Siobhan Meaker from Better Strategic Consultancy considers the vital role of honest and authentic internal communications to organisational success.
Leading a business through challenge brings uncertainty - for you and your people. If the faintest whisper of difficulty gets out, you can be sure that any internal comms gap will be filled with wild assumptions or worst-case scenarios. Neither of which are helpful if you're looking to keep your teams on side as you navigate to brighter times.
At its best, internal communications is timely, informative, engaging - and honest. It helps connect people to the cause and purpose of their organisation, engendering trust and pride in your direction and vision which is especially relevant when the news is hard to hear.
It will align with what you are saying externally, but will give appropriate additional insight to help your teams understand the decisions you need to make and the role they need to play.
In Claire Irving’s blog on decision making in times of challenge, she reflects on how during a crisis ‘answers or options may sit outside of your senior team or organisation.’ In my experience of medium size charities, it’s a rarity that a communications expert sits in the executive or leadership team. This could mean that things get missed. And with the world of PR having flipped from traditional print media to social and digital, you could also find there’s a true communications skills gap in your organisation at large. And this could mean uncurated news quickly begins to filter out.
When a crisis hits your charity or business, your people – staff, volunteers and trustees - are your biggest asset and also your biggest risk.
So what steps can you take today to get your comms in order? An internal communications audit, which is something the team at Better can run for you, can help you spot the gaps and take the right steps forward. You might consider some of the following questions:
How do you keep people informed currently? Is it ad hoc or scheduled or a mix of both options? Are your teams on site, remote or a mix of the two, and do you deliver sessions in person or online?
What channels do you use - group chats, town hall style briefings or weekly bulletins?
How do you engage and skill your managers to make sure information shared is appropriate and timely?
What policies do you have in place around communications? How and who collates feedback from staff and volunteers? What evidence is there for your people that feedback is acted on and that they feel safe to feedback?
Creating an internal comms strategy that reflects your organisation’s values, style and size can really help shape your culture and keep people with you through the good times – and bad. (Or should that be the ‘slightly less than optimum operating conditions’ that your internal comms team has repackaged ‘bad’ as…)
You can email the team at Better info@betterconsult.co.uk visit them at www.betterconsult.co.uk or connect with them on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/betterstrategicconsultancyltd
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