By
guest blogger Katie
Delahaye Paine. Katie, a highly regarded communication measurement expert,
blogs regularly at http://www.painepublishing.com/measurement-in-the-age-of-context/.
She recently had an opportunity to try Google
Glass and said “it took about 30 seconds using Google Glass to really grok what
they were talking about—in short, a world where companies, the government, your
computing device and the objects around you will ‘know’ you better than you
know yourself.”
With luck and Glass, scenarios like the
following will never happen again: Years ago, when corporate video was all the
rage, a well-known research laboratory approached me to measure the success of
its internal communications. My contact was the person who was running the
corporate video program at the time and the real reason for the research was to
justify its cost. We proposed an employee survey to understand where they got
information, what they found most useful, and what communications mechanism
they preferred. We also asked the usual employee engagement questions like, how
committed you are to the organization? do you feel this is an organization you can
trust? And do you trust the information you are receiving?
Just as we were fielding the survey,
the company announced that it was being restructured and put up for sale, so
naturally we were worried about our findings. The client decided to forge ahead
and when the results were in, they were surprisingly positive. They felt that,
under the circumstances, the company was doing as good a job as they could in
keeping them informed. However, when we got into the specifics of which types
of communications were most effective, it turns out that they HATED the video
program. Naturally the client was upset, so we dug into the data together.
As it turns out the most negative
responses came from one department, which was comprised primarily of very highly
advanced programmers. The fact that they were not happy was obviously a big
deal. I reported my results to the client who responded: “Oh them. Those guys
are such nerds. They are so focused on their work and their computer screens
that they actually hooked up a ‘coffee cam,’ because god forbid they should
ever get up from their desks for a cup of coffee and find that the pot was
empty. Instead they checked the coffee cam and only left their desks when they
saw there was coffee there. “
I pointed out that it was hardly
surprising, if they were that reluctant to leave their desk, that they would
enjoy being forced to walk all the way to the conference room to watch a video,
even if it was just a 3 minute walk.
I see Google Glass as the ultimate
answer to that problem.
Essentially with Glass, those
programmers would carry their computers with them wherever they go so they will
get information wherever they are, and whenever they want it. And, when
employees can chose the time and form of message delivery, employee
communications teams will know immediately which messages of all the myriad ones
they receive, they actually pay attention to, and which they ignore. With
metrics like that, all decisions will be based on data not on the internal
political clout of the requestor.
Imagine a world without “how useful do
you find the newsletter” surveys. No more relying on employees reluctantly
filling out questionnaires about what they recall or feel. That world will be
populated with communications teams who will be able to measure what is most
effective at engaging employees and tailor delivery and content accordingly.
But that’s just the first step.
Ultimately, however, it’s not about whether employees got your message. It’s
about whether that message yielded any benefit. The beauty of measurement in
the age of context is that you’ll be able to analyze how employees work, rank
them from most to least efficient or effective at any particular task, and then
correlate that data to their message consumption and engagement level.
