New personnel --- the end of internal communication as we know it...

Kevin Keohane has written a very interesting piece on his blog, Death To Internal Marketing, in which he outlines how the relationships between various stakeholders have blurred - http://kevinkeohane.wordpress.com/2007/05/13/the-end-of-internal-communications-reprise

In his words: "The lines between employees, stakeholders, customers, competitors, regulators and media have been seen to be relatively distinct. These relationships have also been relatively manageable within these distinct silos. They didn’t require much cooperation internally to manage well. But in the previous three years, and with startlingly increased velocity in 2006, the lines weren’t just blurred – in some cases, they disappeared completely."

He suggests that there's a need for perspective change in internal communication departments and that "…it's no longer about crafting the right messages, ensuring they are delivered using the right channels at the right time, and getting feedback and 'engagement'. Internal communicators need to start thinking of themselves as business process support (and in some cases, design) experts and part of the team that directly enables the organisation and its stakeholders to deliver the best possible customer experience."

I would like to take this thinking a bit further...

With the scope and responsibility of the internal communication function expanding so much, I wonder if one of the implications might be too shocking for internal communicators to grapple with. In the changing environment, internal communicators clearly now need to really understand what’s involved in creating a corporate strategy, implementing complex product/market development initiatives, and balancing various stakeholder wants and needs. But can this be taught? Can the personnel who currently populate internal communication departments, hailing from more 'creative' backgrounds like journalism and PR, really learn these things – can they achieve the level of business literacy necessary for the modern communication arena? If, as I suspect to be the case, they can’t, isn’t it time for them to step aside and make way for those with ‘hard’ operational management experience and strategic consulting experience? Surely experienced front-line business personnel can acquire internal communication skills relatively easily while internal communicators can’t suddenly acquire the necessary business experience.

The blurring of the lines between the different stakeholders might call not only for a shift of perspective in internal communication departments then, but also the replacement of personnel, even at (particularly at?) a senior level. This would be the end of internal communication functions as we know them.

I understand this is slightly controversial (perhaps threatening?), and would be very interested to hear thoughts.

Graeme

Comments

[Erin Gordon]

I think that people in business often think that communications is an easy task, that as (the majority of people) have the ability to 'communicate' i.e. they can speak and write - that they are therefore 'good communicators'.

Internal Communications is a specialist role, and without us 'specialists' it can and does go wrong.

I've worked as an Internal Communications Manager covering various areas from Finance (Risk, Finance, HR etc) to the Public Sector (Policing, Human Rights) to Sports (Football, Rugby orgs) - and I'd like to say that I was very effective in each of these arenas despite not having 'relevant' business experience in any of them. A good communicator doesn't have to be an expert in the field. They have to be an expert in finding information, and communicating it in the best way for their audience.

[Kevin Keohane]

This has started some good debate, and I've taken the liberty of cross-posting on MyRagan as well.

One thing that might need highlighting is that in particular this seems to be an issue for those coming from the journalism/PR background -- who run their IC functions like an internal PR agency or a publishing house.

I also believe there is an element of over-specialisation in IC at the moment that might reduce our 'breadth' capability when we need it most -- in a multidisciplinary world, many of us are a mile deep and an inch wide. For example, the measurement people; the CEO communication people; the SocialMedia people (who say it's all over for the rest of us and our puny skills); the face to face people; the intranet people; the storytellers; the coaches; the HR comms people; the it's-about-the-manager people; the it's-about-the-team people; the newsletter people; the brand people ... breath!

This specialisation suggest that perhaps the IC pro becomes a ringmaster, calling in the skills when needed, a generalist rather than a specialist?

Because if you think like a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail...

[Robin Crumby]

Kevin,

Have you cross-posted to The Communicators' Network?

Sorry to state the obvious.

Robin.