"Walk a Mile in Their Shoes" an article from The Ragan Report, the weekly survey of ideas and methods for communication executives.

When Sears, Roebuck and Co. director of internal communications Steve Mulligan wanted to learn about the effectiveness of his team's communications materials, he went straight to the source. He sent his communications managers to the front lines - to Sears stores across the country - to work for one or two weeks. The experience gave these managers one-on-one feedback about which communications contributed to their work effectiveness, and which were simply keeping them from Sears' number-one objective: serving the customer.

To obtain a reprint of this article, please contact Kevin Lynch at klynch@hlbcomm.com.