach
This approach is a familiar one for most communicators because it follows the traditional format that urges one to save the main idea for the conclusion and to lead the audience through the message from background to resolution. This approach is used effectively for an audience that is:
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uninformed and requires background information and details;

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receptive to your idea but needs convincing;

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hostile to your idea but willing to hear your side; and

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analysis oriented.

The advantages of using the indirect approach allows the audience time to become acquainted with you, your organization, and your message before you present your recommendation or request for action. It also serves as a buffer for the hostile or resistant audience since your purpose first is to establish common ground.
Applying the direct approach
The direct approach often is referred to as the “bottom line” and “executive” approach because it states the main idea at the beginning of the message. This approach is used for audiences who are:
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informed and require little background information;

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receptive to the message;

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willing to accept bad news; and

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results oriented.
Munter believes there are many advantages to the direct approach:

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Improves comprehension. She suggests that people assimilate and comprehend messages that get quickly to the point. One can quickly lose interest in a message that is difficult to figure out.

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Is audience-centered. The direct approach emphasizes the results of your analysis rather than detailing the steps you went through to formulate the message as in the indirect approach. 51

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Saves time. The bottom line is apparent to the reader who then can choose to skim or skip sections of the message, read it carefully, or reserve it for reference.
Distinguishing between communicating to inform or persuade

When selecting an appropriate message strategy, effective communicators also consider whether they wish to inform or persuade their audience. To inform, determine whether your purpose simply is to reply to a request for information, provide details about upcoming meetings, events, or documents, furnish updated information about products or services, or maintain contact with client and customers. You may be giving good or bad news but either way the message won’t upset your audience. The direct approach works best in these situations since you can simply give the “bottom line” and not worry about providing background or explanations.
But if your message may upset the audience or if you need to get them to do something they may not otherwise do, you need to consider a persuasive strategy. A particularly useful framework to use is one that I’ve been recommending to students and corporate clients for years.
Called the “Motivated Sequence,” it is adapted from a framework developed by Alan H. Monroe in the early 1960s.
The framework consists of five steps that progress from a focus on the benefits of the message to the action you anticipate from the audience. These five steps are Attention, Need,
Satisfaction, Visualization, and Action. As you lead your audience through the steps, they become more firmly persuaded as the attention shifts from the benefit to the proposed course of action. In the Attention Step, the goal is to capture reader interest and present the benefit of the proposed action you are recommending. For example, if you are proposing to clients an upgrade in their cell phone minutes or specialty equipment, illustrate the safety features of voice activation or hands-free hardware. Use the Need Step to outline the specifics or the scope of the problem. Provide ample proof that this problem is immediate. Using the example above, you could cite incidents of accidents involving drivers who were using their cell phones or the elimination of searching for frequently called numbers for the ease of simply speaking the name of the person you wish to call.
In the Satisfaction Step, tell your audience what you want them to do. Be direct. State your proposal; show how it will eliminate the problems you have identified. Provide proof that the proposed course of action has worked in similar situations. Address any objections or alternatives that you think might come up and show how other solutions are less attractive than yours. The fourth step forces the audience to visualize or see how they will benefit from the proposal. Certainly show any negative impact that may occur if they don’t comply. Show the positive benefits that will be realized from a decision to follow your advice.
And finally, in the Action Step, tell the audience exactly what you want them to do. Most persuasive messages neglect this all important step. Confidently state the action that you want.

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Remind the audience of the benefits they can expect. Be firm and explicit. Don’t assume they know intuitively what must be done.

Selecting an Appropriate Channel
Once you’ve crafted the actual message, choosing the appropriate channel plays a central role in its success. Select the channel giving thought to the message, the desired effect upon the audience, and the cultural context in which the message will be sent. For example, choose email for brief, impersonal messages, updates on routine matters, and to gather and compile information; use the telephone to relay short, simple messages, provide feedback, and to send messages that are confidential or require quick turn-around time; and the facsimile for visual display of information and providing hard copy. Use face-to-face meetings to convey confidential and sensitive messages, for persuading and negotiating, and to take note of nonverbal communication. Careful consideration of the medium that will best communicate your message ensures that you will accomplish your objective.
Effective strategic communication is the total of an organization’s efforts to communicate effectively and profitably. The actions you take to achieve your goal depend upon the credibility of your company or firm, your relationship with your constituencies, and your ability to communicate clearly with them.
An excellent desk reference is Mary Munter’s Guide to Managerial Communication, 4th Edition, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997.

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