Choosing the right tools

I chose this week’s topic to address an oversight that I see often made by leaders who do not hail from a communications background. This is the assumption that your personal preferred channel of communication will suffice for all forms of communication. You may write your email or your newsletter, and feel that you can dust your hands of this and let your message do the work. The reality is that in today’s busy world if you’re motivated to communicate a message, it behooves you to find the most effective tool or tools to get your message across.

Most public leaders have a strong foundation of personal communication skills. That’s not the same as being trained in the strategy of organizational communications. Many leaders have no formal communications training at all! As a guest lecturer for the Western Washington University Superintendent Credentialing program, I’ve learned from participants that it’s not uncommon for my session to be the only communications training they receive.1

To help you, I’ve created a mini-series of episodes within my podcast Your Friend in Leadership (link) covering some of the basics of organizational communications in bite-sized portions. Today, let’s talk about communication tools and what professional communicators refer to as the “Communications Pyramid.”

When I worked for the American Red Cross in the late 90s, we followed research that showed you needed to message donors at least 10 times a year to maintain a connection and inspire their support. Since then, the world has only gotten busier. Now the data suggest people need to hear a message 13, 15, or even more times to break through the clutter.

Because of this, whenever you want to engage people in a topic that is complex or important, you need to plan ahead and communicate in multiple rounds. Your personal favorite channel of communication will not be enough, and you definitely can’t just dust your hands after one message and believe that you’ve gotten through. In today’s hyper-busy world, the onus is on you to push out your message multiple times and in multiple ways. 

Communications Pyramid

To determine which tools to use when, we organize all of our methods along a pyramid. We place our most direct tool, 1:1 communication at the point and work our way down, expanding the size of our audience as we near the base. Our second method from the top might be small group meetings, or a conference call. As we work down we might reach email or text campaigns, finishing with webpages, social media, and advertising near the bottom as our most widely reaching communication tools.

Let’s start by organizing your communications tools. Spend a few minutes to generate a list of all the methods already in use in your organizations: email, newsletters (electronic and printed), your website, staff meetings, family / community meetings, etc. Then on a whiteboard or fresh piece of paper, draw a large triangle (pyramid) and place your tools onto this image. 

Place your most direct tool - 1:1 conversations - at the top point and work your way down, placing tools with increasingly larger audiences along the way as you near the base. After the personal conversation listed at the top, your second method from the top might be your cabinet or leadership team and other small group meetings, followed by building-level staff meetings, and other medium and larger meetings. As you continue down the pyramid, you might include email or text messages or campaigns and video messages, and finish with newsletters, mailings, social media, news media, advertising, and your website near the bottom as your most wide-reaching communication tools.

You then match this scale with the opinion leadership of your audience to determine where it is more important for you to invest your time. For example, for community organizers, local labor representatives and local voices of prominence, invest time into one on one conversation. These opinion leaders will trickle down their knowledge to constituents making it a better investment of your limited time.

 It’s twice as important that you spend more time on these individual conversations because only in the most personal communication channels do you have the opportunity to respond to their reactions, provide clarification, and work through your message. Which increases your chances of being able to change hearts and minds. When using broader techniques audiences need more to be able to accept your message at face value without the chance to talk with you, the communicator. 

The pyramid is organized this way because the tools at the top of the pyramid require more of your time and effort, but they are also the tools that give you the best opportunity to influence those you are engaging. It is only in these highly personal communication channels that you have the opportunity to respond to their reactions and provide clarification as needed. This increases your chances of being able to change hearts and minds. So you use these tools to reach opinion leaders because through them, you also reach others. These opinion leaders influence and share your information with other constituents, making it a good investment of your limited time.

But you don’t have time to reach everyone in one-on-one and small group conversations, so that is where the tools at the bottom of the pyramid serve your needs. These tools are good for creating a groundwork of common understanding that your more personal communication strategies build on. 

When you think through how to share your messages, be intentional about choosing a selection of tools from the top, middle, and bottom of the pyramid. 

Next time, we’ll dig into your audiences and think about how to make sure you aren’t leaving anyone behind. 

As the founder and principal of J.Marie & Associates, J.Marie is a seasoned communications strategist and leadership trainer who helps public leaders build trust, communicate with clarity, and strengthen community connections. She works with trusted experts in the fields of public policy, leadership, communications, training, and facilitation. Meet the team and explore the full range of practical, real-world services and trainings we offer at www.jmarie.associates