Clear Messages
When something is clear, it means it is ‘not subject to misinterpretation or more than one interpretation’ (Merriam-Webster). I really appreciate the wording of this definition. It speaks to the importance of clarity and consistency in messaging, whether the communication is written, verbal, or nonverbal behavior. This is especially relevant in leadership and organizational and professional development, and I believe a greater focus on improving messaging in these areas would contribute greatly to organizational health and success.
Can you think of a time when you were expected to fulfill a task or assignment but were left with questions about what you should do? What about discrepancies between an organization’s vision/mission, services, and outcomes? Or a leader whose values were not matched by their words and actions? I imagine you have experienced these and/or other instances when messaging was not clear or was contrary to what was intended.
Leaders have a wonderful responsibility and opportunity to cast vision, establish expectations, give instruction and guidance, share strategy, teach, mentor, and model values and behaviors. The messages that leaders convey are extremely important. And not just for leaders in the formal or traditional sense, but for you who influences the lives of people around you every day. Thus, it is important to also consider areas for continuous growth and improvement.
Healthy Messages helps professionals:
Create clear, consistent messaging.
Grow personally and professionally.
Implement practices and systems that support organizational health and success.
Develop tools for evaluating performance and measuring success.
Achieve their unique vision for services or their business.
There are a few questions I would like you to consider:
What do you want to communicate to those who you want to help, lead, or support?
What is your vision or mission?
What goals do you want to accomplish?
What messages do you want to convey in words and actions?
How do you want to grow personally and professionally?
In reviewing these questions consider how a focus on improving messaging can contribute to the bigger picture - organizational health and success.
I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share a comment or reach out if you’d like to connect, have questions, or are interested in partnering.
Healthy Messages™ helps professionals, leaders, and business owners in human services improve, craft, and implement communication within and across systems.
Learn more about Healthy Messages™ mission, vision, and outcomes.
Measuring Success
How is the success of an organization measured? Often success is measured by numbers - how many people are served or products are sold or how much revenue is made. While organizations may be clear on their mission, vision, goals, and maybe even the results they would like to see, one area that I’ve found to be easily and consistently overlooked is how goals/objectives, practices, and outcomes are consistent (or inconsistent) with each other and contribute to success. A question I would like to encourage you to think about is how evaluating progress supports organizational health. As well, consider how you can achieve growth or change by the clarity of your message.
Over the years I have observed this missing link when providing mental health/human services supports more often than not, whether it was for-profit hospitals, non-profit community organizations, or largely government-funded agencies. Although identifying the right goals or questions and the strategies or services needed to achieve outcomes make up the foundations or building blocks of an organization or business, it is unfortunately frequently neglected. On the surface, it may not appear this way - some organizations, especially those which receive Medicaid or other government funding, are familiar with the task of filling out copious amounts of paperwork, even questionnaires that capture demographics and other information about the services individuals are receiving. Yet, when taking a deeper look it becomes clearer that despite these efforts, the most important questions remain unasked and unanswered. Are targets (population, outcomes) being reached? What’s working? What needs to be improved? Are resources being utilized effectively/efficiently? What information is needed and how is information used to achieve goals and outcomes? Is a difference being made and what is its impact? Are alternative solutions needed, and if so, what additional supports are needed or that can or should be outsourced?
It is the absence of these questions and the reality of the answers these questions would produce that has motivated me to advocate for change to support growth. I believe regularly measuring success contributes to the health of individuals (clients and professionals) and organizations as a whole. The information gathered from the ongoing evaluation of leadership, services, and administrative protocols and procedures better informs practice. Not only is it important to close the gaps between goals/objectives, practices, and outcomes, but it is imperative to understand the true impact of efforts. It is my hope that Healthy Messages can be a source of existing data on what makes human services and mental health services in particular successful as well as a resource for related research tools. Additionally, Healthy Message seeks to help shed light on the need for systems of gathering and sharing information and provide solutions for crafting, implementing, and improving healthy messages.
As a leader, how do you measure success? What’s important to you in evaluating growth and change? Please also keep an eye out for opportunities to participate in research from Healthy Messages. Your contribution will help to support efforts to craft, implement, and improve healthy messages for individuals, organizations, and systems at large.
I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share a comment or reach out if you’d like to connect, have questions, or are interested in partnering.
Healthy Messages™ helps professionals, leaders, and business owners in human services improve, craft, and implement communication within and across systems.
Learn more about Healthy Messages™ mission, vision, and outcomes.