Internal communications is a waste of time

How do internal communicators stop having their time wasted?  Stop worrying about the words says

Sitting in a meeting some years picking over the wording of an announcement I realised that a lot of internal communications is a waste of time.

Everyone knows the situation.  The night before a big internal event the CEO’s letter has to be checked or the job loss notice has to be approved.  And it’s getting late. 

And yet another senior manager has said something like “..do we really want to say ‘affected’ . .wouldn’t ‘impacted’ be better?”. 

Or another favourite of mine; “why don’t we say ‘fewer opportunities for continued employment’?  It sounds less harsh than ‘job losses’ doesn’t it?”

I should apologise to anyone who I have just reminded of a past trauma, but if you work in internal communication you’ll recognise the experience.  We’ve all experienced the barely resistible urge to weep when the same sentence is changed for the tenth time.

Why?  Because we all know deep down that these interminable discussions serve little real purpose apart from entertaining the office pedant.

One leading IC professional is very fond of saying “the messages you craft the most are the ones you use the least”. Thinking about the outcome of those late night drafting sessions we all recognise the wisdom of that saying.

Media relations people know that the wording of the press release isn’t the most important thing to worry about.  Once it’s been sent the words don’t really matter unless there’s a really embarrassing quotation in there.  A good reputation depends on more than what you say about yourself.

The same is true inside organisations. 

I doubt that few people really pick over the wording of news stories internally – unless they’re a bit odd or they’re trying to prove something.  It makes little difference if the well-chosen word or the pithy phrase has been approved by a committee if the reader just doesn’t trust the organisation, care about the message or is just too busy doing their job to notice.

What people think about their employer depends on their experience – not just what they hear.  Frankly It ain’t what you say – it’s what you do that makes impressions.

And it’s at this point that many people despair.  Is it the job of the humble internal communicator to influence how individual managers behave or what policies HR are dreaming up this week?

Frankly?  Yes.

One of my PR heroes was sacked from a job once when he explained to the CEO that the only way he could stop the press saying the company mistreated staff was for the company to stop mistreating staff.   What an interesting example to internal communicators.

I’m not saying that we should all go out of our way to make ourselves unpopular.  But we do need to point out occasionally that ‘communications’ won’t solve wider management problems.  And perhaps bring a note of reality to those pedantic discussions about commas and pronouns.

And the only way to do that with authority is to get out and about.  Sitting in late night word weighing contests is not where the work gets done.  Great IC specialists are talking to real people in the organisation and getting to grips with what people really think and what stops them understanding the corporate message.

It really is no one else’s job to really understand what people think and how they react to events in the organisation.  HR isn’t always trusted and other managers will have their own agenda.  Leaders should know they can trust the communicators for an honest and helpful view of employee sentiment.

Realising that was the antidote to those painful debates about the wording of communications.  When you see all the energy going into the choice of adjective in a notice it’s a sure sign that someone is missing the point.  A well informed communicator will rarely be focused on sterile arguments about language and will be able to direct attention to the real issues in the organisation.

So, the next time you find yourself quibbling over the relevance of a particular word, ask yourself if there is something better you could be doing with your time.

This was originally published in Profile - the magazine of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Comments

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