Read: communication 1: Internal communication, points of departure and planning.

Points of departure

Internal communication is the communication between the people who together make up the organization, or between departments of an organization, or between board and members.

In many countries, internal communication is nowadays considered to be one of the most important means of steering an organization.

We distinguish four types of internal communication:

1. Informative communication. Purely aimed at conveying information as accurately as possible.
2. Directive communication. From direct supervision to imposed guidelines. Still to be found in organisations with a somewhat old fashioned power structure.
3. Interactive communication. Often aimed at creating public support or at contributing more knowledge for a certain solution.
4. Indirect communication. Here, the management of the organization aims at accelerating changes within the own organization through use of communication means. For instance mobilising the organisation by introducing external threat.

We will mainly deal with items 1 and 3.

Internal communication is subject to the same general principles of good communication, practising the basics of communication and knowing the paths of actual communication:

General principles of good communication:

• multi-media approach (people need to become aware of things by more than one sense and from more than one source)
• clear moments/forms of communication (meetings, minutes, newsletter, logbook, etc...)
• existing and trusted channels of communication should be used
• people have to know where/who the sources of information are
• reaction to gossip is to take it seriously, check and correct it, and improve lines of communication.

Inventory of communication

1. Why more communication (what are the aims of improvement).
2. What are the 'main streams' of communication (should not be filled too much).
3. What are the ways in which specific communication takes place (who needs to know more about what, who is responsible)
4. What are the undercurrents of communication - how to deal with this.

Basics of good communication

1. Good listening: Summarize, to show that you listened, that you are interested, that you understood correctly. Ask questions, to hear more, in more detail. Explore what the other person is trying to say at the level of facts and emotions.

   Give reflections (part-summaries of the most important point of feeling that is coming across). This makes the other person feel truly understood.

2. Clear communication: Separate facts, opinions and feelings. Indicate what you think and feel, and why you think and feel that without making it universal. Try to be transparent about your interpretations, assumptions.

   Avoid judgements and half-messages.

   Ask the other person to be a good listener, not to react immediately, but to first hear your observations/thoughts/feelings. And then listen fully to her. (Principle of taking turns).

The effects of internal communication get stronger, if the sender has a good message to convey, segmenting and analysing the target group, and clearly knowing what to achieve.

Try to explore underlying issues, needs or assumptions. Shift the 'level' of communication if you feel the topic of conversation is really about something else.
Learn to hear 'emotional subtitles'.

There are also some differences between communication in general and internal communication:

1. the target group

External communication often allows you to ignore certain segments (there where opposition is strongest). With internal communication, you must develop a separate strategy for each segment of the total target group.

You have much more information about your target group. You know the formal communication channels, the corridors, the informal leaders, the information seeking behaviour and the places where information is to be found.

2. congruity of communication

Most organizations find themselves in a process of change, which nearly always is also characterized by a change in habits (culture change). Internal communication is often both the object and the vehicle of such a change - both goal and means. Within the framework of the change in culture, people are, for instance, engaged in making the communication more bilateral.

This asks for openness and the willingness to adapt the message.

This also means that the core of the message must usually contain 3 elements:

1. the actual core of the contents;
2. an invitation to participate;
3. a reference to the broader process (what was it again why we are doing this?).

3. the communicator

In the case of internal communication, the receiver knows the source communicator. The receiver has more information about him or her. Sometimes this information is correct, sometimes only prejudices are concerned. In short, being the source, you must have insight into the noise that you are producing yourself. As communicator, you, in turn, are another link in the chain, so you are also influenced by the noise made by your sources.

4. the framework

Just as the social framework plays an important part in people's susceptibility to a message with external communication, the "internal" framework plays an important part with internal communication. The message is much more imbedded in a process of continuity and is seen as part of (important) processes which are going on. ("Is this proposal for a simpler procedure only made for practical reasons or is it the first step to the undermining of my position?") So, framing is also important here.

People become more and more experts in impression management: deducing relevant information on the base of small parts of planned and non planned communication: verbal, non verbal and environmental aspects of communication.

Congruence is the only effective answer to this phenomenon. Always try to do and act congruently with basic ideas and ideology.

5. the desired effect

Here, too, the internal process of change plays an important role. When the interactive element of the communication prevails, the process gets more the character of a negotiation.

Resistance against messages also plays an important role in the susceptibility.

An internal communication plan

At the moment, many organizations take a great deal of interest in laying down the internal communication in a communication plan, because:

1. modern society becomes an information society more and more. Communication is the process of streamlining in a chaotic world of "info bits".
   (communication is planned info)
2. the command line (giving orders through communication channels) is not effective any longer. Participation/public support is required. Internal (plus external) communication is a tool for that purpose.
   (communication is bilateral info)
3. sending is gradually being substituted by searching. Individualisation combined with the overload of communication causes an active information strategy of people characterised by 'look and find' instead of the old fashioned 'wait and hear'. For the former sender this change implies knowing the places where people find the relevant information and taking care of the availability of the information on the right spot.
   (communication is being found)
4. individualization leads to acting independently on the periphery of organizations - on the front of the organization. In order to realize a unity of ideas nevertheless, communication (about ideology, objectives, policy, main lines, etc.) will be necessary.
   (communication is steering in a flexible climate)
5. the organization culture is comprehensive and complex. The need for influencing the culture of the organization has remained. Communication is the appropriate tool for that purpose.
   (communication is a culture factor)

Who must draw up the communication plan?

A communication plan has to be a custom-made plan and must be prepared by someone who knows the ins and outs of the organization.

The maker of a communication plan must look at what level there is unity of ideas. The more unity of ideas, also at the management level of the organization, the more effective the plan can be.

A communication plan is not a plan for all eternity. The world changes and so organization objectives change, too, partly in the knowledge that organizations must be flexible.

To make a communication plan, three steps must be taken: determining the goal of the intended communication, determining the nature of the communication (sending and being found), and determining the routes. Next, it must be studied how the organization of the communication plan must be effected.

Three steps in making a communication plan:

• Determining what it is that you want to achieve with the communication plan. Why is it that the organization wants to have a communication plan now? What does the organization hope will be solved or improved thanks to the communication plan?
• The nature of the communication. How do the points of departure (goals of communication) affect the nature of the communication? Example: If participation has to be promoted, the nature of the communication must be bilateral and invite to respond.
• Whom to communicate with? What routes can be used for that purpose? A communication plan should confine itself to those routes which are of crucial importance, considering the points of departure. So, the question is: who must communicate with who, considering the points of departure? It is important that the existing communication routes be respected, knowing that it is not without reason that such routes exist. Improve existing routes, rather than laying new ones. (Even if the existing routes are informal ones.)

A communication plan deals with the contents of the communication (what message and for whom?) and with the nature of the communication. Here's a warning for those who are going to draw up a communication plan. Beware of the suction force of the means of communication. All too often a communication plan is about the communication vehicles: the bulletin, the journal, the speeches and the E-mail. Of course, one must think about those vehicles, but only as the tailpiece of the communication plan.