Current news events often hold a message that can be used in business or personal communications. If something in the news can make a key point for your communications, why not use it? By starting off your writing with a relevant and timely story you’ve seen on TV, read on the Internet, newspaper or magazine or picked up through a social media source, you immediately capture the reader’s attention.
Take the refuge situation in Europe. If, for example, you want to communicate to your employees the necessity for change, you could lead with the refuge crisis. Lay out the reasons the current flood of humanity is risking their lives and those of their children to get to a European country. The high risks of survival drive them to leave their homes.
Make this point relevant to the situation within your business. Are your profits in a precipitous decline? Are new players encroaching on your territory? Lay out the factors driving change. The plight of business is different from human survival, but you can find examples that underlie both:
· People are way more likely to change behavior in a crisis situation. When your back is against a wall, you have no choices. Can you effectively use this message with your employees by comparing your company’s plight to the masses exiting the Middle East and Africa?
· People need help. Your employees cannot succeed in a vacuum, nor can your company. They need information and tools to successfully negotiate change, the same way refuges need help in terms of shelter, food and water, as they look to settle into a new life.
· Once some early basic steps are taken, change is not over, though often we forget follow-up steps are necessary. Settling the refuges will not end the problem. There is a root to their plight that must be addressed in the world political arena. Similarly, putting in a new policy or sending out a memo doesn’t constitute change in your company. You must continue to communicate, reinforce messages, get out and talk to the masses face-to-face and follow-up continuously to show what ongoing steps are necessary for your company to succeed.
Those are only three points you could make by utilizing the current news on refuges to get the attention of your employees. There are many more issues you could address, and news events to pick from.
Whatever you choose for your news event, make it relevant to your case at hand. Structure your lead (the news) to gain attention. Compare it to your business case. Make your readers think. Transition to your company’s specific subject matter.
Take the refuge situation in Europe. If, for example, you want to communicate to your employees the necessity for change, you could lead with the refuge crisis. Lay out the reasons the current flood of humanity is risking their lives and those of their children to get to a European country. The high risks of survival drive them to leave their homes.
Make this point relevant to the situation within your business. Are your profits in a precipitous decline? Are new players encroaching on your territory? Lay out the factors driving change. The plight of business is different from human survival, but you can find examples that underlie both:
· People are way more likely to change behavior in a crisis situation. When your back is against a wall, you have no choices. Can you effectively use this message with your employees by comparing your company’s plight to the masses exiting the Middle East and Africa?
· People need help. Your employees cannot succeed in a vacuum, nor can your company. They need information and tools to successfully negotiate change, the same way refuges need help in terms of shelter, food and water, as they look to settle into a new life.
· Once some early basic steps are taken, change is not over, though often we forget follow-up steps are necessary. Settling the refuges will not end the problem. There is a root to their plight that must be addressed in the world political arena. Similarly, putting in a new policy or sending out a memo doesn’t constitute change in your company. You must continue to communicate, reinforce messages, get out and talk to the masses face-to-face and follow-up continuously to show what ongoing steps are necessary for your company to succeed.
Those are only three points you could make by utilizing the current news on refuges to get the attention of your employees. There are many more issues you could address, and news events to pick from.
Whatever you choose for your news event, make it relevant to your case at hand. Structure your lead (the news) to gain attention. Compare it to your business case. Make your readers think. Transition to your company’s specific subject matter.