Internal communications and enablement

Internal communications is the process of driving information such as strategy, roles and responsibilities and learning and best practice throughout a team. Internal comms is hugely important and needs planning, coordination and reinforcement with the same rigour as any external marketing activity would be given. When teams don’t understand how their work fits into the wider strategy, they make poor decisions. When they don’t partner cross-functionally they create organisational dysfunction. When they are disconnected from their peers their personal development slows, career progression reinforces the silo and attrition can increase. Internal comms is crucial to getting everyone on the same page.

Sending an email and expecting the job to be done is the same as email a prospect and expecting them to buy immediately. Will people remember what you’ve said if you only tell them once? Will they recognise it among all the other communications? How do you avoid multiple important messages colliding with each other at the same time? How do you coordinate leadership and managers being informed ahead of individual contributors? How do you ensure all teams use the same process to drive information sharing? How do you make sure your process doesn’t slow you down and limit progress? Internal comms needs a clear strategy, operating model and governance framework.

Enablement is a key facet of internal comms. When a new technology, process or framework is be adopted you need to drive clear enablement so that teams can use it. Enablement is the process of giving teams the resources they need to be successful.