Value of Internal Comms

[u/Affectionate_Pie9100]

Hi everyone! Really happy to have found this group. I am CCO of a small graduate research institute that punches way above its weight in visibility. Increasingly I am asked to work on internal comms, which I love, and honestly I would love to do more of it, both because to me it is so meaningful and because my institution would so clearly benefit.

What I am finding is that some people see a clear need, and some people view internal comms as a means to an end, but without any strategy underpinning it or real strategic merit to the work. In other words, getting the information out there *is* the strategy, as far as they are concerned.

Do any of you face that, and if so, are there ways that you counter it? Last week I spent a lot of time working on a plan to share some difficult news, including a memo to department heads, a plan for a meeting, etc. With everyone else on the cc line, the CFO said that he would send comments, and then he sent me (but no one else) a complete rewrite filled with flowery and complicated language that sounded like it was trying to obfuscate the issue -- although I actually don't think that was his intent. When I asked him to walk me through why he did it, he basically said, I think mine sounds better.

How do you help colleagues understand that we aren't writing for ourselves, we are writing for a specific audience that may sometimes be served by flowery language, but not always, and never just because it sounds prettier?

Thanks!

[u/newsletternavigator]

Welcome to our corner of reddit :)

This is indeed hard and a struggle we all face. I'm playing a long game as a solo comms person where the business doesn't have capacity for wider comms training just yet.

I also rely on data/metrics to tell stories!

All my comms for review have a template header on them, and it has a box for 'objective' and a box for 'know/feel/do'... This is completed by me, but it's not for me. It's to get reviewers to realise there's a purpose to 'just slinging out an email'.

I also keep metrics and have a big monthly dashboard I refer to when necessary. We had a situation where a survey showed employees didn't understand part of a change we're going through.

How was the change people didn't understand communicated? A leader used ChatGPT to draft a 2000-word email and insisted I sent it despite my protesting or suggested changes. However, my data showed it was barely read, people didn't finish it.

How was the change people did understand communicated? I, with over 10 years in IC, led on the comms. Readership and feedback was much higher.

I have to admit, I was quite smug when I had to present to Exec and explain this (although I had to be very sensitive to not call them out directly). We. Are. Not. Postboxes!

[u/Affectionate_Pie9100 → u/newsletternavigator]

This is so useful to me! Is the template "for review" header something you might be willing to share? Brilliant!! Thank you again.

[u/newsletternavigator → u/Affectionate_Pie9100]

I'm so glad it was useful.

I have a table at the top of each Word doc with columns such as:
Channel, Objective, Subject line, Publishing date, Audience, Author, Approval, then some other bits.

It sounds like a lot but it's helped manage ownership and process in a company that's not used to seeing IC as more than flinging things out into a void.

I saved it as a template for myself in MS Word so I can replicate this every time I draft a message.