I believe people who learn to respond versus react in this new world of Wikileaks, benevolent hackers (people who do work-arounds to do their jobs better but break corporate rules), and social media screw-ups will be the cream that rises to the top.

Having helped clean up plenty of business mistakes, I know a high percentage of the problems were the result of crappy communications. Even if the original problem was not communications related, the situation often got worse because somebody blew it by saying the wrong thing.

Here is a smattering of real life (generically presented to uphold my pledge of confidentiality) bottom line impacts I have experienced directly as a result of good communications:

1. A product recall where there were no lawsuits, only people calling the company to compliment them on their honesty and candor.

2. Employees who willingly took a decrease in pay rather than see some of their colleagues laid off, and helped the company survive an economic downturn.

3. Environmentalists who spoke out against a development based on principle but stated they would support the company because they were willing to listen and discuss possible changes.

4. People in a community who volunteer countless hours to a social cause they initially thought was hopeless.

5. 85% of people in a community who were opposed to an initiative and voted against it in a referendum due to emotionally charged misinformation and six months later after clear, consistent communications changed their opinion, resulting in 85% of the people voting to reverse their decision.

6. A disinterested, uninspired workforce 60 years in the making turned around completely in three years to become engaged and working to ensure a better bottom line and excellent experience for the customers.

There are many more of these stories from people and organizations who truly believe in the power of communications. I had one client who said he got 300% return on every dollar he dedicated to communications. He told me he would have ranked it even higher but nobody would believe it.

It would be interesting if we could take some of those stories and rewind the tape like they did in the old Christmastime movie It’s a Wonderful Life. What would have happened if they had not dedicated the effort to good communications? There is an abundance of tales about communication blunders but the real learning comes from the bright spots, the good examples we can follow. Would anyone out there like to share their bottom line story of good communications? Continuing in this theme, my next post will be about some people who are great communicators and what I think makes them great: Social Emotional Intelligence and Sages.