An interior can have elegance, and taste — but it takes flair and a singular point of view to really make a room work. That’s the perspective of Luke Edward Hall, style consultant at the Financial Times. He’s pictured above at a castle in Ireland, and his column this past weekend got me thinking about communications strategy.
It’s very rare indeed, these days, that just one person’s vision will set the communications strategy for your organization.
- What do you want to be known for?
- What makes you different?
- What’s your tone of voice?
If I ask the leadership team of a nonprofit the answer to those questions, there might be some consistency. There might also be points of disagreement between the various folks around the table. And it’s there, sadly, that a “singular vision” won’t help.
Luke loves the “wall tattoos” at a villa in the South of France. And I’ll admit, they do work. But they’re the product of an artist’s vision. Jean Cocteau.
One can also see how they could have gone very badly wrong.
When a communications strategy is designed by committee, it’s important to have buy-in from everyone around the leadership table. It’s important to have the board on board. And it’s important, I think, to have the perspective of the people you serve represented.
It can be a challenge to synthesize all of that in a way that everybody can be happy with. It’s where a degree of finesse and some experience can help.
You want your organization to have a singular vision because it will help cut through the noise. And yet consensus is important, internally, to move everyone along and get buy-in.
How do you avoid fudging your communications? What if somebody has a desperate hankering for the communications equivalent of Jean Cocteau’s wall tattoos?
It’s where I’ve been successful. Helping folks figure this stuff out in a group without falling out. Let me know how I can help you with these challenges.
