Dealing with Objections – The Attack of the Naysayers!

February, 9 – BY STEPHEN HALE –

Given the exposure that we at OgilvyEarth have, many different types of businesses, locations, stakeholders, and challenges, I am still surprised at the consistent objections put up by organisations in committing to a course of action.  Internally these are generally driven by an outspoken and dreaded group we call ‘naysayers’ who for some reason seeks to sink these programs. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that there can’t be different opinions as individuals, but once an organisation has committed to course of action why do a minority of individuals seek to rock a popular boat?

Here are few classic types of naysayers that you may encounter and ways to deal with them.

Change Deniers – we don’t deal with change here. Classic objection to making positive change in the business where it seems that in the history of the organisation nothing has ever changed. We all know that can’t be true so what can you do? The best way to deal with these types is to ensure that you have well defined reasoning for the change. Quality messaging, proof points and leadership support are vital here. Don’t avoid the practical reasoning such as cost reductions or improved customer image messages to minimise the impact here. Make them business savvy reasons and you’ll curb the impact.

Logic Robots – the science doesn’t add up. Surprisingly still a common beast to tackle but not as troublesome as one might think. They will say that there are questionable levels of proof or that it’s a government conspiracy. Key approaches here are to make it not just about the science or the risk to the business but also be positive about the opportunity for the business to enhance its image with the community and consumers and thus good business sense. Make it a decision about competitive advantage and you’ll have less to worry about here.

King of the Corner – it’s not relevant to what we do in this section. This is a bit of bug bear for me. A business unit manager who decides not to support the agreed whole of corporate approach is holding up an entire business from acting. Prevention is better than cure here. Ensure that the action plan is takes into account the individual needs of the business. Call centres are different to distribution and offices to manufacturing the ability to define different approaches makes it work at a local level. Get the employee groups involved and contributing to keep engagement levels up and override the issue. If that fails call in a big leadership hammer to break a few stubborn barriers.

Rudderless Ships –  my manager doesn’t support the program. After many years of research with companies around engagement blocks this is still the greatest barrier to advancement. So the key learning is that you must get them engaged prior to the launch, they need to see leadership support and must be given permission to act on initiatives aligned to the plan. Don’t let a lack of KPI’s stand in the way of getting line mangers involved. Provide these vital team members with the tools and the help them realise their role as change agents not sustainability experts and you’ll see results.

I’m sure that you many of you have experienced individual barriers. Naysayers will pop up with any initiative and hopefully sharing some of these responses will make your sustainability strategy leap into the boundaries of those with real reductions.

More sustainable success

Sept, 24 – We’re delighted to announce that more environmentally friendly news came our way last night as the winners at the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA)’s NSW Golden Target awards were announced.  Impact and Bayer Australia and New Zealand’s B-Green project, which drove and achieved measurable behaviour change across its Australian and New Zealand workforce around sustainability, was announced the overall winner of the Internal Communication category.

The project, created and executed by Impact’s specialist sustainability and CSR Ogilvy Earth team led to a raft of energy, recycling and other initiatives in the company.  The program has already won an international gold quill of excellence and was also recently awarded the best internal communications program for all Bayer companies worldwide.

Better news is that it now goes forward to a national stage where it will compete against other state awards for the overall national prize.

Two other Ogilvy PR agencies were recognised with Pulse Communications scooping two of the consumer marketing prizes and Howorth winning a high commendation for its work on the Telstra Productivity Index.

Robbie Brown

Sustainability Strategist

Robbie specialises in sustainability communications for our OgilvyEarth practice.

Robbie has worked with a diverse range of businesses on developing employee communication strategies and action plans; employee research, key messages, and the creation of engaging programs to motivate, educate, empower and enable employees in their role to assist companies achieve their sustainability objectives.

Objectives have covered the full gambit of environmental, social and economic sustainability. Anything from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy efficiency, water conservation and waste minimisation, to growing volunteering, fund raising and workplace giving for community support programs, to improving safety and employee well being; and driving innovative to improve business processes, products and practices and in turn profitability.

Her clients have included Woolworths, Qantas, Bayer (2010 IABC Gold Quill Award winning program), a number of manufacturing and industrial organisations, financial institutions, state and federal government departments.

Robbie has led employee communication programs designed to reach anything from 100 employees in a single location to 30,000+ employees located around the globe.

Prior to joining Impact, in 2008 Robbie spent three years in strategic marketing and business development with a strong focus on environmental sustainability for a market leading manufacturer in the building and construction sector. Robbie was instrumental in establishing an industry benchmark with Good Environmental Choice Australia and became an energetic advocate of corporate responsibility. During this time Robbie also held positions on the Marketing Committee with the Green Building Council of Australia and the Planning Committee for the Property Industry Foundation’s fund raising activities.

Prior to this Robbie worked with Starwood Hotels for eight years where her sales and marketing talent took her around the world, moving from hotel specific to divisional and global responsibilities.

Robbie holds a Diploma in Marketing and is a Green Star Accredited Professional under the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star Rating System for the built environment.

Outside her interests in sustainability and corporate responsibility, Robbie enjoys horse riding, skiing, kayaking, the odd bash of golf, exploring the world and savouring its great food and wine.

Teljya Oka-Pregel

Practice Director OgilvyEarth

As a Practice Director Teljya brings a decade of corporate, not-for-profit and academic expertise to OgilvyEarth’s sustainability offering. She works with clients to leverage sustainability strategies and programs to create business and brand value delivering practical solutions and sound advice to public and private sector organisations seeking to turn environmental and social sustainability challenges into organisational and business opportunities.

Teljya specialises in developing communications programs that achieve defined outcomes through effective culture change, stakeholder engagement and organisational behaviour.  She started her career providing sustainable strategies to Interface Inc, the world’s largest modular carpet manufacturer and green business leader.  Since then, she has advised and developed programs for a range of multinational companies across the aviation, construction and retail consumer goods sectors.

Teljya draws on her international experience and multidisciplinary academic training to create holistic solutions with a systems perspective. She has worked and studied in Canada, France, the United States and Australia. Teljya holds a Combined Honours Bachelor of Arts in International Studies & Sociology and a Masters in Environmental Science & Law.  She is LEED Accredited Professional (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) with the United States Green Business Council.

Reducing Energy Consumption

In line with the company’s sustainability objectives and with the support of NSW’s Department of Environment and Climate Change, packaging giant AMCOR recognised in order to reduce energy usage at its Smithfield plant, a critical success factor would be shifting employee behaviour.

Employee research carried out by Impact revealed the majority of employees did not understand the environmental consequences of their behaviour and were unfamiliar with switch locations or start-up / shut-down procedures.

The subsequently award-winning Project GreenLight campaign – bright ideas for a green future – was developed providing training and guidelines around the desired behaviours. Tactics included a video with employees talking about the environment, global warming and what it meant for them, as well as reminder cards produced in a number of languages.

Sustained employee behaviour change resulted in a 30% reduction in base load energy consumption overnight and a 70% reduction over the weekends. At launch AMCOR Smithfield saved the equivalent of two weeks worth of energy use simply through employee behaviour change.

This campaign was recognised both internationally and locally in 2006, winning a prestigious IABC Gold Quill for communication and a NSW Green Globe award.

Triple Global Recognition

Apr, 16 - Today we’re delighted to share that Impact has been recognised on the world communication stage not once, not twice, but three times over.  In the year we celebrate our fifteenth birthday, we’ve won two International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Gold Quill Awards of Excellence and have also just been named best in show, winning the IABC’s annual 2010 Special Business Issue Award.  The awards are recognised as the most prestigious and highest level of professional acknowledgment within internal communication globally, and we’re ecstatic.

Our first Gold Quill of Excellence and the 2010 Special Business Issue Award were won by our change communication team for our work for Ford Australia. The awards recognised what was a complex campaign for a company in an industry facing a challenging operating environment. The work ensured crucial public employee and union support for a difficult business announcement, contributing to an overwhelming raft of positive media articles across all media outlets.

Our second Gold Quill was won together with Bayer Australia and New Zealand.  This award recognised communication excellence for the development and execution of Bayer’s B-Green project which drove and achieved measurable behaviour change across its Australian and New Zealand workforce around sustainability.  The project, steered our specialist sustainability communication team operating under our OgilvyEarth practice, led to a raft of energy, recycling and other initiatives and was also recently awarded the best internal communications program for all Bayer companies worldwide.

“These awards demonstrate Impact can compete on a world communication stage and recognise we’re delivering the highest possible level of strategic and creative counsel to gain vital employee support for business critical initiatives for companies in Australia,” says joint managing director, Tam Sandeman.

“This is the first time two top awards have been won by the same company in Australia and winning the overall Business Issues award was the icing on the cake.  More importantly, it showcases work in two areas gaining increasing importance on every Australian business’ agenda – sustainability and change,” adds Stephen Hale, co-MD.

The awards will be given at the IABC’s international conference in Toronto in June 2010.

Creating Big Change for Bayer

22 March – There is an ever increasing demand from a diverse range of stakeholders for companies and their employees to go about business in an increasingly responsible manner. However engaging employees in an internal environmental sustainability strategy and maintaining momentum can be challenging. Organisations consistently face the same questions – how do you get employees to see the link between the company’s environmental performance and their individual actions? What needs to be done to make a difference? Who needs to be involved? Where do we start? How do we convince them this is not extra work, just a more responsible way of going about our business?
Bayer Australia and New Zealand is one organisation that, working in partnership with OgilvyEarth, has successfully designed and implemented an internal environmental sustainability communication program. Bayer’s employees are engaged, empowered and motivated to make a difference and are provided with the tools, resources and support required to be part of the solution to improving Bayer’s sustainability.

So how did they do it?

Made up of multiple elements, the B-Green program rollout inspired employees to make a difference, reinforcing throughout communication “lots of small changes x 850 employees + family + friends = big change”. There were three things Bayer wanted their employees to do – Consider the environment in everything they do, take personal responsibility for their actions and embed care for the environment as part of their every day. This led to the development of the B-Green charter – “Think.Act.Live.”

The B-Green program provided employees with educational tools and resources to understand what daily actions they can take not only at work but at home as well, such as printing smarter and considering what can be re-used even before recycling; and what positive effects this leads to in the bigger picture.

Initial research had identified the need for leadership to demonstrate their personal commitment and support, so Bayer’s leadership team were actively involved from day one and continue to play an important role in communicating sustainability as a business imperative.

Bayer set specific reduction targets for their Australia and New Zealand operations and regularly measures and informs employees of progress.

The result?

Bayer Australia and New Zealand’s environmental performance has significantly improved.

Employees have taken up the challenge to make a change, providing a comprehensive list of their own ideas on what could be done to improve sustainability based on their first hand experiences in their role and area of the business; and the program continues to be an ongoing part of life at Bayer.

As just reward for their efforts, the B-Green campaign has won a prestigious internal global award for Bayer Australia and New Zealand, the “Bayer Award for Excellence in Communications – Employee Communications”. This is an international award with more than 800 submissions.

Just goes to show that employees are a big part of the solution. Remember – lots of small changes x lots of people = big change!