There are plenty of good reasons to reach out to an audience. You may want to engage to build an audience, sell a product, define a brand position or to defend a decision.
The one thing you don’t want to do is have your communications and engagement driven by risk.
Focusing on risk strips your organisation of the opportunities you always have to add balance, engage and even excite.
A risk focused approach will focus on what can go wrong and what needs to be said if these risks eventuate. This sort of analysis also tends to dredge up all sorts of historical considerations of audience preferences, known responses of influencers and the likes or dislikes of biased leaders.
Risk identification and management are critical parts of any planning process, but they are not the leading elements and they should not be placed first on your list of considerations. They are not intended to shape your vision, your objectives or your approach, but they can protect them.
It is abundantly clear where a risk-focus has influenced a political debate. When conversation goes immediately to setting and defending a stance, attacking a previous regime or simply moving to another topic as quickly as possible.
This type of approach can have many negative effects, including the loss of a potential focus on opportunities (instead of risks), the presence of a defensive and somewhat authoritative tone and a disconnection with the audience.
Furthermore, this approach will distance you from the fundamental need people have to be communicated to using simple, honest and user-focused statements. In contrast, a risk-driven approach can lead to employing complex messaging focused on the company or organisational needs with predictable, defendable statements that don’t add any value to the listener.
So – here’s how you can keep your communications planning on track and free from the defensive and predictable risk-driven approach.
Connect with your audience
Take the time to understand your audience through much more than through an in-house analysis. The real world is so different to the way it is discussed inside your workforce, so invest in some research, spend some time amongst your target audience and leave your predisposed ideas at home. You may just find that the big risk you have been worried about is not that scary and can easily be addressed through a focus on related opportunities.
Apply a filter to your messaging
As the old saying goes, if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s a duck. The same goes for jargon. If you’re not totally sure the outside world will understand it, don’t include it. Be real, be genuine and inspire people to understand your opportunity.
Put risk management in its place
As mentioned earlier, risk management has a place and its plays an important role, but it should not lead creative planning and it should not prevent the pursuit of opportunities. Focus on finding the right opportunity, the right creative concept and the right campaign and consider the risks at the same time as doing your due diligence around budgets, resources and governance.
Think laterally
We focus on risks when they are discussed heavily in our work environments and in some circumstances we forget the ability we have to achieve great things as an organisation. So, next time that you find a risk is constraining your thinking, step back and consider the best possible way to approach the problem if the constraint didn’t exist. From there you can usually connect the dots and execute an exciting plan that acknowledges the risk without giving all of your creative power to it.
Don’t look at the obstacle when taking the corner
Anyone who has ridden bikes downhill will know that if you focus on something enough when you are descending and taking a corner at speed, you will probably run into it. In this case its likely to be a rock, a slippery white line or a barrier. In the corporate world it’s a risk, a challenge or a constraint. Take your eyes off the negatives and focus squarely on your opportunity.
Adopt a growth mindset
In the book “Mindset – the new psychology of success”, Dr Carol Dweck distinguishes between a fixed and a growth mindset and the possibilities for both. The discussion Dweck leads demonstrates that a fixed, constrained and limited mindset will produce predictable results that will not realise the benefit of growth. Whereas a growth mindset will embrace challenges, consider opportunities and in this context, recognise a risk as a guide and a learning that helps to define an opportunity for improvement.
In summary, we all deserve better. In your organisation, you deserve to not be blinded by risks and we the audience deserve to be educated and excited by your balanced and opportunity focused dialogue.
