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Before you vote in May – Here’s Elections 101

You’re a Corporate Communication Strategist? But what do you do?

You’re a Corporate Communication Strategist? But what do you do?
In order to explain what I do as a Communication Strategist, I need to first point to a few crucial factors that answer the question “Why do you do what you do?”
1. The world is a different place now. Business is only one part of a much greater system and, to sustain harmony in the world, organisations have to consider their place in and their responsibility to the bigger system. They have to act in a way that enhances the concept of interdependence between economic, financial, environmental, political and social factors. The business arena is ‘being watched’ by activists and thought leaders who are very ready and able to expose companies that cause disharmony; so much so that regulators and governments are responding to the pressure by imposing guidelines and conditions for how organisations should behave if they want to be seen as reputable and sustainable global players.
2. A business is not self-sufficient, it needs all kinds of support from those on whom it depends for its existence. Today, people and consumers know more and expect much more from business. They want to feel that a business identifies with them and their needs, not the other way around, and ‘speaks to’ them.
3. There are thousands of similar products and services out there, so why should people choose yours? What you offer, over-and-above your product, counts for a lot now, and it is involves more than a transactional relationship, it must be real engagement with your people – an emotional connection. Differentiation through communication not products.

A communication strategist understands these factors and reaches out to the business world to develop a deep appreciation of how these factors impact a business’s operations, growth and success. The strategist engages with organisations through communication learning from each other, getting to know the company’s situation and responding to stakeholder needs appropriately to achieve business goals.
Tony Manning, once said, “Organizations are managed conversations.” Every day you and your organization communicate. There is an ongoing flow of information, ideas, opinions and emotions between an organisation and its audience or stakeholders – but is this communication well-planned to achieve its goals? Is it sufficiently strategic?
For corporate conversations to be meaningful and have a positive impact on the company and its publics, they need to be planned, appropriate and relevant. And the messages that come from a company must reflect its personality and its purpose. Developing a strategic communication plan moves the company in the right direction, getting internal and external audiences to buy into its vision, plans and activities.

The plan begins with YOU. Your company’s purpose and vision is fundamental to your success. If you don’t know your company’s purpose or even your own, finding one is your first priority. You also need to identify those with whom you want to share, collaborate and build your company, and then harness the power of communication to get them to work with you to accomplish your business goals.
Many business owners, managers and leaders need a helping hand in developing a clear, consistent and effective communication strategy. That is where the communication strategist comes in: she begins their conversation by getting the ‘boss’ to reflect on the business, its purpose and goals, its strengths, weaknesses and challenges, asking questions like: what is the outcome you want? What stands in your way? How do you overcome these obstacles?
At REAL Communication Consulting, we use well-researched methods to develop a strategic communication plan. We divide the process into ten ‘conversations’ in which you:
1. Identify your purpose and develop a vision or mission statement
2. Develop a corporate identity or brand to reflect who you are
3. Identify specific communication goals that support your business goals
4. Communicate mindfully with your stakeholders to learn what is important to them
5. Find alignment between your perceptions and those of your stakeholders
6. Develop the key strategic messages to achieve your goals
7. Create and deliver communication that speaks to your key stakeholders
8. Clarify meaning to minimize misunderstanding, wasted time, and negative emotions
9. Plan feedback and measurement methods to ensure that communication achieves its goal
10. Develop reflective practices that help you develop your communication expertise.

A communication strategy helps you create a productive communication environment, generating trust and a culture of interactive, engaging and meaningful communication in your organization.
Once your business starts on this journey, it will see itself as part of a much larger system with greater goals for future sustainability, and it will begin considering ways to make not only its business, but the world, a better place.

How to fix SA – do things differently

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Amidst the sad and ugly reality of unacceptable levels of unemployment, fraud at all levels, poor service delivery and unprecedented skills, education and leadership shortages, all citizens are engaged in the ‘how to fix South Africa’ discourse. The media and analysts offer facts and figures that incite fear and fury, such as, “social spending (in grants, free services etc.) amounts to 58% of government expenditure. 72% of our unemployed are below the age of 34. We have more South Africans receiving money from welfare than are in employment”. Clearly something is broken and we have to try and fix it.

For his book, “How to fix South Africa – the country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs”, Ray Hartley chose to get ideas from those at the top. And although the ideas may be good and rationally constructed, I would suggest we now get working from the bottom up, with the doers, not the debaters and thinkers who have been at it for years and yet nothing has actually changed. We all know the problems and their causes, and many interventions, plans and programmes have been proposed by government and business to achieve the goals of five million jobs and 100% functionally literate and numerate workforce by 2030. These have not got off the ground due, mainly, to bureaucratic red tape and regulations, or a sense of powerlessness to tackle the humungous task. There’s too much talk and not enough action. So what we now need is action.

But firstly, let me give you the gist of the ideas which now need to be put into action by all citizens:

Adrian Gore talks about two approaches to job creation: “the populist, immediate and interventionist, urging the hiring of workers at any cost…it is financially unsustainable”, and “the classical economist’s view – long term and structural, government is required to provide the conditions to make hiring attractive to business. Fundamentals such as education, healthcare, labour flexibility and barriers to entry must be addressed.” Clearly, if the present ‘interventionist’ approach of the government is not working, then surely this bottom-up approach needs to be explored more to make South Africa’s economy and society work better?

”Action is critical”, says Cyril Ramaphosa. “Our resolve to create jobs should be executed with a determination and speed akin to that of how one would save another person from a burning building”. “We need to make our economy more competitive. The cost of labour needs to be confronted……[but] we don’t have the time. We need to act now….. As a society we need to reconsider the role and place of SMEs and develop and raise entrepreneurial activity”. We can’t solely rely on government and big business to create new jobs.

Bobby Godsell says, “What our society needs is gainful employment, that economic activity where real value is created or, where the value created by employment exceeds its cost. No other formula can sustain economic activity”.

To enjoy future growth, wealth and social stability, we “need to make sacrifices today,” according to Pravin Gordhan. He believes “we need to work together and create synergies to make a contribution to a better South Africa. Corporate learnership programmes endorse Lincoln Mali’s idea that to solve this social problem “the whole village must mobilise and get involved.”

Ann Bernstein suggests that following the “Asia success story” would take workers out of poverty. Compared to the dismal future awaiting the presently unemployed, accepting low paying jobs could at least give them a foot in the economic door and could lead to “training, discipline, skills and opportunities that flow from that”. The demand for higher wages does not make South Africa competitive, and that is the aim if we want to grow our wealth.

According to Helen Zille, “the biggest obstacle to doing business in South Africa is an inefficient government bureaucracy”. Therefore it is up to entrepreneurs to create jobs and wealth. Zille quotes the statistics showing, “68% of private sector employment and 50% of our GDP are contributed by businesses employing fewer than 50 people”. These businesses should receive tax benefits and be rewarded for skilling their workers. The youth wage subsidy programme tries to encourage businesses to employ workers and initiate skills development in the workplace, reducing government bureaucracy.

“Obstacles to employment must be removed, fast!” says Herman Mashaba, “something [a low paying job] is better than nothing, being active is better than being idle and you do not learn skills by sitting at home…..there is no justification for interfering with the wishes of the workers who would rather have a poorly paid job than no job.” He acknowledges the potential of SMEs to reduce unemployment, for it is in the small firms that many receive training that allows them to access jobs in larger firms.

Michael Spicer, “The failure of policy and governance…and the self-defeating consequences of the wage and strike strategy of the union……the ignoring of issues of productivity, competitiveness and generation of wealth does not contribute to rational debate….. Government, business and labour must break with the past and do things differently, where the state enables business to create wealth and employment.” He asks: “Why so little productivity bargaining”? Why not more bonus schemes linked to productivity? Then there is the issue of welcoming “skilled immigrants.” According to Jardine, SA skills are benefitting other markets so we end up having to import specialist skills.

Moeletsi Mbeki writes: “For SA to create jobs we need to provide incentives to private sector…. to invest in new enterprises, to expand existing companies and to develop new products and processes. The labour force needs to be motivated to embrace productivity growth and a strong work ethic. Protected employment….producing shoddy goods and poor services, are always on a road to nowhere.”

Godsell explains that entrepreneurship creates value through combining resources in new ways. People can solve problems and build relationships that create value, machines cannot. Each worker needs to be “both problem-solver and relationship-builder” and be an active citizen in economic growth activity.

“The future is not in BEE but in SEE – self-economic empowerment,” says Muzi Kuzwayo. “There must be something fundamentally wrong with people who are fighting for economic freedom yet despise selling tomatoes and fatcakes on the street.” According to Brett Dawson, “employment means much more than earning an income: it promotes self-worth, independence and innovation.” He also maintains that “by investing in the sustainable development of SMEs, you can make invaluable inroads into boosting skills and creating employment.”

Locally, constructive and concrete suggestions emerged at a meeting at the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business where the CEO, Melanie Veness, identified the small to medium enterprise (SME) sector, as the locus for skills development of the youth, as an excellent starting point. Local businesses could start by employing young enthusiastic job-seekers and graduates, skill them to perform well in a business environment, encourage them to have the confidence to be more entrepreneurial and to start businesses of their own – that will grow the economy and create jobs. “Soft skills” training is vital in helping people to thrive in the working world. What makes one worker a better bet than another? What adds value to a person’s performance in the workplace is the ability to communication better, write better, understand what’s expected of you, ask questions, think critically, a balance of respect, assertiveness, patience, empathy, confidence, attitude – these “fuel entrepreneurship”.

“Roll up our sleeves to halve the unemployment problem in under 10 years” says Zille, and according to Bierbaum, “Every individual needs to see their own power in creating a solution.” With no more excuses and one vision.

Why is the Bredasdorp rape case getting all this attention?

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Why such a focus on the Bredasdorp rape story when rape has become a regular occurrence all over South Africa? Here are some thoughts……

Ordinary people have had enough! Now, using new media as activists, concerned citizens, special interest groups, NGOs etc are forming coalitions, focus groups, and the like, to address public issues threatening our society and to pressure government to seriously address problems like violence against women and alcohol abuse for the benefit of society ….more…

1. Social media as sites of mobilization
The rise of ordinary people protesting, petitioning and advocating against violence and injustice in a participative, democratic manner is seeing a redefinition of the citizen. Through the use of social media, there is a growing activism culture focusing on creating awareness of issues impacting both the public and society and on getting people active in communities that were previously seen as marginalized and disempowered. This phenomenon of participation may be fragmented, but nevertheless is political-personal expression directed not only against those in power but could be leverage for positive social change. It represents new options for ordinary citizens to affect changes in social policy and behavior.

Here in South Africa people and groups have been voicing discontent about the numbers of violent rape cases for some time now but the powers weren’t listening nor responding adequately. Perhaps the traditional channels of expression were ineffective. Now the agitated citizenry is using the power of social media to circulate the protest and garner support and, it would seem, the Bredasdorp case came at the right moment when a number of factors came together simultaneously to carry it to such a great height in our discourse and our consciousness.

Hence, the growth of engagement with online pressure groups has resulted in new sites for creative activism and social change.. They offer great possibilities for bringing collective pressure to bear on political and corporate groups, resulting in action. Depending on the different situations, the subsequent action could suggest that, “social networking technology has come to play a larger role in both creating and maintaining corporate [and government] reputations and damaging them” (Beal et al., 2008). The phenomenon of a changing media environment of ‘continuous connectivity’ and ‘collective participation’, where citizens can participate in ongoing discussions and debates in the public sphere, is now contributing to a new form of political engagement. Citizens can use both traditional and new media to form pressure or advocacy groups to publicise and promote their views, activities and campaigns, and to win public support and grow their membership to pressure or lobby government, either advancing or staving off government regulations.

The Bredasdorp case confirms that the present state of violence, crime and corruption in South Africa has also resulted in a growth in public activism and a new kind of citizenship where citizens seek to educate themselves and maintain community vigilance. As citizens, using new media, they are developing discursive strategies to effect change in policy and practices, using petitioning and advocacy through the Internet, coalition building and aligning with social movements. Their voices join to form alternative identities and public sphere, and work in the interest of social change. This indicates people’s new-found ability to make judgments, and make decisions to communicate and generate awareness to mobilize others to action, thereby inducing the government to be more accountable and socially responsible.

Ultimately, ordinary citizens are exercising their political rights, using critical news coverage to stimulate social discussion and concerted actions and to create awareness through collective initiative and social movements, articulating interconnectivity between people of different classes, genders, and races, and acting as advocates for social change.

2. Political and Media manipulation

The media has always played a pivotal role in disseminating relevant information around social and public issues, raising points of argument from all sides of the debates. The media’s power to influence therefore is crucial to communicators – individuals, groups and organizations – who want to affect change in society, whether economic, social or political. How (through intensity, frequency etc) media present information and stories influences public perceptions.

Common strategies used by media to divert readers’ attention away from certain issues, people or actions (eg agenda setting, accumulation and framing) include placing undue focus on one news item while seeming to ignore similar stories elsewhere. Some might say that – as was stated in a recent news story – the ANC is strategizing to wrestle the Cape out of the hands of the DA in the next election. Speculators say there will be more negative news and criticism around events in the DA-led province to perhaps give the impression that the violence there is on the increase or that it is getting out of control – usually it’s areas like Limpopo that get much coverage for crime, violent rapes etc.

3. Women Activists for Women’s issues in the media
Women’s pressure groups are growing and are bringing all cases of violence against women into the open through the media in the hope that government will act to end this scourge. However, those in government, particularly the women, also want to be seen to be supporting these calls in the hope that the public will perceive them as part of the solution… Take a look at who is on the scene when the SABC TV cameras are rolling at the homes of victims – comforting and commenting….
Ends.