“Do you think the world will change radically over the next ten years?” That was the question Ruud Veltenaar asked at a Rabobank event for small and medium-sized businesses in 2017. Fewer than half the people in the room answered with an emphatic yes. I was among them.
At Progress, I wanted to guard against assuming that change would never be as significant as people predicted. It can be fascinating to watch a development from a distance, but waiting until its impact becomes unavoidable leaves little room to prepare.
Look for trends, not just the latest excitement
How do you prepare for transformation and bring a company along with you? I believe it starts with watching and listening to the changes taking place around you.
A trend can be harder to recognise than a short-lived wave of excitement. It often begins gradually, develops over time and becomes embedded in society. It does not necessarily arrive with a single announcement.
In 2017, increasing digitalisation, autonomous vehicles and more powerful computing were among the subjects prompting questions about the future. Some forecasts were speculative. The useful exercise was to ask what such developments could mean for our own work and for the sectors our clients operated in.
From “ego” to “eco”
The article also considered a broader shift in outlook: from concentrating only on ourselves towards recognising our effect on the world around us.
Examples included people eating less meat, buying solar panels collectively, borrowing items through sharing platforms and exploring smaller homes. These were different expressions of a similar question: how could people make choices that took wider consequences into account?
That did not mean every business would become a charity. It meant considering a broader view of the value an organisation created and the responsibilities that came with it.
The same thinking was visible in discussions about corporate purpose. Some start-ups were built around solving a social problem, while established companies were explaining their missions in terms of helping people or contributing to society. For communications professionals, the challenge was to understand how those ambitions connected with the organisation’s actual decisions.
Keep a distant point on the horizon
I believe a company needs a clear sense of where it wants to go. That longer-term view gives communications specialists a reason to step back from today’s activity and consider the organisation’s position.
What effect could digitalisation have on your industry? What do you contribute to the world? How do you want customers, employees and other stakeholders to understand your business? What would need to change for that position to remain meaningful?
Those questions are closely connected. A company’s purpose is more convincing when it shapes behaviour, and a strategy becomes more useful when people understand how their daily work contributes to it.
Make the vision part of company culture
A statement on a website is only the beginning. If you can bring the principles behind your vision into the company culture, colleagues have a shared foundation for responding to change.
That creates a stronger starting point for learning together and adapting as an organisation. It also gives your communication substance: people can see the connection between what you say and what you do.
This reflection began with a ten-year question in 2017. The question remains useful without relying on any one prediction. What could your organisation look like in ten or twenty years, and is your positioning clear enough to help you move towards it?
To discuss the role of communication in that direction, explore our approach or contact Progress Communications.
Stella
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