By Mary Auestad Arnold
Andy Janning’s CEO/Executive Team Network session yesterday was all about helping our messages rise to the top, whether they be written, in person or via “e-stuff.” You don’t have to become hip and you don’t need an extreme makeover to get your ideas across, assured Janning, president/CEO of NO NET Solutions, Brownsburg, Ind.
“If your message is compelling, if it makes sense, if it impacts people, they will find a way to spread it,” he said. One way to do this is to tell a story.
Often, we just blast off an email and wonder, Why aren’t they doing what I told them to do? “Because we have confused efficiency of communication with effectiveness,” Janning explained. “Changing human behavior is a messy process” that can’t be accomplished simply be sending a straight-up message. Expecting it to work results from “thinking like the media. Change your mentality from pumping out the message (newspaper style), to more of a broadcast news approach that gets them thinking about the message,” he suggested.
To illustrate, Janning showed a video produced at his previous job as VP/organizational development at $924 million FORUM Credit Union, Indianapolis. Designed to address an “epidemic of people leaving confidential information in unsecured places,” the two-minute video was called “Lock it up and Clean it Up,” a rip on an Orbit gum commercial.
Result? Security violations went down 82 percent and have stayed down. The video made an impact and is still part of new hire orientations. “We just copied the idea and used it in a different way,” Janning said.
FORUM CU isn’t the only credit union to turn a familiar advertising image into an attention-getting employee message. At my table in Janning’s session, Daniel McGowan, CPA, CMA, CITP, CGMA, CCE, SVP/chief financial officer at $142 million Pioneer West Virginia Federal Credit Union, Charleston, W.V., described how he used Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World to reinforce the importance of balanced cash drawers. (McGowan was also honored at the conference with the 2012 CUES Exceptional Leader award.)
His concept sounded intriguing, so I asked if he would share it:
Have you used stories like this to get employees’ attention? Tell me one by leaving a comment.
Mary Arnold is CUES' VP/publications.
You'll have another chance to hear from Andy Janning at CUES' Execu/Summit conference in March.
