Presentazione al “Faith Communication in the Digital World” organizzato per il Dicastero per la Comunicazione.
Here are some ideas about how to be responsible with communication, especially if you work for an institution linked to the Catholic Church.
As you know, communication is a powerful instrument that must be handled with care. With words we can hurt or we can caress someone. With news we can shed light on the truth or hide it. We can foster unity or create division in a community. That is why we must choose our words, combine truth and charity, and sacrifice neither in doing our work.
If you work already or will work in a Church organization, in a community, you will realize that each one of its members fulfills a function and he or she is at the service of the rest. How does the bishop serve in a diocese? By making good decisions. And the bursar or treasurer? By managing money well. And the person in charge of vocations? By promoting initiatives among young people. And the person in charge of communications? How does the person in charge of communication serve the whole?
Some might answer: by updating the website or the social networks; others would say: by publishing a diocesan bulletin; others: by making friends with the journalists of the secular media.
All that is a lot, but at the same time it is little. Consider that a diocese, a religious community, or any project animated by faith goes forward thanks to the relationships that are established. The communicator can be seen as the gardener of these relationships, the one who promotes them, who removes obstacles, who proposes topics, who avoids conflicts. An organization where relationships flow well, where good and bad news is reported, where everyone can feel that they participate and are listened to, and where they are guided at the same time… an organization like that works very well.
If we are looking for a metaphor, I would like to compare our work to that of a conductor of an orchestra. If you notice, the conductor does not play any instrument, but thanks to him, the music sounds. He is the one who makes the music flow, who coordinates the efforts of each one within the orchestra.
Based on this metaphor, I will now set out the three commandments of responsible communication that I would like to propose:
1. Know your own institution very well (the musicians of the orchestra).
The first duty of the communicator is to know very well the institution for which he or she works. Its history, its projects, its problems, its resources, and so on. It is good to come up with your own initiatives, but first of all you have to “listen” to the reality of the institution: what it does, how it behaves, what projects it has, what obstacles it encounters, what its economic situation is, what the personal relationships are like among those who govern it, where dissonances may arise, where some instrument is playing on its own and generating chaos, and so on….
In the School of Communications where I teach we usually say that an institution does not only communicate with press releases, videos, posts or reels. An organization communicates with everything: the activities it carries out, the way it treats its employees, the topics it talks about, the cleanliness of its facilities, the agility in responding to incoming requests, the aesthetics of the contents it proposes, the contents produced by some of its members in social networks, and so on. Everything communicates Everything communicates, but only a good communicator knows that. The others usually ignore it. So in your organizations you can see each person as an instrument of the orchestra. There are those who have a piano -more public exposure or more charism- and those who handle a tiny triangle, but they all produce music. All are playing the same song.
Therefore, the first duty of the communicator is to know very well the reality of the institution itself. Only in this way will he/she be able to see opportunities, detect risks and propose interesting initiatives. It will be necessary, therefore, for the communicator to be in contact with the most relevant people within the institution, even those who do not see the usefulness of his work. Sooner or later we can be useful to them. So, please, have conversations, make yourselves known, be curious, make friends in every area of your organization, lend favors. Like the conductor, you can create synergies between people or activities in the organization that no one had ever dreamed of before. You can make two or more instruments sound together harmoniously.
2. You will have a communication plan (the score).
The second commandment of the responsible communicator is: “You shall have a communication plan”. What would we think of a conductor who gets up on his platform and says to the musicians: “Play what you think is good, I will try to make it sound good”. He will not succeed! It will be a disaster!
He has to ask his or her bosses for a score and share it with all the musicians. The communication plan is that score: is a document that determines which are the objectives of the organization for a period of time and how communication will help the organization to achieve them, in which channels, and with which messages. This plan helps to avoid getting carried away by improvisation, or simply following some topics that are trending in public opinion. For example, let’s imagine that everyone is talking about mental health. So why not talking to about mental health and christian faith? Well, are you good in that? Do you really want to focus on that? Even if it is a very important topic, and the one of my example is, maybe it does not go with the mission of your organization, and you only contribute to mislead your people.
From his job, the communicator can help to generate enthusiasm around a project, an ideal, which he will repeat over and over again through the channels he manages, promoting events and making the internal public roar in the same direction.
Here in Europe there is a tradition: on January 1st a famous orchestra gives a concert on television. I am always surprised that, at a certain moment, they play a well-known song, so the conductor turns to the audience and, at that moment, the audience starts clapping their hands, marking the rhythm of the song. It’s a fun moment. With that picture in mind, I imagine the communicator who manages to enthuse with the same dream to the public close to him, to the members of his reality or organization. Immagine if members of Catholic school, or a congregation, or a social initiative talking and thinking and acting about the same projects, pushing together, clapping together like in the example. Without a communications plan filled with concrete actions, the organization could lose its rhythm and melody.
3. Thou shalt work in agreement with whoever governs the institution (the composer).
The third commandment is closely related to the previous ones and is: you will work in agreement with who governs the institution. If we have said that the communicator has to work as a conductor, the person in charge of the institution – who can be a bishop, a superior, a superioress, etc. – can be considered as the composer of the music.
He or she decides what the priorities are, what audiences he or she wants to reach, what information he or she wants to share with those who collaborate in the same institution, etcetera. The word “Government” comes from Latin (Guvernaculum) and means “rudder”. He is the one who guides the helm and directs the institution and all the efforts of those who collaborate in it towards an objective. If people don’t know where we are going, sooner or later they stop rowing and get discouraged. That’s why the managers and communications need to work very closely.
Often, whoever directs the institution sees the communicator as someone who produces news and keeps people informed. As we have seen that’s is just a part of our job.
However, little by little, we have to make him see the breadth of our work. We can help them to have more information to make better decisions, to listen to those who have something to say, to detect signs that perhaps indicate discomfort within the institution, to use a more effective and modern language, etc. If they see us as “relationship managers”, they will understand our work better. For this it is important to anticipate their needs, to take the initiative, to win their friendship and trust, to have their telephone number, to keep them inform of our job, to obey even when we don’t agree with their decisions, and to demonstrate with facts the usefulness of taking care of communication.
Comunicazione Onlife 