Durable and Non-Durable Comms

Following up on the previous post I want to elaborate on this idea of what I would call "durable" and "non-durable" communications.

Corporate and executive comms people are often called upon to write up a quick email to the team, a PowerPoint presentation, or some other form of communication that may end up in some public company archive, but is usually forgotten soon after it is consumed (non-durable comms). Such communications are often long on vision and inspiration. They may also contain some current data.

On the other hand, I have not seen many communications people actively involved in the process of drafting up longer-lasting process control documents (durable comms). I recall only a minor role from my own experience in communicating processes for Europe's ROHS/WEEE regulations.

What makes such documents "sexy" from a business point of view? Not much, compared to vision and mission.

But, if you think about it, process improvement and control should be sexier. Consider this entry from Wikipedia about the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, or continuous process improvement:

"[Kaizen] humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly hard work ("muri"), and teaches people how to perform experiments on their work using the scientific method and how to learn to spot and eliminate waste in business processes."

There is a powerful human element to the process of improving processes. Excessive labor is reduced. But more importantly, the worker learns to use higher powers of reasoning and improve their overall ability to relate to and manipulate their world.

This is an idea that goes back to the very beginnings of the Scientific Revolution, in the thinking of people like Francis Bacon. In fact, given Bacon's distaste for the "rhetorical embellishments" of classical thought, I think my own thinking on communications has taken on a Baconian cast.

Too bad that corporate comms people are underutilized in this area. How much more could process control benefit from powerful infographics, or a touch of metaphor and humor? It seems to me these two worlds are too far apart.

What do you think? Do you know of communications teams who help draft process control documents?