Internal Communications - Internal Communication Strategy

Internal Communication Strategy

There are two sides to strategy in internal communications. In the first instance there is the organization's strategy — what it hopes to achieve and how it plans to go about achieving it. That strategy will be supported and, to some extent, delivered through effective internal communications.

In this context internal communication can help on several different levels:

Tell: simply informing people of the direction, non-negotiable Sell: anticipating some form of backlash, requiring some persuasion Consult: seeking specific areas of input to the decision-making process Involve: seeking varying degrees of involvement and co-creation

Secondly, and more importantly, internal communications needs a strategy of its own. It should be positioned more than a simple plan of tactical interventions in support of business activities. The strategy should consider the following:

Market: What does the organization know about its audiences' needs? How should its audiences be segmented? Message: What is it the organization's message is trying to achieve? In what tone should it be conveyed? Media: Which channels work best for the different audience segments? How will it maximize reach and cut-through? Are there clear editorial guidelines for each? Measurement: Are there clearly defined success criteria? What are the leading and lagging measures? As well as informing all of the other three M's, it should be used to demonstrate value and measures of performance (ROI, message penetration, hit rates, quality of feedback, etc.)

The strategy will inform the best way to organize effective communications.

Five general modes of IC practice are itemised below, ranked loosely according to their position along a spectrum from tactical to strategic activities.