COMMUNICATION STRATEGY/PLANNING - PERCEPTION INTEGRATION

the business and our stakeholders. (The word distance in this instance relates
to distances in perception between the business and its stakeholders/audience).
To some extent, we know this process intuitively, if we had no awareness of
distances in perception, there would be no thought behind any communications
we send out and no requirement to observe and change the material that we
convert, edit and translate on a daily basis, however sometimes it helps to define
the distance between ourselves, the business and our stakeholder/audience in
order to ensure that the right message is being received.
Below are a few examples of how you can define the distance between business
and audience using the Perception Integration model.

hat is Perception Integration

If you work in the Marketing and Communications arena, you know that we are
masters of understanding and defining perceptions of an organisation.
Most of the time, we do this without needing to think about it. We ensure that
our brand is protected and associated in the right way with the company we
work for, we develop narratives to help people understand the company and its
mission in order to generate sales, gain customers or create further
interest and publicity.
We look at our key messages, develop marketing material that will make our
company stand out from the crowd, ensure that our social media is working well
for us and develop engagement strategies and techniques for the workforce.
Sometimes its easy to miss an important integrative factor that makes our
communications cohesive This is where Perception Integration plays an
important role.
It is important that we understand where our stakeholders are placed, the
beginning and end points of a relationship and the distance between ourselves,

Example 1

You are developing new marketing material for an organisation. The purpose is
to give customers further information about a product in order to;
a, generate further sales
b, help position your company as a market leader
c, generate interest and promote the company.
You have been asked to
write a brief with these
objectives in mind working
with a creative agency to
develop material.
The Perception Integration
would look something like
the model on the left. As you
write your brief you are
taking the overarching
objectives of the company
into consideration. You
translate and further define
Perception Integration Model 1
the secondary objectives
noted in the objective a-c list above. Your brief takes the distance the creative

agency has from the overarching business objective and your target audience
into consideration. You (communications/PR/business development) are the
integrative force that aligns those objectives.
This is a simple example of the model and if you have extensive experience in
working with external agencies to develop material or projects, perception
integration at this level is fairly obvious, however it is useful to remember the
distance your agency has from your business and the target audience when
writing your brief, taking into consideration that they rely on you to be specific
based on your closer proximity and understanding of all interested stakeholders.
Lets use another example illustrating a complex organisational structure
integration challenge.

Example 2

Your task is to align perceptions and ensure that messages, roles and the
overall objectives of the business is clear. As you can see from model 2, there is a
disconnection between the business and leadership with communications placed
in an acting mediator position on 2 disconnected levels. In this instance, leaders
and the business are misaligned and you are in the position of translating the
overarching business objectives to the leaders, who are not too sure themselves
about how to communicate the objectives of the business to employees. This
confusion is then cascaded down to employees who are also confused due to the
disconnection and lack of integration between the business and leadership. This
means that, in effect there is a silo and you are working on different levels to try
to connect the objectives of the business.
You want to ensure that there is a clear path of alignment between the
business and its employees. The model below demonstrates Perception
Integration in an optimal structure.

You are working in an organisation overseeing Employee Engagement. The

path of alignment between the business and its employees lacks cohesion and
integration leading to a lack of understanding about the overall objectives of the
business. Employees perceptions are vague and opinions of the organisation are
mixed. They are not sure what the mission and values of the organisation are,
or the purpose of senior management in the organisation. This has led to low
morale and confusion. Below is a diagram of the current Perception
Integration showing the distance and disconnect between the business and
employees.

Perception Integration Model 3

If the business operates on a flat management structure, the model could also be
presented in the following way.

Perception Integration Model 2

Perception Integration Model 4

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY/PLANNING - PERCEPTION INTEGRATION

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY/PLANNING - PERCEPTION INTEGRATION

Perception Integration models 3 & 4 show that the distance between the
business and its employees is integrated through a clear path of alignment. In
this instance, you are not translating the business objectives on 2 disconnected
levels and messages and objectives are now communicated seamlessly.
Leadership (Senior Management) in this organisation understand the business
objectives, their role within the business and are equally supported by the
business. Your position acts as the intermediary, or integrative force
mediating the messages from the top, but in this instance, alignment from the
top (or across depending on the management structure of the business)
ensures that messages are clear, enabling communications to translate the key
messages, overarching narratives and business objectives to employees.
Dependent on your role and the structure of the company, you may find that you
are required to mediate key messages between the business and senior
management, the point however is that the overarching objectives should be
clearly defined before information is cascaded across or down to employees.
Note the double headed arrow between communications and employees in
models 3&4. (The single headed arrow in diagram 1 shows the one way
communications between yourself and the audience when you are
developing marketing material and not requiring feedback). The double headed
arrow demonstrates a feedback mechanism showing that your role relies on
employees to feedback their understanding of the business and the role of
senior management, in order for you to further refine and hone positive
perceptions over a period of time using monitoring and evaluation to measure
those perceptions.
The distance between the overarching business objectives and employees is
normal. (If there was no distance, communications and engagement specialists
would not be necessary), however if the mechanisms and strategies are in place
enabling cohesion, the distance between the company values and the
perception of those values would be minimal. Employees working in an optimal
and integrated structure as shown in models 3&4 are likely to have a better
understanding and perception of the business and the role of senior

management in the company leading to a happier and more productive

workforce. Defining the issue solves half the problem and Perception
Integration models can help businesses understand why messages are not
being translated and/or cascaded effectively to internal or external
stakeholders.
Once Perception Integration has been defined, an effective strategy can be put
in place to help eliminate disconnections, encourage collaborative working
inside and outside of the business and build a productive workforce who
understand the needs and values of the company.
Jo Samuel is a Strategic Marketing and Communications Consultant with 10 years experience
advising supporting and leading Marketing and Communications for different
organisations.
The concept and model for Perception Integration arose through communications research
the author conducted on co-creativity and collaborative processes. The model can be used
to help businesses understand and visualise a path of alignment and perception distance
between the business and a particular audience or stakeholder in order to develop robust
strategies, enabling organisations to connect and co-create with their audiences.
If you are interested in understanding Perception Integration or you would like further
information about how this can help your business contact:
josamuel@mail.com
Tel +44 7921 097727/ +81 503 1360 396
Creative Conversations - An Integrative Approach to
Co-Creativity
You can view a PDF version of the research in this link. A
hard copy of the book will be available to purchase shortly.
An Integrative Approach to Co-Creativity (Rrp 30
NB This is a book for people interested in Communications
research and is not a practical guide)
Associated Articles
Communications Strategy - From Conceptualisation to Implementation
Monitoring and Evaluation - Evidencing Effective Communications