Internal Communication That Actually Works
Get an organisation to do what you want, reliably, repeatably, without excessive intervention or micromanagement.
If you have ever worked with a company of any size, in any role, you have run into a variant of the “how do I get all these people on the same page” problem.
endless meetings
wrongfooted by unexpected demands or changing priorities
wasted work, doing things twice, repairs or rework
shuttling back and forth to get approvals from separate gateways
Every organisation has these issues, and popular frameworks like Agile et al were created in part to address it.
This is also why the obsession with metrics and data exists - getting people the information they need in a distributed way allows for faster and more targeted responses to change.
Today I am going to share two of my most powerful, proprietary frameworks for getting an organisation to act in concert. Nailing these will solve 80% of this friction and make your communication dramatically more effective.
Framework #1: The Information Network (1-to-few)
An organisation is an information network. Every person in your company is a node and these people connect to other nodes (coworkers, bosses, reports, peers in other functions, etc).
Every person has an information value. We’ll call this a score out of 10, where 10 is highly informed, and 0 for no relevant information.
If we just spoke, your information value will be 10/10, i.e. you will have the freshest and most relevant context (assuming that I shared any!).
Depending on how fast your organisation changes, the relevance of your information decays quickly. In a few days you might be 8/10, a few days after that it might be 5, and in a few weeks your ability to do your job will be seriously impaired without new information.
Every person requires accurate, relevant, and timely information to do their job well. When information becomes old and out of date, this is where wasted work happens - i.e. something changed and nobody told me.
For sure there is a risk of communicating too much information and muddying the focus, but that’s a skill issue - that problem is more about how you deliver the information.
It is much better to communicate too frequently than not frequently enough, and most organisations don’t do enough.
Your Job? Always Be Updating
Always update people you interact with and always prospect to update yourself. When you do this correctly, the organisation understands:
What we are doing and why
The bigger picture of what the company is trying to achieve, including commercial drivers
The environment we are in and what might change
Who to talk to for more information, or to share new learnings
A pleasant side effect is that, when you do this, you also quickly identify any teams that hoard information to protect their position.
Overall, this approach works very well for 1:few arrangements, for example a manager who speaks with maybe 15 people on a regular basis.
Company-wide communication needs a different approach.
Framework #2: The Story Loop (1-to-Many)
The simplest way to get a group of people to act in a coordinated way is to give them a story that makes sense and explains the actions you want them to take.
People want to believe that they are part of something bigger than themselves.
They want to believe that what they do is important and consequently,
That they as individuals matter.
The easiest way to harness this energy is to place people within the story, and make sure that story is compelling enough that it solves for these human needs. Tell a story using Sean’s Proprietary Three-Step Framework™.
Here is where we are at. (Our current situation)
Here is where we are going to. (Our destination - the promised land)
Here is how we are going to get there. (Our plan for the journey)
Here is the latest update on our journey. (Optional - share info on ongoing basis)
This framework sets the context, provides the big picture story, and allows people to create their own meaning and mythology around their contribution.
Simple example:
Here is where we are at and why.
We had a bad year last year, as measured by metrics below our goals. The reason it was below our goals was because we had ABC difficulties attracting customers and saw existing customers leave for reasons 1234.
(This explains why we are here, and sets the stage for the changes that we need to make. It also communicates competence and shows that leadership knows what is happening in the org).
Here is where we are trying to get to.
We are trying to get $xxm target revenue and be reliably profitable, have great jobs, the business is easier to run, customers love us, and we are beating our competitors.
(This is the promised land - it should be large enough and appealing enough to be motivating, without overpromising or being so ambitious you are guaranteed to fall short).
Here is how we are going to get there.
This year, we are going to invest in new capabilities to do XYZ and retain customers. We are also going to explore conferences, partnerships and launch in one new market. We are going to stop doing XYZ because [reasons].
(This explains what is going to change. It builds off the groundwork you have already laid in points 1 and 2 - people understand where we are at, and why change is required. Now you can articulate the plan and the change).
The Reverse Simba™
If that sounds too abstract to you, the story loop is exactly like this.
Business doing well? “That’s the shadowy place over there Simba, we must never go there, we must maintain and strengthen our existing processes etc.”
Business not doing well? “We are in the shadowy place Simba, we must move towards the light - we need to do XYZ.”
Once you have those points laid out, repeat them frequently.
In a slow-moving organisation, you should be repeating this story weekly. In a fast-moving organisation, you should do it several times a day.
That’s it. It’s very simple. Hit people with this every week, at every meeting.
Here is where we are at. Here is where we are going. Here’s how we are going to get there. Here’s how this latest news relates.
Every time something changes? The regulator acted and now we have to stop selling one of our major products? Same thing.
Here is where we are at.
Here is where we are trying to get to.
Here is how we are going to get there.
Here is the newest information which is likely to change our plans, here’s what we need to do right now, expect more information in the near future.
The bottom line
If you want your organisation to move faster, waste less time, and feel more aligned, these two tools will get you 80% of the way there.
Keep every node in your information network updated.
Tell an evolving, compelling story that makes sense of the work.
NB. The purpose of this is not to become a storyteller. People always say the leader must be a storyteller and blah blah. That is nonsense. The story is a tool to harness intrinsic motivations and get people pointed in the right direction. There are many other methods; this one is mine.
Do this and you will have a drastically better-informed and more capable organisation - you’re welcome.
In a future post, I’ll look at some simple automations to take the load off and scale communications without direct input.
Open invite: Let’s get lunch! Every Tuesday I have lunch with a new person I’ve met on the internet. If you’re in Sydney, let’s catch up.
You can send a message here or hit reply to the emails from Substack.