Page 67 - Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

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LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
CHAPTER 4
What happens when someone expresses an opinion that differs from

that of his or her boss?
SURVEYS
When you want to take the pulse of an organization and find out the extent to
which an attitude or belief is held across the organization, use a survey. The
survey typically will ask between 10 and 20 questions. It can be done using a
paper-and-pencil format, or it can be done using email or the Web. The format
selected depends on the culture of your organization and how people use tech-
nology. Usually, the computer-based formats get a better return rate than hard
copy.
It is best to send surveys to as many people as possible. If the company has
more than 10,000 employees, however, sending the survey to everyone may be
impractical or too costly. In this case, you may wish to limit the surveys to peo-
ple within a particular function (e.g., marketing, sales, or purchasing) or at a
particular management level (e.g., supervisors, middle managers, or senior
managers). If you receive responses from more than 50 percent of those sur-
veyed, and this number is at least 30 (and preferably 100 or more), you can
consider your results valid. There will, of course, be some bias as a result of
differences between those who do and do not respond, but the numbers of
returned surveys should give you a good idea of the issues and concerns fac-
ing people in the department, function, or organization.
Furthermore, if you survey the entire organization, you can slice (orga-
nize) the data according to specific groups. Specific groups will often have
more or less concern about particular issues; this is typically due to the nature
of their jobs, but it is useful to know this when designing communications
plans. For example, supervisors may need more communications on issues
related to hiring, while middle managers may need greater levels of commu-
nications on development planning. The information gained from the surveys
can help you plan accordingly.
Suggestion: Get some help from an expert in designing the survey. There
is an art and a science to constructing the questions so that you get valid and
reliable results that you can feel confident in using to make decisions. And
there are techniques for distributing and collecting the survey that will increase
the likelihood that you will get a sufficient number of surveys returned.

COMMUNICATIONS AUDITS
Another form of survey used specifically for evaluating communications is
the communications audit. While the audit may assess organizational climate,
it is often used to measure the response to specific forms of communication,
e.g., a video, a brochure, or a meeting. The purpose of the communications