Strategically Communicating

An organization is a living thing. Its many parts react and adapt to changes in the environment. A corporate organization is one thrown into the pit of competition, along with all the other creatures that want to kill and consume it. To survive and thrive, the organization must pay special attention to the flora and fauna that combine to make it whole.  

The flora and fauna are the hardworking people employed and contracted to keep the organization growing and flowing. If the organization is to remain healthy, it must nurture its relationships with its members, developing and maintaining robust communication channels internally that stream from top to bottom, from the most veteran to the newest rookie and flow just as freely back up to the top. An effective structure is one that can listen and learn from all of its parts. 

All members, properly steeped in the company’s culture, will exhibit behaviors directly born from that culture. This is how an organization can manage diverse flora and fauna through unobtrusive control. If the values of the organization are authentic or perceived to be, all the constituent parts of the whole will automatically react to outside stimuli in a similar, cohesive way. It is not what to think, but how to think. 

In my company, we trusted that our corporate culture defined the organization in such a way our people would happily soak it in. They were then able to function in a way that the organization approved and encouraged, whether that was representing us on social media, in person at a function or just out there in public. We hoped to instill pride in their jobs, in their company and themselves. All the while, making and selling some tasty grub. Which makes me wonder, did our power to grow a positive culture rest on supplying free food and drink to our family of employees? It sure didn’t hurt.