“Internal communication is there to solve business problems using communication solutions. And when you think about a business problem, you must start with strategy,” says Priya Bates, President and owner of Inner Strength Communication.
Priya is an award-winning professional communicator and one of the speakers in our second Sparrow Connected + #WeLeadComms Webinar: Employee Engagement or BUSINESS IMPACT? It's Time to Choose.
We thought we would give you a glimpse of Priya’s thoughts and perspectives on internal communications from one of her interviews, “Spotlight Interview with Priya Bates on the Importance of Internal Communications,” with Ekta Kapoor on her show, Spotlight, that airs on the Youtube channel, “Amazing Workplaces.”
Here is an excerpt that explores why organizations should focus on strategizing their internal communication to drive business results.
Companies have strategies, organizations have strategies, and therefore, communication must have a strategy and be purposeful in order to get to the end result. Internal communication really fills the gap. It helps employees be aware, understand, believe, and know exactly how they need to do, and what they need to do in order to deliver that business success. A company provides brand promises to its customers, but it is equally important that the employees actually deliver on those promises.
The challenge in strategizing internal communications is in the perceptions.
The fact is, everybody communicates. So as a leader who says, I thought of a strategy, I have discussed it for years around a boardroom table somehow makes believe that as soon as they say it once, they tell somebody once about their thoughts and beliefs, that it is magically going to be understood, and resonate with an audience.
It does not happen that way. I often call these “launch and leave” scenarios.
The biggest fallacy of communication is the belief that it has been understood and acted upon. Not that it has been set. So many believe that we send the message, and then we have communicated, while in most cases many people out there receive that communication and press Delete.
I believe that people do realize strategy is important, but nobody asks why. And nobody connects that to: What is the business strategy? What are the values? What are the things we are trying to communicate from a brand and reputation perspective, that all become a part of the way we not only act, but also the way we say things? So, it is connecting all those dots with one another.
What is happening in organizations, their thought process, is that we need communication. Let’s hire somebody to communicate. So, let's hire the most junior person to write the newsletter and write the memo. Or, let’s hire the person to deliver the video. They are not saying, let’s hire a strategist to help us connect the dots and understand how the entire organization can communicate more effectively in order to drive the business results we are looking for. This is what organizations truly need to do first.
What’s Next:
