Communications Insight.

A Public Service Announcement from your favorite Communications Director: face-to-face contact always yields better results impersonal mass communication...

...your response to this should be "duh." Yet--in an e-world, especially when my staff are scattered in ten offices in three states, email often is the primary mode of contact...and it's frustrating how ineffective email communication usually is.

For months, I've been struggling to build enough repoire with the YD Directors to step fully into the role of Communications Director for all the offices. "The Directors," as they are so sublimely titled, are ten 30-to-50-something men, nine of whom are married, and most of whom have been doing full-time ministry forever. Since we're all far away, most of that repoire-building comes via phone and email, which are not the best avenues to assert and establish yourself. And it's an uphill battle for me, because these men all got to know me first in my role as 23-year-old entry-level Area Staff, not as 26-year-old Administrative Communications guru.

But today--I feel like the heavens have opened up and God has spoken to me from atop Mt. Sinai and said, "Heather, I will teach you how to properly communicate with your Directors, and it will be good."

This month is "Corporate Newsletter" month, in which I work on piecing together and editing our 16-page, tri-annual Reflections newsletter. I've been dragging my feet on setting the deadlines for submissions, because I hate getting flack back about the deadlines... Yesterday, I lucked out and had chance face-to-face encounters with four of the ten directors... and it was fun to brainstorm article ideas with all of them, and when I told them the deadlines, they all said, "no problem." Then, for the six directors I didn't talk to in person, I picked up the phone and called them. I left messages for three, asking them to call me back. And then today--I sent ten personalized emails about logistics and deadlines. All of this communication took the place of a normal solitary mass email.

In total, it took me about two hours over two days to manage all of the personal communication, as opposed to the 20-30 minutes that it would have taken to write one email. A little more time, but a lot more personal contact. (Ohh...how Jerry Maguire of me...)

And already, this feels so much more effective: 1.) because I had ten separate personal conversations with the Directors in which I was operating in my role, which certainly helps establish my repoire with them better than an email; 2.) because all ten directors have a clear idea of what I'm looking for, which helps their writing process; 3.) because I've already pre-approved their topic, which saves me time during edits; 4.) because the personal messages and personal emails I left yesterday were all returned today, which means they connected with the way in which I communicated. (n.b. in my tenure, my phone messages have never resulted in such prompt responses.)

Suddenly, after ten months of fumbling through this job and trying to gain any clout or understanding of what I'm supposed to be doing, it feels like I'm finally stepping up and doing it. And--I'm getting the results I want...mostly because I'm figuring out how to communicate with "The Directors" in the way that works best for them.

That was a long hike up to Sinai...and I'm glowing in the face of a mini-revelation. Will someone please give me a pat on the back?