Aren't these interesting times? The banks are gripping the sides of their chairs as they plunge on their roller-coaster ride; redundancies all round; bonus - let's not mention that! The great looming cloud of recession ahead to cheer us all as the evenings draw in! Let's face it, we have been here before and we survived, some better than others but, the sky did not fall.
What about Communications in these challenging times? Organisations still have to communicate, especially when they are making changes and announcing redundancies and losses. Somebody has to tell the full story. Yes it's been a bad year but what about all those not just good but fantastic years of profit? Where did all that go? There has to be someone to tell how we plan to get out of this mess and turn things around.
There are likely to be mergers and acquisitions as organisations
shore up. Big changes for much-buffeted employees - the grapevine turns into a lighted fuse flickering its way towards the keg. They need to know what's going on - where they stand - what's going to happen - when, where and how. They need to know this before the fuse is lit. Internal communications is vital in these situations and it needs to be well in place at the beginning or even before the beginning. This takes experienced change communicators. So what if you need to bring in someone who has more experience than your current internal comms team? Head count freeze makes that difficult so the solution is the independent consultant. Someone who has been through this before, often many times and in different organisations.
There are a number of highly experienced independent consultants around. These are people who have been in house and become disenchanted with 'business as usual'. They thrive on challenge and enjoy nothing more than a meaty project to focus their energies on. The contractor can often save the day. Not, however to be confused with the Consultancy. Internal communications and change communications consultancies are relatively few and their function is very different. This is when the business needs to take the whole thing apart and examine how to reassemble in a sleeker smarter way to relate to the business as a whole and continue going forward. The Consultancy comes in, makes the diagnosis, goes away and puts together the recovery plan and then monitors and directs the treatment.
One thing for sure, the next 6 to 12 months will see many changes and those who take the positive approach will be most likely to stay afloat through it all.