
The first page of Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense," which appeared in 1776. In the first three months of publication, it sold 120,000 copies, which is impressive when one considers that the entire population of the Colonies at the time was under 3 million, many of whom were illiterate. That's one copy for every 25 inhabitants. Common Sense became the best-selling printed work by a single author in American history up to that time, illustrating the power of the written word.
Your internal newsletter isn't likely to achieve such broad social impact, but it can nevertheless exhibit the power of the written word by keeping your stakeholders well informed about the issues and progress of efforts for which you're responsible. Photo courtesy WikiPedia.
Whether you're responsible for a project, a department, a division, or a company, publishing an internal newsletter — by email, Web page, SharePoint, Facebook, whatever — can be an effective means of keeping stakeholders informed about what has happened, what is happening, what you believe will happen, and what you believe won't happen.
A newsletter can become the authoritative source of information about the effort. Although it can establish you as someone who truly understands the importance of stakeholder relations, there is a risk. You don't want to flood readers with information they consider irrelevant to their special interests.
Here are some tips for creating a newsletter that informs but does not overwhelm your stakeholders.
- Keeping people in the dark is expensive
- If you don't keep stakeholders informed, you're leaving space for them to make stuff up. Publishing what you do know is far more effective than letting others make up what they don't know.
- Make it a quick list of short items
- Limit the length of each item to the length of a tweet — about 140 characters. Most people don't want to read long dissertations.
- Make each item a headline, nothing more
- Full explanations are unnecessary. Each item can be little more than a teaser to let the reader know what the impact is. Use the "So What?" test to develop a headline. See "Deliver the Headline First," Point Lookout for May 3, 2006, for more.
- Include a link to a more detailed explanation
- Since some people do need more detail, you must provide it, but don't subject everyone to the full story. Write a more detailed explanation for your intranet site and link to it in the newsletter.
- Squelching rumors is perfectly acceptable
- Some people feel that denying rumors gives them wider circulation, but if you've heard the rumor, almost everyone else has, too, and thus wider circulation isn't really an issue. Squelch rumors, but be right about what you say. See "There Is No Rumor Mill," Point Lookout for March 26, 2003, for more.
- Get out in front of rumors
- If you'll Some people feel that denying
rumors gives them wider circulation,
but if you've heard the rumor,
almost everyone else has, toobe doing something that you expect will be controversial, why wait for rumors to form? If you get there first with real information, you're less likely to have to deal with rumors. - Feature people and teams who contribute to success
- Short features describing the talents and contributions of key people are interesting to your stakeholders for the same reasons that features are interesting to news consumers in the media generally. Give the enterprise the information they need to gain a true appreciation of the efforts of the people you feature.
- Feature new people
- Use your newsletter to introduce people who are new to the effort. Tell your stakeholders about their background and about the contributions you anticipate.
Whatever you decide to do, have your newsletter reviewed by someone who has a grasp of good writing, relevant content, and the needs of your readers. Top
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Related articles
More articles on Effective Communication at Work:
Saying No
- When we have to say "no" to customers or to people in power, we're often tempted to placate
with a "yes." There's a better way: learn how to say "no" in a way that moves the
group toward joint problem solving.
There Is No Rumor Mill
- Rumors about organizational intentions or expectations can depress productivity. Even when they're factually
false, rumors can be so powerful that they sometimes produce the results they predict. How can we manage
organizational rumors?
See No Evil
- When teams share information among themselves, they have their best opportunity to reach peak performance.
And when some information is withheld within an elite group, the team faces unique risks.
They Just Don't Understand
- When we cannot resolve an issue in open debate, we sometimes try to explain the obstinacy of others.
The explanations we favor can tell us more about ourselves than they do about others.
Chronic Peer Interrupters: III
- People who habitually interrupt others in meetings must be fairly common, because I'm often asked about
what to do about them. And you can find lots of tips on the Web, too. Some tips work well, some generally
don't. Here are my thoughts about four more.
See also Effective Communication at Work and Project Management for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
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- To take the risks that learning and practicing new ways require, we all need a sense that trial-and-error approaches are safe. Organizations seeking to improve processes would do well to begin by assessing their level of psychological safety. Available here and by RSS on December 13.
And on December 20: Contrary Indicators of Psychological Safety: II
- When we begin using new tools or processes, we make mistakes. Practice is the cure, but practice can be scary if the grace period for early mistakes is too short. For teams adopting new methods, psychological safety is a fundamental component of success. Available here and by RSS on December 20.
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