Strategically Communicating

This week, Lindsey Newkirk and I, Natalie Bennon, will be presenting you, the board of directors for J621 Inc., with a proposal for why you should devote more resources to internal communications.

We will begin with a look at Stakeholder Theory and argue that employees are one type of stakeholder.

We will present a couple possible definitions of internal communications and the key elements of internal communications.

We will discuss the benefits and return on investment from internal communications.

Then we will discuss current best practices for improving internal communications within an organization.

Essentially you can think of internal communications as participatory media with your employees. You need to consider your audience and the media most appropriate for them, you need them to participate, and you need to listen. If you are open and communicative and listen to them, they will be happier, they will contribute more and work harder for the organization, they will be more likely to stick around, and it will be easier to harness their resources during times of organizational change. Seems logical, right?

Yet historically, internal communications has not been valued as much as external communications, such as advertising and marketing.

We will also discuss ways to measure your internal communications efforts, which department in an organization might be responsible for internal communications, and some of the emerging trends in internal communications.

Discussion questions:
1) What metrics would you use for measuring internal communications progress?
2) Which department do you think should logically house internal communications?
3) What do you imagine are some of the emerging trends in internal communications? Have you noticed in your own life, in your own work or organizations, changes in efforts to communicate internally?