In Q1-2024 I became an entrepreneur and launched my integrated marketing advisory and services firm, Au Advisors. One of my personal passions is art history so when determining what market segments to target for my customer funnel one of the groups I selected are non-profit organizations focused on visual arts.
In a meeting with the Executive Director of a small Miami NPO gallery space, an ongoing issue she identified was challenges with the way her team was communicating via email with their volunteers. After more than a few missteps, the ED asked me how to create impactful and clearly understandable messaging to reduce the time her staff spent going over-and-over information already provided to their volunteers via email.
At a later meeting, I introduced the gallery’s staff to the Intention-Based Communications Model (IBCM) developed by marketing strategist and educator, Anthony Miyazaki (see Appendix A). While walking them through the steps, I shared the areas of value within each component as well as raised their awareness to where the sender’s intended message could be misunderstood by the receiver.
In the case of this gallery, most of their volunteers are retired snowbirds who are not tech savvy and resist checking emails on a consistent basis. Based upon their learnings from the IBCM – in particular, the way in which noise disrupts the successful flow of communication (see Appendix B) — the organization implemented a new way of communicating with their volunteers. Now in place of emails, they host bi-weekly 30-minute telephone conference calls to disseminate information. By utilizing this encoding channel, they identified a mode that volunteers are already familiar with using (land line or cell phone) and it was converted to a standing call on the same day and time of the week bi-weekly to lessen confusion on the volunteers calendars.
The pain points experienced by the art gallery’s volunteer communication strategy is a familiar feeling to many non-profit and for-profit companies. By utilizing the Intention-Based Communication Model to set clear intentions in messaging, using channels of communication that align with (and are understood by) the audience being reached, and understanding how noise can occur in one/multiple/all parts of the journey, an organization can decrease the amount of miscommunication and misunderstanding with their target audience.
APPENDIX A
The Intention-Based Communications Model journey.
SENDER: CONCEPT / IDEA FORMULATION – The sender wants to communicate their concept to the receiver. This desire to communicate is based upon the sender’s “intention” and “why” they feel compelled to deliver the message.
SENDER: INTENTION – Why is the sender delivering this message? In order to successfully communicate, the sender themself must understand and articulate their objective, purpose, goal, or reason. A helpful tip when crafting the message is to “think like the receiver not as the creator”.
SENDER: ENCODING – What is the appropriate channel to deliver this message? It is critical to understand who the audience is receiving the message. The encoding channel is the method of communication, whether it’s via basic digital or non-digital methods/media or through other mediums which include text messages (be careful with how emojis and memes get interpreted!), phone conversation, face-to-face body language, website, etc.
RECEIVER: DECODING – Now that the message has left the sender, the receiver is now responsible for determining “what does the message mean”?
RECEIVER: INTERPRETATION – In addition to decoding its meaning, the receiver must also interpret the information and attempt to successfully determine the sender’s intention in sending the message.
RECEIVER: UNDERSTANDING – The last step of the model is for the receiver to understand both the message and intention behind it.
APPENDIX B
Identifying and understanding the negative impact that noise has
on the sender-to-receiver communication journey.
It is important to know that even if both the sender and receiver are mindful of their responsibilities during the flow of the IBCM process, there are land mines that could derail the sender’s message during its journey towards the receiver’s understanding. BEWARE OF NOISE!
NOISE: Any interference from “intention” to “understanding” occurring either on the part of the sender or the receiver. Examples include:
- Sender Noise: using the wrong channel of communication, creating/sending a communication without clear understanding of its intention, or using a language style that doesn’t resonate with the audience (too informal, overly technical, etc.).
- Receiver Noise: being distracted while receiving the message, having discomfort with the encoding channel used to communicate, or misinterpreting the message due to the receiver’s own world views/values/culture.