In this edition, CommsOffensive325 challenges the notion of "core competencies" as a standard for internal communicators--and suggests some characteristics for real "champions" in the field   more »

Exclusive Interview with:

The World’s Two Most Influential Internal Communication Advisors

 

Their names are largely unknown among internal communicators, and they have been interviewed neither by Ragan, Melcrum, or even IABC’s own Communications World.  But their influence over the internal communication industry has been nothing short of overarching.

 

From a well-appointed yacht in international waters in the Adriatic Sea, CommsOffensive325 brings you an exclusive interview with T.D. Osfa and DeDe Osfa.  T.D. and DeDe are fellows at the “CASCADE” institute in Monte Carlo, and inventors of the world’s leading presentation software, “PpT”.

 

325: So, let me get this straight.  No one in the internal comms profession has heard of you, and you’ve never collected a consulting fee, but you are said to be by far the most powerful internal communication advisor in the world.  Explain:

 

TD Osfa: What is the point of talking to communications people?  We—DeDe and I, have the ear of the bosses, the CEOs, the managers of the world.  They’re the ones who tell you lot what to do.  And about the fees?  We invented PpT and developed the most popular internal communications technique in the world—named after our little institute, the “CASCADE”. Who needs fees?

 

DeDe Osfa:  We live off the royalties!  Ha!

 

TD Osfa:  Our time honored and much loved approaches are named after us:  Top-Down-One-Size-Fits-All (TD OSFA) and Dumbed-Down-One-Size-Fits-All (DD OSFA).  They are loved because they make sense to the people who matter—the people who employ your readers!

 

325: Why do you think your approach is so popular? 

 

TD Osfa: My approach is simpler than my sweetie-darling’s.  It’s based on one very simple principle—that people are lucky to have jobs at all, and that if they don’t do what they are told, they will lose them.  So, when someone following my approach says “This what is so, this is when it will be so, and if you don’t like it, that’s your problem and not mine”, the message moves down the line, from manager to manager to staff, with no ambiguity and minimum pushback. 

 

Managers and bosses like this approach—not only is it direct, it reminds people who’s boss. 

 

325: But don’t people deserve an explanation from time to time?

 

TD Osfa: When managers feel a need to explain things, that’s when they get into trouble.  So that’s why my sweetie came up with her approach, come here darling…

 

DeDe Osfa:  Oh, you brilliant man.  You ask me about my approach?  It’s also very sweet and very simple.  If you are going to give any explanation, make sure that the staff member of the most limited intelligence and experience can understand it, and don’t add ANYTHING more.  That way, everyone gets the same story.  Isn’t that fair?

 

TD Osfa: Yes, it’s fair!  And we know organizations are fair, don’t we?

 

325: So, why have you surfaced to give an interview to CommsOffensive325?

 

TD Osfa:  Because we find you very challenging.

 

DeDe Osfa: We always like a good challenge, and you communications types could benefit from being a bit more challenging.  Of course, you have your work cut out for you.  Our thinking has driven management approaches to communication for many years.  Top-down-one-size-fits-all makes a lot of sense to these people. 

 

325: Why do you think it makes so much sense to managers?

 

TD Osfa: Managers are trained to measure, streamline, and reduce—so some of your fancy targeted communication approaches are just too much for them.  They’d rather see everything go into one vehicle, and they really don’t give a damn if anyone reads it (particularly when their staff know that anything important will be told them by their manager).  Proposing lots of little vehicles or creative approaches doesn’t impress managers, especially when there’s real work to be done.  Our approach, on the other hand, makes a lot of sense—particularly since it reinforces their authority and the authority of senior management.

 

325: But what if people are talking with each other on the job—and not just simply parroting the company line?

 

DeDe Osfa: Shouldn’t those people be fired?

 

TD Osfa: Maybe in the long term, but in the short term, firing everyone would have an impact on productivity and morale!  It always makes more sense to fire a couple at a time, and then see if morale improves.  Public hangings, especially in my country, have always been an effective form of communication!

 

325:  That’s the first time you speak of morale.  Do you see a correlation between poor communication and poor morale?

 

TD Osfa:  An excellent question—very clever.  There may be a correlation, but not necessarily a cause.  But the companies that follow my approach also tend to spend a lot of time communicating about good news and happy people in the tools they use to communicate.  I’m not sure it makes any difference—in fact I think it gets in the way of the real message: “This what is so, this is when it will be so, and if you don’t like it, that’s your problem and not mine.”  On the one hand, it makes the management feel better about itself by distributing happy news, but on the other it can create expectations and desires for broader communication that may not be healthy.

 

DeDe Osfa:  My brilliant husband restrains himself.  If you communicate more than the basics, you create space for questioning.  When you create space for questioning, you create room for people to start to doubt who the boss really is.  Some people think it’s the customer, some think it’s the “stakeholders” and some think it’s the staff itself!  Whether it’s a few innocuous posters of staff members’ children at a local fair, or whether it’s a full blown “engagement” program, the doors are opening towards dangerous thinking and subversive activity.

 

325: I see you have very strong opinions.  On another topic:  What does “CASCADE” stand for?

 

TD Osfa: It stands for our approach to organizational communication.  CASCADE is a top-down flow that occurs frequently in nature, dispersing its nourishing and healing waters to the plants and animals below.  CASCADEs are beneficial, and reflect the natural order of power and productivity that exists in the world.

 

DeDe Osfa: And what in nature flows from the bottom-up?  Volcanos, and vomit!  One is destructive, the other disgusting. 

 

325: But what do the letters stand for?

 

DeDe Osfa: The letters stand for the:

 

Centre for the

Asphyxiation and

Suffocation of

Creativity

And

Dialogue in

Enterprises.

 

TD Osfa: No, you can’t print that---that’s TOP SECRET! That’s it, give me your recorder…..

 

325: I was lucky to have the world’s first waterproof BlackBerry.  I leapt off the yacht, started swimming towards Tirana, knowing that while what I’d seen would be hard for most communicators to believe, what I had heard was all too familiar. 

 

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