- You will primarily communicate
with other stakeholders to inform and persuade them
about information security.
As with your boss and executives,
you need to understand who these other stakeholders are,
and how they consume information.
Also, consider how many people you need to reach
and where they are.
The bigger your organization, the more help you'll need
to communicate effectively.
To convince staff to work more securely,
be specific and ask them directly.
To do that, get help from more experienced people
to learn how to use the existing channels
of communication in your organization.
This tactic will save you valuable time
and political capital.
Unless you work in a relatively small organization,
you'll need to broadcast information to staff
rather than meet with them individually.
You can use email to send out your messages,
but email is easily ignored,
so always add at least one other channel
to increase the number of people you reach.
For example, video is a very cost-effective
and engaging channel.
If possible, also get the help of someone
who is an expert in organizational change management,
because they deeply understand how to
encourage people to adopt new ways of doing things.
One very effective method is to ask supervisors
if you can join them at one of their
regular staff meetings to present your information.
However you broadcast your messages,
it's crucial to get all first-line supervisors
to reinforce your expectations
directly with their staff.
Why is this important?
Because the supervisor sets the tone
for what individual contributors take seriously,
so if you want supervisors to support
your need for good cyber hygiene
from everyone, everyday,
the way to start getting support from them
is to first get the support of the supervisor's manager.
Once you have it, then talk directly with the supervisors.
Always make sure supervisors know in advance
about the messages you're planning to send.
Otherwise, they can't effectively support you.
Give them time to absorb what you need them
to say to their staff.
Explain why daily cyber hygiene is in their best interests.
Then, create space for them to ask questions
and really get on board.
But ultimately, you still need to send your messages,
so don't let the supervisors completely
stop your progress with endless questions and objections.
Obviously, this will take a good amount
of planning on your part, which is time consuming,
so be prepared.
It's also crucially important
to have the support of your peers,
especially if you hold a management position.
But there's no one successful approach
to get support from all of them.
The dominant culture of your organization
will strongly influence whether
your relationships are collaborative
or political in nature.
Your personality, values, and skills
will play a major role in how hard
you have to work to be successful getting their support.
If you need help devising a strategy,
get a mentor who really knows the culture.
Finally, if you ever find yourself needing
to talk with customers or the media,
only do so with help from your public relations
or corporate communications team.