This might be an unpopular opinion, but too much of internal comms remains focused on the ‘how’.
Our industry has always tended to celebrate channels as the
manifestation of our craft. That has only increased with the proliferation of
digital platforms now on offer. But diving straight to the toolkit undermines
the reason we’re communicating in the first place; it’s like the tail wagging
the dog.
We must check ourselves against this impulse and step back,
focusing far more on the what, who, and why. Place channels at the end of any
agenda, so we can’t get to them unless we have passed through the other
elements. I’ve probably spent too much time with Project Managers, but it’s a
little ‘gates’ technique that for me seems to work well.
Channels are only tools and we should never lose sight of
that.
