Why you still aren’t being taken seriously in the boardroom

You think you’re doing everything right. You’ve got tons of analytics. Data for days. You’re measuring, just like you’re supposed to.

But when you show the data to your executives, something’s missing. Their eyes don’t light up. They still aren’t quite getting it, and they still aren’t treating comms as a strategic partner.

What’s missing?

Five sessions at Ragan’s Communications Measurement Virtual Conference on Sept. 15 each answer a piece of that question, and together they trace the path from raw data to boardroom credibility.

Start with the objective

AMEC Global Managing Director Johna Burke opens the day with a sprint on the Barcelona Principles 4.0, the updated global standard for measurement and evaluation. Her session makes the case for SMARTER objectives, not just SMART ones, and addresses what’s changed as audience fragmentation and data governance have reshaped what a measurement plan needs to account for. It’s the foundation everything else in this piece builds on: You can’t fix a report that was never built around an objective in the first place.

Measure outcomes

Corcoran Group Vice President Johnna Muscente picks up from there in “Measurement Frameworks for Success: Proving Value.” Her argument: Most comms teams measure inputs and outputs, activity, while the real strategic value sits in outcomes and impact. She walks through a tiered approach, moving from reach to engagement to outcomes to business impact, and how to spot the vanity metrics hiding in a report that looks thorough but says little.

Action matters

Home Depot Director of Internal Communications Christina Cornell takes that a step further in “KPIs That Connect to Business Goals.” Her session flips the usual approach, building a measurement plan from the organization’s goals down rather than from channels up, and argues that employee actions, not content consumption, are the clearest sign communications is working. She also covers the simple questions that connect day-to-day comms work to employee behavior and business goals leadership already tracks.

Find the numbers that matter most

Even a report built the right way can die on page 30 of a 40-slide deck. XPO Senior Director Meaghan Baumwald’s “Data Storytelling: Turning Numbers Into a Narrative” session addresses that head-on: how to identify the single insight leadership needs to remember, lead a report with the conclusion instead of burying it and build a visual narrative around it rather than a wall of charts.

Use the C-suite’s own language

Catherine Hernandez-Blades, an independent board director and three-time Fortune 500 chief marketing and communications officer, closes the loop with “Speak the C-Suite’s Language: Business Fluency for Communicators.” Her session maps comms metrics to the financial and operational language leaders already use, and covers the pushback senior leaders tend to raise when data hits the table, along with how to prepare for it.

Objective first, outcomes over activity, KPIs tied to behavior, one clear slide, the right vocabulary: Each session builds on the one before it. Put them together, and the boardroom conversation looks a lot different than a stack of impressions and open rates ever could.

Register today.