Ten steps for really strategic Internal Communications!

How to work in one of the main value creation basis of organizations...

Prof. Renato Manzano, Spc.

Every organization creates value from the inside out, in such a way there is external recognition of their image, reputation, profit etc. - and then, from the outside in. In other words, having effective Internal Communications dramatically improves the chances of really creating and perceiving value, and being successful in every business dimension. However, a strategic view of the Communications is necessary, and, more than this, our leaderships must have a more democratic and intelligent approach.

Here, I propose ten fundamental steps, strongly connected to each other, to improve Internal Communications within our organizations:

1.   Start a movement of Internal Communications from the Leadership!

Managers of personnel, formal leaders, they are the main responsible for an organization Internal Communications. Issue: most of these managers does not have the proper skills to perform such an important and strategic role, based on interpersonal relationship. The majority of the promotions for managerial level still has to do with technical and commercial merits, which even sounds natural to us. But the thing is: the main aspect in managerial and executive work is the human one. So, leadership shall be sensitive and capable, and they shall receive consultancy support of the corresponding technical department, the last, by the way, shall also have the right expertise for that! Regarding the manager, they must be open to learn about human communications and relations, about understanding and living the organization as a result of a human community. Otherwise, there is no real Internal Communications.

2. Create Culture guided to “good comunications”

To communicate is something natural in our specie. Poor communication happens when there are inflows of power games, intradepartmental walls - so accurately described by prof. Porter - the manipulation, hidden agenda, the absence of ethics and transparency. Good communications, good Internal Communications, has nothing to do with neither producing “means of communication,” nor solely “providing such means.” This technical aspect will be explained later on. But, in the end of the day, what is “good communications” about? It is about creating a “human atmosphere within the organization”, in which people feel free to express themselves, they feel their propositions are welcomed and their aspirations are taken to heart. Labor agreement only subordinates the workforce to their jobs, but it does not buy human souls. The latter must be conquered, convinced. May people feel they are part of a human group and not of an extension of a production line or of a cold bureaucratic apparatus. When communication is humanized, the search and participation of people in the flow of interrelations exchanges occurs in a natural and proactive way - this is the very moment when a Communications Culture starts to be developed. It is what I have been doing for all my life, in very different dimensions, and that is why I have seen this hundreds of times. This is the moment, unlike any other, when leaderships must be very well prepared, both technically and emotionally, to facilitate the processes in benefit of the businesses and the community formed by the value production chain, and not in benefit of their vanities and personal goals - which only destroys so much value. If the shareholders only knew how much they lose (by the way, this is a matter for another article), they would support more investment so their organizations could create their 'Communications Culture'.

3.   Give instruments to the Internal Communications at the right proportion, valuing face-to-face communication.

Outlets, programs and means of communications are very important, but they are only important if they take the role of supporting and valuing direct communication - personal and/or through technological means. In many organizations, this vision is absolutely subverted: the outlets, programs and means of communications become the Internal Communications itself - which is a fallacy! Neither content is the communication itself! Internal Communications should be defined and designed from the confluence of several human interaction manifestations of an organization. Regardless the area responsible for the “instrumental production of the communications”, it should imply the imbrication of the contribution among Institutional Communications, Human Resources, Public Affairs, Marketing and Sales departments (which, after all, is the one who brings client’s feedback), and of operational and enabling departments. Each market and organizational culture has a tactical arrangement, ones better than others. If a company is not able to set exactly “what it is” and how their Internal Communications shall work, they will need accomplished consultant help, as soon as possible - once they are not able to find the way out. 

4. Make the flow of the Internal Communications a channel to spread the Strategy

From the simplest of the employees to the high leadership, everyone supports and engages in the organization’s communications when their tactical role is clearly stablished. And the main tactical role of the Internal Communications is to support the workforce and understand business strategies, in every level. Why is that? Because human beings tend to value and follow information sources that help them understand the reality better, to know better where to stand within the organization, in such a way they increase their chances of being successful. As simple as that. In doing so, companies that value explaining their decisions, new paths, market challenges, what is the best way of every one to give their contribution, that state their organization culture, their statements (Mission, Vision, Beliefs and Values), in a vivid and exemplar manner, have the best approval rates of their Internal Communications. Issue: According to Balanced Scorecard Collaborative Inc. (BSC) in the US, 85% of the managers take less than 1 hour a month, on average, to explain their companies’ strategy to their teams. Why is that? Because managers are either ironing out last-minute problems, or, simply cannot understand the strategy of the company to which they work for. In other words, they do not really manage - which just feedbacks this confusion.

5. Start communicating facts from the inside out, whenever that is possible

There are legal regulations of the market and secrecy matters of the business that impede all things from being communicated to employees. But this does not happen most of the times and employees usually are able to understand the need for secrecy, when this is clarified. In most of the situations there is only mere negligence and... Poor communications. Marketing department has organized a huge launch, but Internal Communications only knew in the last minute. This kind of things. Maybe the Internal Communications department failed to do their homework of knowing the detailed planning of the company’s departments before proposing the year’s budget - another common thing. In this battle, employees are the ones who lose and learn many things about the company to which their work for through the media and social networks. It is an undeniable bypass! And the greatest evidence that both high leadership and managers are able to see the strength of the workforce, but, in fact, they do not believe in the transforming strength of human intelligence applied to work. And in case they do not involve the workforce right from the start, what kind of attitude they expect from them when inviting them to, for instance, “have the owner’s spirit”. Merely and counterproductive hypocrisy.

6. Support and spread the workforce’s inteligence

For many years, I closely followed hundreds of works of Quality Control Circle (QCCs) groups, which made me go through a technical training to be a QCC facilitator and to visit companies in Brazil and abroad to learn about its uses on field. I’ve seen the passion and the extreme capacity of the average employees and assistants, with no advanced technical education, of creating useful solutions for the most diverse problems of the company, sometimes, even overcoming the possible limitation of their roles. Participative and innovative methods can be deployed in a systemic manner within organizations, in a way it would facilitate the flow of ideas, critics, information, contribution and relevant solutions - the company’s own mind working. It is the Internal Communications responsibility to develop relevant solutions to communication based on experiences, and, more than this, a vivid one. And leadership has to work as this facilitator, spreading and fostering this crucial movement.

7. Humanize Communications with real examples and coherent actions

What is done is what communicates. What is said will always be judged based on actions. Spread and communicate good practices. Show examples of how to overcome problems, value the good ideas. Encourage, publicly recognize and reward everything that brings effective results to the organization. Communicate by giving the example: this has to do with every level, but more precisely to the higher leaders and each one of the managers. The example doesn’t come only from the top: it must come from everyone - even from the bottom to the top.

8. Tell the truth and be ethical with your workforce and with your client.

Many companies still sell one image and speech that has nothing to do with reality. Scandals with important brands can prove this. Employees know this, because they live the organization’s day to day and know when something is wrong. This make them suffer. When an organization lies - and that is what actually happens - whether blue collars, white collars, sales or executive staff, the workforce suffers psycho-emotional and psychosocial shocks to the same extent of the facts dimension. Major depressive episodes may arise in the entire organization after scandals, ethical issues and value subversion within institutional relations, for instance.

In such cases, good ones to exemplify this step, even knowing that people will feel bad about it, the only thing to do is to be transparent and act truthfully - and this is valid for as long as the organization exists. The company or institution that is no able to look into their employees and clients’ eyes, the harder the situation may be, does not deserve to be in the market. Whoever lied, deceived or cheated shall be exemplary punished. Facts have to be clarified, the ones responsible have to apologize themselves, explain the impacts, tell what they will be doing, which actions are being taken etc. Otherwise, gossip will prevail, and will turn into the official version to the press. That is the point where the worst of the cycles starts: when the brand/organization loses credibility.

Look: 84% of the consumers, according to researches of Golin Harris, want to know how corporations which produce the brands they consume work: and if they tell the truth. In other words, whether they are sustainable, in the true nature of the term.

9. Use Branding as a safe guide for a Strategic and Sustainable Internal Communications.

Branding is the intangible instance which is the closest to the Business Strategy, because it is exactly related to the Strategy and Brand Management. This is stablished through attributes of brand value, whether its institutional or of the product, pillars and a clear core of positioning and their implications. These instances are powerful drivers, because they arise and feedback from the very Business Strategy, creating value promises for the clients and everyone involved.

Through Branding we stablish the “brand’s voice”, the most favorite ways and manners to communicate, the key messages for each audience, institutional positioning for the most diverse themes related to the business and to the organization philosophy (Q&As, for instance), besides the experience that they aim to offer the end client, this is the kind of sustainable value generated to the audiences and the society in general.

Therefore, good Internal Communications shall not just “talk to” the Branding, it has to, obligatory, feed from this fundamental source. The term “endobranding” shall be a redundancy, because if on the one hand, Branding strongly relies on good Internal Communications, on the other hand, there will not be an excellent Internal Communications that was not directed by the Brand.

10. Make Internal Communications the greatest promoter of feedback whithin the organization

The traditional idea of Internal Communication is that in which the organization speaks to their employees. But this is a small fraction, sometimes even petty, of the truth. More than old-fashioned remaining of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Truly human communication is stablished from the moment interlocutors are willing to listen, reflect, learn, formulate hypothesis, give feedback, preferably in a maieutic manner, that is right: the Socratic manner. Asking in order to understand is a sign of respect. Companies, brands, they make few questions, they are not very interested for what their workforce think, feel, and propose. Most of the times, they limit themselves to an Organizational Climate Survey every one or two years - which is the final evidence that the capital-labor interaction is a failure. The important survey, should be the proof of something we already knew, and not the “current discovery” of what “they are thinking now”. If there were a proper and instrumentalized flow of human communication, that would never happen.

Directing the tactics of communications biased to feedback allows to systemic and systematically learn what the workforce and the entire value production chain are thinking on time, creating anticipation and proactivity, positively surprising the so-called “internal client.”

Once again, this is not only done through instruments, but mainly through coexistence spaces, through honesty and trust on the human relations between managers and their teams - everything supported by relevant methodologies, proper means, systematic mensuration of results and learnings, continuous improvement and innovation. That’s how we would properly close an excellent Internal Communications cycle.

* Renato A. Manzano is a business consultant, specialist in Branding, Strategy and Management, Culture and Organizational Communication, founding partner of 'Manzano Consulting', speaker, columnist and MBA professor.

• Text originally written in Portuguese, published in Brazil. Translation: Renata Collaboni Manzano, MAR/2018