Improve survey results: A repeat survey showed virtually no improvement in key communication metrics over two years, in spite of the communication department's best efforts. We conducted focus groups to identify specific interventions that would make a difference, and found a great many opportunities on the operational side, such as communication during shift changes. Another key finding was that everyone's expectations of supervisory communication were different and not very well defined. As a result of the study, the communication staff reorganized themselves to better support operational management, and plant managers became committed to making changes in communication that measurably helped their bottom lines.

Retool the global magazine: A new communication director inherited an existing global publication and needed some employee input to see how effectively it was meeting the company's objectives. Focus groups we conducted in the U.S, Europe and Asia showed some surprising similarities in what was working well and what wasn't, although sometimes for different reasons. Interestingly, some of the techniques executives thought to be most effective in showing the company to be a great place to work were, in fact, making employees feel patronized and alienated.