It’s always tempting to think you can change an organisation’s culture, particularly when it comes to comms.
The comms team is particularly prone to believing perceptions can be changed. After all, isn’t messaging our speciality?
Sadly, the market’s or community’s perception of an organisation is always a reflection of its culture – if a bank has a reputation for being rapacious, an airline for not giving a damn about its customers, or a radio network for its presenters’ loutish behaviour, those perceptions have almost certainly been well-earned.
For comms people, if the culture is rotten then the best they can do is put some lipstick on the pig. There really is little even the best PR person can do.
It’s even worse for the poor internal comms person as an organisation that genuinely doesn’t care about its staff will never take employee satisfaction seriously. You can have all the cupcake teas and pizza evenings in the world but it won’t change a horrible place to work.
The only thing that can change an organisation is wholesale change of its leadership. Even then, cultural change is a huge task for even the smallest organisation, let alone a large corporation or agency.
If change is going to succeed it has to come from focused leadership that’s determined to change the organisation – if the board and senior executives aren’t on board, then there is no chance of success.
For comms people, it’s best to remember our limitations and how demoralising it is to be constantly smearing lipstick on ungrateful farm animals.
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