RULES FOR COMMUNICATION | Communicating the Benefits

In the 1985 IDS/IPM publication 'The Merit Factor - Rewarding Individual Performance', 12 rules for internal communications were reproduced. As background to any communication plans we believe they have enduring value and list them below:

1. There is no such thing as a stone-cold certainty in business decisions and it is important everyone in a business realizes this.
2. If a board cannot or will not clearly spell out its business strategy, employees are entitled to assume it does not have one.
3. Assume that in an information vacuum, people will believe the worst.
4. Never take it for granted that people know what you are talking about.
5. Always take it for granted that people doing a job know more about it than you do.
6. Telling people something once is not much better than not telling them at all.
7. Never assume that people will tell you anything that reflects unfavourably upon themselves.
8. Remember that employees read newspapers, magazines and books, listen to the radio, watch television, and surf the Internet.
9. Do not be afraid to admit you were wrong; it gives people confidence that you know what you are doing.
10. Asking for help, taking advice, consulting and listening to others are signs of great strength.
11. Communicating good news is easy but even this is not often done by management; bad news is all too often left to rumours and the grapevine.
12. Changing attitudes in order to change behaviour takes years - changing behaviour changes attitudes in weeks.