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Section
6 — Putting it Together
We
want to hear how you’re putting these tools, tips
and resources in action to improve communication in
your area. Please answer the questions below and submit
your real life communication case study to [email address].
Case Study Questions
| 1.
What was the communication or event? |
| 2.
What made you decide to change your approach to
this communication or event? |
| 3.
What strategies or tools did you use to improve
the communication or eliminate existing barriers
to a successful communication? |
| 4.
What was the outcome? |
| 5.
How did you measure your success? |
| 6.
Anything else you’d like to tell us about
your case study? |
Sample Case
Studies
Here are some sample case studies that
highlight how managers can use the techniques in this
handbook to immediately improve communication.
Case Study No. 1: Staging
an Announcement
With call centers in multiple states and time zones,
it had always been difficult to deliver important
announcements to employees simultaneously and ensure
that the messages were received. To solve this problem,
Tom began “staging” announcements by
emailing call center managers a day in advance to
preview announcements and outline his expectations
for cascading that information to affected employees.
That way, managers could prepare and coordinate
the announcement on the same timetable. Staging
the announcement also gave managers time to plan
how they would balance operational needs while taking
the appropriate time to share information with call
center employees. To help “debrief”
from an announcement, collect employee questions
and evaluate their effectiveness, managers help
a follow-up conference call to discuss the communication
process and plan next steps. |
Case Study No. 2: Measuring
Understanding and Buy-In
While Gaye had been holding regular quarterly meetings
with her staff, she wasn’t always sure how
well employees understood the topics they discussed
and whether their follow up questions were being
answered. To improve measurement and interactivity,
Gaye began sending mini-surveys after each quarterly
meeting. These short email surveys asked questions
to gauge how well employees understood the topics,
invited them to submit questions or feedback, and
also solicited agenda topics for the next meeting.
At the end of the year, employees who had answered
at least one survey were entered in a drawing to
win a free pizza lunch for their department. Responses
increase significantly as employee saw themselves
and their feedback reflected in the meeting agendas
and in summary communications after each event. |
Case Study No. 3: Time-Sensitive
Communication
For several days, Angela’s team had been planning
the announcement of a major new product introduction.
Three days before the scheduled announcement, Angela
learned that a federal agency had just mailed a
separate letter to Ovations customers about the
change in advance of their communications timeline.
Angela immediately called an emergency meeting of
her core planning team members to revamp their materials
for a next-day announcement. In addition to rewriting
their customer letter to help interpret and address
the government communication, the team held a conference
call with all managers and supervisors to brief
then on the situation and walk them through a set
of customer talking points and Q&As that would
be provided to front-line employees. They also worked
with Media Communications to create a news release
and make the announcement publicly. By pulling all
the right people together and leveraging the strength
of their cross-functional team, employees had time
to hear the announcement from Ovations, understand
the changes and benefits for customers and were
prepared to answer questions. |
Case Study No. 4: Promoting
Face-to-Face Communication
Communication across four sites in Insurance Solutions
was difficult to coordinate, and key information
was not passed along in a consistent manner. To
address this need, John started quarterly employee
meetings, rotating among the four sites. He traveled
to each session to present current business strategy,
discuss their objectives and report on their progress,
with significant time devoted to Q&A. He also
held a continental breakfast “open house”
at each site, so that employees could stop by and
chat informally. The benefits of this approach were
two-fold: not only did employees hear directly from
top management about the Insurance Solutions mission,
vision and business goals, but John was able to
cultivate a network of employee communication advocates
and learn about business needs and issues that might
not otherwise filter up to his management level. |
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