Building soft skills in a flat world

In our new world of connectedness, every company employee is a potential spokesperson – so why not equip them to do that job?

How can we build communication to achieve strategic outcomes and what is the role of the public relations practitioner in making sure our communication matches our intentions?

For a long time we held the view that if you had a particular skill – such as accountancy, trades, engineering, IT, management – all you needed to make a success of life was to learn some “soft skills”. These soft skills included communication, presenting and speaking and team building.

(Image: Thinkstock)

For example, a belief that we are all much the same and are all connected can increase your confidence and effectiveness when presenting to others. Awareness of constant change makes your communication flexible and adaptable. Understanding how we all depend on each other transforms your leadership style. Expecting obstacles means you are ready to find solutions while others are still resisting the change.

Out of India came the expression “flat world”, the new world of IT where we are all connected and opportunities to cooperate and thrive abound. In this flat world investment brokers in Mumbai can be pitching an initial public offering to Sydney-based clients while another broker in Singapore is exploring the market potential for the same product with support from London-based lawyers. Skills and technology are increasingly global – so today’s point of difference has to be “people”.

The author of The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman, says in the conclusion of that book: “You can flourish in this flat world, but it does take the right imagination and the right motivation.” Soft skills can help us all flourish, but only if they are supported by imagination, motivation and the best attitude.

In 2012 author and public relations practitioner Steve Manallack recognised the confluence of these two cultural strengths; a combination of India and the west created the ingredient for success in the new world – soft skills for a flat world. It was Manallack who recognised the different approach taken by successful Indian business leaders who, through their ability to give top priority to their attitude to life and their best attitude to people, created real energy and direction for soft skills.

“The flat world means that everybody is in communication. If you cannot communicate, you miss out on providing content, context, connection and community.”

Winning through content

With the arrival of the internet age driven faster each day by mobile technologies, it has become essential to develop content, provide it in context, allow creation of connections and finally to build opportunities for customers and prospects to join your community.

This is good news for those who are in the communication business – you win in this flat world through content. For so long we recognised the cliché that “content is king” but we overlooked the depth contained in that statement. Content needs to be imagined, created, conceived, written, produced and delivered. Each of those steps means a rethink for those of us in corporate communication roles – presenting leadership challenges for the communicator.

At the personal level, we used to say “everybody is in sales”, whether they were trained as an accountant, plumber or nuclear scientist. Today, the flat world means that everybody is in communication. If you cannot communicate, you miss out on providing that content, context, connection and community.

Living in the flat world means that now one of your best corporate strategies is to make all of your people the very best communicators they can be. It is no longer a cliché to say “our people are our best asset” – it is the new reality of the flat world. Investing in them is more imperative now than ever before. If your people can mix socially, can present a good case, know how to write an effective email, can respond well on the phone, have the skills to ask the right question at the right time, can engage others in meaningful conversation, you will be competing in this flat world. Without those skills across all your people, you risk being left behind.

Embedding those skills in your staff means changing the attitude of ownership of communications and of not silo-ing staff by functions but placing communication alongside literacy and numeracy as one of the most fundamental core skills for all staff.

A good example is the role of a spokesperson for an organisation in a time of crisis. Dr Tony Jaques of the Issues Outcome website notes that skills are important but he stresses "personal qualities" and how it is critical to have a number of different spokesperson to talk about technical or operational details – even to update the media. Organisations need to remember that speaking with one voice does not mean one spokesperson but keeping a message consistent. Jaques reminds us that a constant message remains unchanged across all spokesperson with “a calm, consistent and qualified voice”.

The new world of connectedness

Friedman uses the term “the world is flat” not in the old incorrect sense, but to describe a world where all people around the world can now “plug, play, compete, connect, and collaborate with more equal power than ever before”. As he goes on to say, these “flattening forces are empowering more and more individuals today to reach farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before”. He concludes that it is this change that is “giving so many more people the tools and ability to connect, compete and collaborate. In my opinion, this flattening of the playing field is the most important thing happening in the world today and those who get caught up in measuring globalisation purely by trade statistics – or as a purely economic phenomenon instead of one that affects everything from individual empowerment to culture to how hierarchical institutions operate – are missing the impact of this change.”

Many communication directors and public relations practitioners around the world have been thrilled by the way the internet, social media and mobile technology have changed the way organisations communicate and market their products or services. Access to information, the way we shop, the way we research and make decisions have all created increased demand for more content and better communication. This means we need to understand how the four Cs have changed the rules.

The 4 Cs of public relations

1. Content: to be authentic and valuable to the consumer. Today, simple advertising is not going to work and self-promotion will not cut through. People are weary of marketing messages that just sell, sell and sell. Most of us now just block it out as we search for something more real – and that is why we search for content.

2. Context: the problem for most people is how to make sense of all this information. What they really look for is how to filter, aggregate or just make sense of it – and that means they go to what has the right context. Communicators have long known that information has real impact when it is placed in the context of someone’s life. Often the best context is found in genuine information or in the offering of advice. This is why really good bloggers are successful – they reach you in the right context, and by delivering regular information keep you interested. Facebook and Twitter work on a similar principle.

3. Connection: human beings long for connection – which is why the more connected we become to technology the more we long for connection that involves human interaction. Current advances in technology are being matched with a corresponding human touch. This is the interaction of machine and humans. The most successful businesses balance high tech connections with high touch connections by allowing one to inform the other. They use technology to allow people to connect when and where they choose. This goes further – they allow people to connect more deeply when and where they choose.

4. Community: corporate communicators know that we have always had community. In the past this was mostly based on geography – our schools, our churches, institutions, and our business organisations. People yearn for community, for a sense of belonging. The new internet communities have no geographic boundaries – they can freely form around things like shared ideas, common interests or likes, common dislikes and the search for relationships at many levels. Distance is now irrelevant. The result is that communicators know that prospects, customers, partners, suppliers, mentors and even competitors form communities – so long as you provide content on behalf of the organisation, context in terms of the community and connection as and when people so choose. We have told people to get out and network at events such as a Chamber of Commerce after-hours networking event – which is still today a place to build community – but now much of this networking is online, such as conversations in a blog, on Twitter, Facebook, in a hosted community or other online source.

“This new world belongs to communicators, networkers, thinkers, dreamers, people who are prepared to be different.”

Conclusion

Communications professionals around the world will find the flat world message very encouraging. This message tells corporations that in a flat world, the biggest differentiator is your people. How do people effectively differentiate? We differentiate ourselves by becoming better communicators. Communications campaign skills can come to the forefront as organisations seek to thrive in this new world. The traditional public relations planning methods (such as RACE – research, action planning, communication, evaluation – or ROSTE – research, objectives, strategies, tactics, evaluation) can now be used by individuals and the organisation. So the communications department now has a role in training each employee to implement their own public relations plan.

This new world belongs to communicators, networkers, thinkers, dreamers, people who are prepared to be different but have the ability to provide and modify content in the right place at the right time and make the connection with the target audience. Ultimately this will build community – and in our flat world communities are not located anywhere specifically but are on or offline, defined by interest and not place. But, importantly, if it is your organisation or employee who is building the community then it is your message that is being delivered with impact!

Mark Sheehan

Mark Sheehan is course director of undergraduate public relations in the School of Communication and Creative Arts (SCCA) at Deakin University, Australia. He was the founding postgraduate course director of the Master of Arts (Professional Communication) and from 2009 to 2011 associate head of school – regional and development. Since 2006 he has edited the Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal and has published widely on public relations history in Australia and in the areas of lobbying, crisis management and risk communication. Prior to joining Deakin he worked in senior communications roles in the finance, professional associa