Inside the Book
Gavin-Hodges Associates
Black Swan Battle Plan for Workforce Communicators— Pat Your Head, Rub Your Tummy and Whistle Through the Leadership Graveyard
by Roland L. Draughon
Battle readiness preparation 1: Learn
The STRATEGIC FACTOR
“…he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart…”
—Shakespeare’s Henry V at Agincourt
Strategic Factor Battle Readiness: We must identify what we know and what we need to know, about ourselves and our organization if we are to add workforce communication management value.
Battle readiness preparation 2: Lead
The LEADERSHIP FACTOR
“…But screw your courage to the sticking-place…”
— Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth
Leadership Factor Battle Readiness: We, ourselves, must be clear about the bottom-line value of the communication management process. Otherwise, we cannot develop, sell and lead the operating value of workforce communication management. That may require that we break “rules”, but we must get answers to these right questions: What are we trying to get done? Which employee groups can make that happen? What exactly do we want that group to do? How will we know when specific workforce behaviors have been influenced?
Battle readiness preparation 3: Execute
The OPERATIONAL FACTOR
“To be, or not to be, that is the question…”
— Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Operational Factor Battle Readiness: It is the point at which our brain and our computer cursor merge to execute communication management commitments gleaned from battle readiness 1 and 2. It is the point at which we must demonstrate that we do think the same way that our operating management thinks and do not think like journalists.
“To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
— Sun Tzu
THE PREQUEL
A Black Swan Communicator’s Flightpath
A Heads-up: Warnings of discoveries to be expected, inevitable battle engagements and paths within our places of employment inhabited by dragons, a.k.a. IEDs (Ill-informed Employees, Dedicated to, and wholly invested in, avoiding organizational change of any kind).