You're facing conflicting feedback from stakeholder groups. How do you ensure a unified corporate message?

It depends when this "listening" happens - before, during or after an issue/event has run its course - and from what perspective are you listening - you think you're right or rather that others might have something valuable to say? Perspective and timing will thus provide you with different data and therefore different insight. Traditional stakeholder listening would aim for the organization to get its way, realistic stakeholder listening will acknowlege that as an organization you are part of a stakeholder environment (so you have stakeholders but you are also someone else's stakeholder).

There is always going to be differing opinions on approach and messaging - but, it's important to remember our role and expertise. Obviously, if there is a factual error or compliance issue, then you make the necessary changes.

Listening carefully - to understand - is the first step to analysis. In my experience, you always need to see beyond the wording or acts of the feedback to find out what the actual driver is. Once you know what is the purpose, you can see where the common denomination is and start building bridges with you comms from there on. I have done this in reality by meeting the argumentation (2-3 core touch points) but lowering the emotional degree of the messages for better understanding and eventually acceptance.

In this age of large-scale data collection is critical to have the analytical abilities to sift through large data sets and piece together relevant insights. Also important is to really pierce the surface and make sure that what appears conflicting at first glance is so. Many times, you may find they are simply different views, not necessarily divergent.

Estabelecer prioridades é essencial para garantir que a mensagem corporativa atenda às preocupações mais críticas dos stakeholders. Isso envolve identificar quais questões têm o maior impacto e precisam ser abordadas primeiro. No setor financeiro, aprendemos a priorizar com base na urgência e no impacto potencial das preocupações dos stakeholders. Em uma situação, priorizamos a comunicação sobre a segurança dos dados, pois era uma preocupação comum e crítica entre nossos clientes e parceiros, garantindo assim que nossa mensagem abordasse as principais inquietações.

Finding common ground while crafting messaging often comes from bringing the key stakeholders together directly. As a corporate communications leader, you can listen to each group separately, synthesize and repeat back what you heard to ensure understanding, and invite them to a group stakeholder discussion. As you lead that discussion, listen for opportunities to identify areas of agreement, isolate areas of disagreement, and work through those step-by-step. Oftentimes, conflicting stakeholder feedback results from each group using different terminology and language to describe essentially the same positions. Your role is to find and highlight those areas of commonality, along with facilitating a discussion to resolve conflict areas.

Consider paying attention to cultural aspects and moral orientations in crafting your messages. Issues (factually) might be the same but the priority people give to them (culturally and morally) are different. @Caroline Leach's suggestion to identify themes is good. But also consider action and impact - why do you communicate? What should your communication achieve - more feecback, a different action, resolution?

A comunicação clara é fundamental para garantir que a mensagem corporativa seja compreendida e aceita por todos os stakeholders. Isso envolve escolher os canais de comunicação adequados e garantir que a mensagem seja entregue de forma consistente. No setor financeiro, utilizamos uma variedade de canais, como e-mails, reuniões presenciais e webinars, para comunicar nossa mensagem de forma eficaz. Recentemente, ao lançar uma nova iniciativa, realizamos sessões de perguntas e respostas para esclarecer dúvidas e garantir que todos os stakeholders estivessem alinhados com a nossa mensagem.

O envolvimento contínuo com os stakeholders é crucial para manter a confiança e garantir que a mensagem corporativa continue relevante. Isso envolve monitorar o feedback após a comunicação inicial e estar preparado para fazer ajustes conforme necessário. No setor financeiro, mantemos uma comunicação regular com nossos stakeholders para avaliar a eficácia da nossa mensagem e identificar novas preocupações. Em um caso, após receber feedback adicional, ajustamos nossa mensagem para melhor refletir as expectativas dos stakeholders, o que ajudou a fortalecer nossas relações e a manter uma comunicação unificada.

Here are some additional recommendations: - Involve Key Leaders: Bring key leaders from each stakeholder group into the conversation early. Their buy-in can help align differing perspectives and foster a sense of collaboration. - Test the Message: Before rolling out the unified message broadly, test it with a small, diverse group of stakeholders. Gather their feedback to ensure it resonates and adjust as needed. - Highlight Benefits: Emphasize the benefits of the unified message for all stakeholder groups. Show how aligning on this message supports overall goals and creates value for everyone involved.