The Mindjet Blog

A MindManager map to navigate your organization through stakeholders, messages, and measurement

Total quality management (TQM) depicts an organization’s network of commitments as a map of interconnected loops. This map may be used as a guide to design work processes, manage commitments to completion with customer satisfaction, and measure productivity.

The Corporate Commpass, created as a MindManager map (.mmap), applies the TQM model to the realm of corporate communications and helps simplify the complex dynamics of external communications with stakeholders. An intuitive dashboard for executives and corporate communicators, it provides a holistic, closed-loop view of the communications process and integrates environmental impulses and audience feedback into a 360 degree check of quality control. It documents ongoing communication efforts and enables managers to optimize their communication mix by identifying gaps between the outbound messages and the incoming information needs.

Translating the TQM model into a four-phase cycle of corporate communications, one can connect audience (making a request or responding to a message) and organization (making a promise or meeting a promise):

(1) the audience says, “I request information;” (2) the organization says “we do (or we will);”

(3) the audience says a) “I understand" or b) “I do not understand,” which typically leads back to; (4) “I request (a) more or b) different information.”

Of course, this process can also start with Step (2), the point here is that the loop is closed.

This closed loop of outbound and inbound communications draws from the concept of “symmetrical public relations,” crafted by the scholars Grunig and Hunt. Initially considered to be a highly innovative and paradigm-shifting approach, “symmetrical PR” has become the widely accepted foundation of the modern organization that understands communicating with its audiences as an ongoing dialogue.

The Corporate Commpass map builds upon this notion and divides into outbound and inbound sections to signify corporate communications as a two-way-street: Not only must outbound messages reach their respective target audiences effectively, but so must messages from stakeholders permeate the organizational boundaries, be correctly interpreted, and eventually translated into new or refined outbound messages. Using the standard set of monitoring devices (such as surveys, media clippings, blogs, event takeaways) as its “eyes and ears” in the public, the organization is able to actively listen to the voice of its stakeholders (and potential future stakeholders) and to pinpoint the main external factors that are relevant for (re-)shaping the corporate communications strategy. By institutionalizing the “listening” part of the communication process in such way, the corporate communicator is always close to its constituents and able to identify emerging themes before they become issues.

Moving through the Corporate Commpass loop, the corporate communicator takes the following steps:

Outbound:

– Information about the target audience and other specifying information is attached to each of the general or specific messages that the organization wants to disseminate.

– In the next step, these messages are assigned to channels. Each channel is linked to a specific measurable objective and other details that classify the tactics (such as priority, or expected response). If an objective is met, it is checked and moved into the output section.

– Through the output section, the corporate communicator can quantify the outbound communications mix, measuring to what extent each message and channel met the pre-defined objectives (did a web site campaign yield the intended click-through rate? Did a by-lined article trigger an increase in leads? etc.)

Inbound:

The Inbound section mirrors the outbound part in reverse:

– The corporate communicator scans a set of inbound channels in order to identify messages that the public sends to the organization. This list of “channels” may typically include blogs, web sites, conferences, trade shows, industry groups, survey results, press articles, customer inquiries and feedback.

– The themes branch distills the messages from external audiences that have been identified by the inbound channels.

– The input section aggregates audience feedback to outbound messages but also lists new themes and messages that stakeholders send to the organization (or the organization as part of a broader yet undefined audience). This input feeds the outbound part and results in crafting new or adjusting existing messages.  The loop is closed.

The bottom of the map states the communication objectives and tracks – based on the input and output sections – the progress on these objectives.

By analyzing the Commpass map after a completed cycle, some conclusions can be drawn:

– Corporate communications had a relevant impact when the accomplished objectives in the output section have either eliminated a request of a previous cycle or lead to a new request. In that case, the corporate communicator knows that his organization is engaging in a true dialogue with its constituents, embedded in a closed-loop conversation.

– If the input branch does not show any changes after a communication cycle has been closed, this may indicate that the communication tactics as laid out in the messages/vehicles branches of the outbound part are not orchestrated well enough.

– If any of the communication objectives do not have a corresponding item under output or input, it may signal that these objectives need to be adjusted or the overall communication strategy reshaped.

The Corporate Commpass can be checked on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, dependent on the intensity of an organization’s communication. It can be used on a tactical or a more strategic level. In any case, it will make corporate communications more transparent, not only for the parties involved but also for third parties such as the board that want 24/7 insight into the quality of the company’s communications.

Download Corporate Commpass Template (.mmap)