Cement, Energy and Environment

GET A NEW COMMUNICATION CULTURE Ambika Sharma Overlooki ng the strategic impac t of the web is a huge mistake. To treat the Web as if it were an on-line brochure and ma nage it out of the opera tions depar tment, could be disastrous . The web should be considered one of the most important determinants for the way you will do business in the future. The internal communica tion component needs to be managed very differently from the external communication component. The key difference is th at the former is more inward looking and represents your organization's in-house flows, \-vhile the la tter is wha t you need to project to the ou tside world. These days it is no t enough to do great communica ti on work with the outside world. We also need to prove it to people in-house wh o may not intuitively understand the value of what we accomplish in order to help our organization succeed. + Connect communication ac tiv ities with project results and in come generating means for the organizations. + Set measurable communication objectives that are aligned with organizational goals, i.e. ways that the communi cation work done in the organization measures up di rectly or indirectly wi th its mandate. • • • Tdentify specific measurement approaches to usc in diffe rent situa tions, including objective analys is, benchma rking , interviews, focus groups or surveys. Translate qualitative findings in to more concre t e reports that capture the management's attention. One way to start developing an integrated communica tions stra tegy is to look at the na ture of the different kinds of work the team will be doing and wh a t ki nd of communication is needed to support that work. Communica tion rressages do not operate in a vacuum. Your organ iza tion must commit to reinforce the perceptions conveyed by the cornmLmication message. It must be bui lt to I <'1st. While the message should present you in the most positive light, in the long run it is counter– productive to oversell or over-promise. Courtesy: Development A ltemativcs May 2002, P 18, Fax: 91-(11) 686 6031 E-mail : tara@sdalt. ernet. in Web: www. dcvalt. org. JUST A MOMENT R. G. Keswani Start the day well Is it a very good morning? If the day begins with my thoughts scattered in many d ifferent directions or with anxiety about a s ituation to occur later in the day, it w ill prove d ifficult to maintain a positive attitude throughout the day. This is because my first series of thoughts in the morning sets the pattern for the whole day. If I do not use the early morning hours to sort out my thoughts, what other time in the day w ill I find to perform such a task? To sort out thoughts there needs to be clarity in the intellect. I have to check and see if there are any wasteful thoughts and , if there are, then remove them by adopti ng a positive and pure attitude. If there are was teful thoughts, and I try to battle with them, it is as I am giving them life and s trength. Was teful and negative thoughts are created by a weak mind; they have no real foundation; they are on ly paper tigers. Instead of battling with them I should simply