Why a strategic narrative is needed to align to CEO priorities in 2024

This month I’m writing about the trends in internal communication and how they link to other parts of the business. In this week’s article I’m exploring the relationship between CEO priorities and the seven trends I have identified for internal communicators in 2024.

As a reminder, the seven trends are:

• Connecting employees with each other in the human sense, not the tech sense
• AI
• Hyper-personalisation – tailoring content to employees
• Creating content that is actually engaging to the audience
• Focussing on the employee experience and making it as good as the customer one
• Building trust in the leaders and the organisation as a whole
• Using data, analytics and insights to drive decisions and activities

You can read the original first article here. And last week’s article where I mapped them to the HR priorities for 2024 is here.

What is on the CEO list?

There are eight on this list and when it comes to exploring what this means for internal communicators, I’m keen to discuss the alignment between the priorities for both.

These are the eight priorities for CEOs:

• AI
• Digital transformation
• Energy
• Being unique
• Middle managers
• Geopolitics
• Finding the right growth strategy
• Macroeconomy uncertainty

In this article, I’m going to talk about each of these eight, how they map to the seven internal communication trends and what they mean for the internal communication function. As always, it’s a mix of thinking out loud and some advice throughout.

The one thought I had this week while thinking about this article was how these priorities from CEO’s have two applications for internal communication. One is that this is the content or the stories that need to be told internally and the second is what is the function doing to align to them?

AI – Generative AI and how it can benefit different parts of business

A nice easy alignment to kick things off here, but, the danger for internal communicators is looking at AI in isolation in communications and PR. We must look at it in the broader sense of what it is and then consider how it can be applied to our organisation and communication. This is because the alignment here is around the culture in the organisation, not the use for internal communication.

I’ve been to several communication focussed conferences that have shared AI case studies and insights and generally, it’s a lot of looking to the future without much business impact at a strategic level. Lots of testing and learning.

In December, I watched the Royal Institution Christmas lectures on the BBC and the three-part series (I’ve popped a link at the bottom of the article) was all about AI. This is by far the most useful thing I have watched to date because it was looking at AI and all its applications from a scientific perspective. So, as this is on both lists, I’d encourage a look at the broad impact and application for organisations. This has to be about education and then about application to tasks to enable efficiency – and importantly how it changes the organisation culturally.

Digital transformation – we haven’t got this right yet and work still needs to be done

This hugely links to AI but it also signals an acknowledgement about the lack of investment in digital transformation inside organisations. While we don’t have this on the internal communication trends for 2024 (probably from exhaustion of it being there for 10 years and the same issues persisting), it does link to hyper-personalisation and using data and analytics to drive activities.

Hyper-personalisation is the one trend that most people have commented about – and the need to read more. When it comes to the digital transformation of organisations, relevance around content for the employee has to be in there. Having the right data to inform activities is huge and still something that is a struggle for many communication teams.

What this could also signal, is further transformation projects inside organisations that will need the support of the communication function.

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Energy – a focus on taking action after a few years of commitments

This will be a big one linked to leadership communication. If it’s time for action, in a very volatile year politically, it will be imperative that the story around this is articulated well. This requires an understanding from the communication function around impact, behaviour change that is needed from employees and clear communication about what the company is doing.

This is one of the priorities that got me thinking about the need for a clear strategic narrative, storytelling and transparency.

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Being unique – having something that makes the company stand out for all stakeholders

This reminded me of meaningful work which is a concept we talk a lot about in employee engagement and workplace culture. For internal communicators, this is another storytelling or strategic narrative request and one that has to have substance. It links to the trend around making the employee experience as good as the customer one and with that, comes a clear EVP (Employee Value Proposition) and employer brand.

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Middle managers – they are starting to be seen as the integral part of the organisation that they are

I could do a happy dance. I so hope this one comes off and it’s nicely aligned to several of the internal communication trends. If this is on your list to get buy-in on, then this is the year to do it. And let’s face it, it’s been on the list for decades.

Strategically, internal communication teams need to play a big role here. What does this mean for your organisation, where is the line between communications and HR for skills development and what does success look like for the leadership team?

I know from my own research into the role of the line manager in 2021 that there is a lot of work needed here to help distinguish between empowerment and autonomy, to match budget control with resources and giving people time to manage others. This requires significant cultural shifts which is why it has been left in the ‘too hard’ pile for so long.

If connecting employees with each other in a more human sense is one of the trends for internal communication, this is how it will be delivered. A fantastic alignment between the CEO and the internal communication function.

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Geopolitics – the impact of political change in recent years and an uncertainty about what is next

For me, this one plays out with internal conversations around what is commented on and what is acted upon. At the CIPR horizon conference last year, one of the speakers discussed the different generations in the workplace and specifically mentioned that Gen Z comment on a lot of things but only take action on a few. They are used to having an opinion and it’s ok for it to stop there - they expect that of those who lead. As a millennial myself, I think we get stuck at the comments without action, because we feel we must do something about everything, so this is one to explore in detail for external communication teams, investor relations (if you have it) and legal to understand the parameters.

What is important about this one is that it is the outside impacting on the inside and so often those factors are missed for internal communication teams. We can get so focussed on what the organisation is doing that we forget there are things we can talk about outside the company walls (physically and figuratively).

This also maps to the internal communication trends about the employee experience, human connection and content that engages employees.

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Finding the right growth strategy – choosing the right one and being ok with accountability around it

I find this one really interesting and coupled with some of the work I have been doing already this year, it’s clearly something leaders are grappling with. This would never be something on the list for the internal communication team but knowing what this is and having a leadership team able to articulate the direction of travel is imperative for people to be engaged.

I feel like under each point in this article I’m reinforcing the need for strategic narrative and this is another one that will need that. This is important as a foundational element for the internal communication trends. The trust in leadership, the employee experience improvement, and meaningful content will all hang off a solid narrative from the top.

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Macroeconomy – the uncertainty remains post COVID-19 and different ways to try and get certainty might be needed

There won’t ever be a year where macroeconomics isn’t on the list for the CEO or the leadership team. And depending on the purpose of the internal communication function, awareness and knowledge here is important. In my career I’ve been focussed on outcomes around engagement and then that’s shifted to risk and reputation and it’s shifted again to cultural stability.

In those earlier days as an Internal Communication Manager setting up a function for a UK organisation with 10,000 people, I was not overly aware or concerned about the macroeconomy. And that was ok because of the role I was doing. When I became a Global Head of Communication for a FTSE 250 and then a Communications Director for a European arm of a global business, I needed to know more about external factors and their impact of the organisational strategy.

I say all this here because how this maps to internal communication will vary from organisation to organisation and team to team. And when I look at the internal communication trends, there are things that need to consider the macroeconomy – like the employee experience and trust in leaders – because these things impact people everyday and in organisations today, we need to make sure we consider all of them.

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Final thoughts

The big things for me, as I have been writing this piece, is the need for the internal communication team to be agile. It's another word that has come up with some clients this year and I think this article demonstrates why. The impact of the pandemic is still being felt in terms of how we work together. The trends for the internal communicator show that the human connection, trust and focus on employee experience are coming up high on our list and they are all things that are linked to how we work in society today.

The CEO priorities show a need to come together as a leadership team – a proper team. One that can discuss geopolitics, the actions needed around energy and how the culture needs to change to enhance the impact of line managers. And if finding the right growth strategy is one that needs attention, this means there are going to be changes in direction or the things that need our attention will change.

As an internal communication function, our planning needs to be in place with enough flexibility to adapt as we need to, and our skills need to match the needs of those we serve.

Resources

The Christmas Lectures, links for UK and International audiences: https://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/christmas-lectures-2023-faqs

The Mckinsey Report: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/what-matters-most-eight-ceo-priorities-for-2024#/

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