Comms Team? Communications? Conversations? - What communications problem are you REALLY Fixing?

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make when trying to improve communication in their organisations is that they focus on “fixing” the comms function - those who are officially responsible for messaging - without stepping back to consider the whole system.

It’s like looking at a car crash and deciding that a tyre change will sort it all out. Sure, the new tyre (or two) might help, but it’s hardly going to solve the root issues, and you’ll probably find yourself facing the same problems sooner than you think.

Blaming (and then patching up) the communications team alone might feel like progress - it’s fast, convenient, and places the onus on a single department - but you have to acknowledge the sum total of how information flows.

True organisational communication health is about the interplay of people, processes, structures, and tools across the entire organisation. Ignore any of these elements, and you’re only treating the symptom, not the cause.

Communications Team? The "Communication"? or Conversations?

First, let’s distinguish between three critical components of organisational communication:

1. The Communications Team These are the professionals whose job titles, responsibilities, and expertise revolve around crafting and distributing official communications - your newsletters, intranet posts, CEO briefings, brand messages, PR and media relations. When you think of “comms,” this team is often top of mind.
2. Communication (with a capital C) This is the structured, formal messaging that flows from the centre out. It includes leadership announcements, corporate strategies, and official updates - everything that leaders and managers broadcast across the organisation. Its communication designed to inform, align and mobilise.
3. Conversations Here’s the hidden powerhouse. Conversations are the exchanges that happen in meeting rooms, hallways, Slack channels, and Zoom chats. They’re often private, informal, and organic. These day-to-day dialogues are where understanding truly forms, where trust is built, and engagement either takes off or nose-dives. And crucially, no comms department can fully control this space - nor should they try.

Although these “off-the-radar” conversations might seem small-scale, they exert a massive influence on culture, morale, and momentum. Get the leadership narrative wrong, and the private conversations will quickly highlight the gaps.

For positive, productive conversations to flourish, you need more than slick messaging - you need leaders, managers and indeed the employees to start with strong self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and the ability to self-regulate their own reactions and language.

That’s why I talk a lot – and I mean A LOT - about leadership communications: leaders set the pace and the tone for the entire organisation. Be that a leader with a title, position or an organisational influencer. They are the ones you need to align.

And when they are aligned and authentic they can communicate with clarity and empathy, and that energy WILL cascade. When they’re scattered, robotic, or tone-deaf, the same ripple effect erodes trust and engagement at ground level.

The Fix: Start with People, Not Just Processes

When we come in to “fixing” communications in an organisation, we start by diagnosing the full landscape. I’ve set this approach to a communications functional review out here.

Yes, we can fix what looks like a comms problem, but we know that’s usually just the surface layer. The real work happens deeper down, in the people, their skills, their mindset, and their relationships.

Start With Self

So, begin with the human element - often the leadership team or senior managers, and sometimes the comms leaders themselves.

This means a focus on building awareness, regulation, and inquiry. Leaders need to understand their communication style, identify how their messaging lands, and learn to actively listen and adapt.

Depending on what emerges in the diagnostic phase, interventions then need to be prioritised around:

1. Skills Active listening, verbal clarity, nonverbal cues, and written communication - these might sound like the basics, but when done well, they are transformative. Leaders who learn to truly listen and respond to feedback can turn challenging moments into opportunities for alignment and trust-building.

2. Structure Look at the communications operating model. Is it fit for purpose given the size, shape, and complexity of your organisation? If not, refine it so that information can flow without bottlenecks and employees know exactly where and when to find important updates.

3. Systems Are your systems set up to support effective communication? This includes everything from your intranet and messaging tools to the decision-making processes that determine how information is shared. It’s not about having more tools—it’s about having the right ones and using them well.

4. Stories Finally, get to the heart of the matter: your stories. From vision, mission, and strategic narrative down to the day-to-day messages leaders and managers share, it all comes back to storytelling. Humans are wired for narrative. Yet so often, corporate messaging is dull, jargon-heavy, and disconnected from what people care about.

Craft stories that are relatable, meaningful, and easy to understand - messages that don’t just inform but inspire action. Guide leaders and managers to embrace storytelling as a critical skill. When leaders can paint a clear picture of where the organization is heading and why it matters, employees will lean in and listen.

From Surface Fixes to Sustainable Change

By addressing people, skills, structure, systems, and stories in the right order, you don’t just plaster over the cracks in your communications - you overhaul the foundation.

The result is an environment where leaders align on the big picture and translate that vision coherently, where the comms team can truly shine with modern tools and relevant content, and where everyday conversations become a positive force, not a whisper network of confusion and doubt.

Sound like it’s what you need? Then get in touch.

I can help you diagnose, prioritise, and fix the issues at their source, ensuring your communication isn’t just noise but welcomed, embraced and acted upon. DM me for more information.