The eavesdropping model

[Christine Prefontaine]

Communications and knowledge sharing are often treated as if they are separate things. In reality, however, they are points along a continuum — two aspects of the flows of information to, from, and between the publics upon whom an organization’s success depends. It’s all about getting the right content to the right people at the right time. Similarly, much communications planning focuses exclusively on external publics. But the actions of internal publics (and in particular the network’s leaders and support team) are critical to success.

These concepts affect the way we structure teams, plan activities, and access information. Focusing on knowledge or communication, or on internal/external categories, creates silos that impede coordination and efficiency. Likewise, internal publics and systems are neglected because they’re not seen as part of “communicating”, good stories stay between close colleagues, and the spread of innovation slows.

One solution is to create an active and visible stream of conversations and content. Simply put: if it’s not documented it doesn’t exist. We need to leave traces that others can pick up — blogs, microblogs, comments, discussions, photos, videos. We need to get sharing and insights out of emails and into public spaces. And this starts with a network’s leaders and support team, who lead the way for others working under more difficult circumstances — like telecentre managers working in remote communities. Imagine for a moment the potential of this stream of content for communications and outreach. Imagine how it can be mined and re-packaged to build support.

Creating an active stream of conversations and content is the first step. The second step is simple: People responsible for communications watch the stream. They “eavesdrop” for the gems — pieces of content to promote, investigate, synthesize. Communicators then work with technical experts to get guidance on what to highlight and where to dig deeper. But with a good flow of information important stories don’t get lost. There is a bottom-up movement of ideas and themes, which can be connected to and support “top-down” messages and traditional marketing and public relations approaches. There will be noise. But filtering noise has an important function: it is part of monitoring the health of the network and it keeps the support team in touch with the community.

For networks with larger support teams, communicators can maintain a high-level view and coordinate with Community Facilitators, providing feedback and support by flagging emerging themes, suggesting discussion topics, highlighting champions, blogging about successes, and connecting people with similar interests.

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Network Communications Guide
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[Christine Prefontaine]

I think this model also works for distributed teams.