Communicating Authentically

Recently, a colleague sent me a link to an article entitled, “How to Tackle the Blurring Lines Between Internal and External Communication,” on the International Association of Business Communicators website. The article began with this quote: “Internal communication is dead. Or, if it isn’t, it will be soon. That was the message from two Walmart directors at a social media conference in March this year. Chad Mitchell, senior director of digital communications, and Dan Kneeshaw, senior director of global associate communications, told their audience: ‘Great content is great content. There isn’t internal or external anymore.’”

While I don’t disagree with the basic premise of the article, the problem I have with this statement is the implied assumption that the internal communications function is only about creating and distributing content. Internal communications is definitely responsible for creating and distributing great content, but content is only one part of the internal communications function.

Driving performance by connecting employees to the organization’s success

A successful internal communications structure is built to drive employee alignment to the organization’s strategies and key strategic initiatives. A successful internal communications team leverages relationships with organizational leadership and a network of communicators within key functions – Human Resources, Accounting and Finance, Sales, Technology, and Operations – to coach and enable leaders to ensure employees understand how their actions and decisions impact the firm’s strategy and results.

A good communications team performs outreach and keeps an ear to the ground for informational needs and gaps in understanding. It drives performance by tailoring messages and media to help employees make the connection between the firm’s success and their own goals.

Identifying synergies, efficiencies, and issues by connecting employees 

A robust internal communications network can break down silos by stimulating conversation and collaboration across organizational boundaries – identifying areas of synergy and ways to improve efficiency, as well as potential issues that can be resolved before they become problems. These conversations can even result in new ideas and approaches.

In a former position, my team published an intranet article on a presentation by a firm partner to a group of biopharmaceutical executives in Korea. A colleague in New York read the article and reached out that partner, whom he had never met. The two began a series of conversations about how to take the data from the initial presentation to a broader audience. The result was a thought paper that garnered a great deal of attention within the biopharma industry and led to some potential leads for the organization.

Mitigating risk by aligning internal and external perception

In 2012, the Arthur W. Page Society published Building Belief: A New Model for Activating Corporate Character and Authentic Advocacy. A quote that stood out for me was this: “Communicators have always been tasked with building the reputation of the enterprise. In the past, we focused on what we told people. Today, reputation is shaped by how people experience our corporate character, and by whether and how others advocate on our behalf. It is no longer sufficient to manage reputations and brands—our external personas—separately from our workforces and cultures.”

In an increasingly connected world, anyone with an internet connection can find unfiltered information on the way employees think and talk about the firm. External communications and marketing can only go so far in managing this risk; internal communications plays a key role in helping to ensure that the words, behaviors, and decisions of all employees consistently reflects their organization’s purpose and values, and support the firm’s strategy.

Increasing employee engagement and supporting a robust culture

A 2016 Harvard Business Review publication, The Impact of Employee Engagement on Performance, presented the findings of a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services report of over 550 executives around employee engagement. In that report, 73% of respondents ranked effective communications as very important to achieving overall organizational success. 71% said that employee engagement was very important to organizational success.

Internal communication drives employee engagement and a strong, collaborative culture by celebrating and reinforcing an organization’s values through content, events, activities, and programs.

While the lines separating internal and external content may be blurring, the importance of the internal communications is not dead – it’s alive and well in successful organizations.