The Importance of Internal Company Communication in Culture Change 

8 Min. Read

We at ZRG always stress the importance of matching your actions with your words on culture change, but that doesn’t mean the talk element is unimportant. Communication plays a critical role in explaining, amplifying, and helping to embed a new or enhanced culture.

My background is in Internal Communications (IC), and I’m fascinated by the intersection between culture and IC. Here are some learnings I’ve collected from clients and colleagues that highlight the cultural and strategic benefits of close collaboration between the IC teams and those leading culture change.

What is the role of internal communication in culture change? 

Internal communication has many parts to play in culture change. Chief among them are:

1. Signposting and context

Helping the organization give employees clear context and direction so they understand the culture change that is happening, or about to happen. In times of change, it’s critical that communications are clear, regular, and focused on what is changing, why, and the impacts on individuals. Especially in today’s world of relentless busyness and dwindling attention spans, organizations must put enough emphasis on explaining the ‘why’ and signalling your intent. Too often we hear people on the front line say they never fully understood what the change was all about, other than being the whim of the latest management team. 

2. Engagement

Employees need to be engaged in the journey. But what does that mean? Culture change, like any change, can be exciting and inspiring – but it can also be scary and uncertain. Your people need, and often want, to be involved in the change. At ZRG, we call employees ‘individual contributors’ to change – to drive home the point that every person in your organization has a role to play in shaping and delivering the change – it is not something that is done ‘to’ them. 

This does not mean that you should consult on everything. Your target culture must be grounded in your business strategy, and this needs to be led by your Executive Team. But once the vision is set, IC teams are essential in creating and reinforcing the emotional connection between employees and organizational change. Let them get creative – the IC team will know the best way to fully engage your audience.

3. Providing forums for feedback

IC teams can help to ensure a constant flow of employee voice, both to the culture change/HR team and senior leaders on what’s working, what isn’t, and ideas for what needs to be done differently. If, for example, people are seeing a disconnect between desired behaviors and those demonstrated by leaders, IC can share examples and highlight the importance of closing the say-do gap and help the culture change make further progress. In that respect, they can provide an invaluable sense-check for the organization. 

Why is an effective internal communication strategy important?
When I reflect on the most effective culture change programmes I’ve come across, a common ingredient in success has been having the IC team involved right from the start. There are a number of reasons for this: 

Amplification

IC teams are essential in getting culture-related messages to employees via a range of channels, and showcasing examples of the desired culture in action to perpetuate its spread. This has a multiplying effect throughout the organization that accelerates change. 

Shared objective

The best IC and Culture/HR teams are focused on helping drive behavior change. It’s not enough to just raise awareness of what is changing – the joint objective they share is to bring that change to life through a shift in action. I’ve spoken to IC teams who are concerned that they may be ‘stepping on HR’s toes’ by wanting to get involved, but every HR team I’ve spoken to would welcome IC collaboration with open arms. 

Sadly, I’ve also come across a few IC teams who have been reluctant to get involved with culture change. It’s such a missed opportunity to align IC objectives with something that will enable and accelerate the strategic goals of their organization.

 In sync

The talking and walking on culture change should be at (roughly) the same speed. You don’t want the talk to get too far ahead of the walk, because that creates distrust and disengagement. Communication will not work on its own, there has to be accompanying change. But equally, trying to do culture change without a comprehensive communications plan to support it is really not a good idea. Getting the balance right is not easy, but it’s crucial to successful and sustainable culture change. 

What are some of the challenges IC teams face in supporting culture change?

Despite having shared objectives, there are several challenges in the relationship between IC and Culture/HR teams. 

1. Being realistic

While formal communication is powerful, culture is essentially created through the unspoken messages that people receive via the behaviors of leaders and role models, and through the symbols they observe and then what is reinforced through processes such as your performance management system. There is often the assumption that if something is communicated then it will happen; if only it was that simple. Both parties need to be realistic about what communication can achieve. 

2. Roles and responsibilities

The teams need to be clear about who is responsible for what, based on their mandate, skills, and capabilities. This requires open and honest discussion, courage to step into new areas, and understanding the need for, and unique value of, a partnership approach to deliver culture change. 

3. Holding up the mirror

One of the roles of the IC team is to hold up a mirror to the organization, including the Culture/HR team. It calls out to the business any misalignment between the intended message on culture, and what has been received by employees. To do that, IC needs to be constantly challenging the business to ensure the talk is not running too far ahead of the walk. That isn’t easy, it involves difficult conversations and psychological safety, but the skill of an IC professional is to hold that tension between signalling what’s coming yet not getting so far ahead that there aren’t proof points to evidence what’s changing/has changed. 

What are the impacts on culture change if the IC and Culture/HR teams are misaligned? 

These two teams are at the heart of driving culture change. If they are not in lockstep, it can have serious impacts, the main one being that it slows down culture change. For example, if IC teams are not amplifying the changes that are happening through storytelling, case studies etc then people may not understand what is going on, believe in it, or step up and get involved. Employees need strong internal communications to help them connect the dots between their behavior, culture change, and the delivery of your business strategy. 

How can IC and Culture/HR teams work better together?

Sharing stories

One of the core strengths of IC is being able to articulate the desired culture in simple, emotive, and engaging language through an inspiring narrative and storytelling. The key is to then follow that up with a regular flow of examples from your employees of your culture in action. To do that effectively, your Culture and HR teams need to be helping IC to find and share these stories from around the business, including supporting leaders to share their own personal culture journeys. This helps employees understand (and mirror in their own behavior) what good looks like. The same goes for talking openly about lessons learned when an activity or behavior hasn’t gone as intended. 

Focus on context

When Culture/HR and IC teams bring their respective contextual lenses to culture change, magic happens. Typically, Culture/HR teams bring operational context, while IC brings the personal context – what is the impact of the change on the individual, and what’s in it for them? You need both to effectively anchor and deliver culture change. 

Get creative

Culture change can sometimes come across as dry, theoretical, and ‘programmatic.’ To flip that, it’s also a fantastic opportunity for these teams to come together and get creative in how you engage your people in the change and make it fun. The more memorable you can make the change, the more likely it is to stick. 

Focus on key events and milestones

Moments that Matter are those key interactions, events, or milestones that have significance in the lives of employees and are great opportunities to display a change in culture. For IC, a focus on the following moments could have a powerful impact:

1. Town Halls/All Hands meetings

This might not seem the most sexy or exciting, but we hear a lot from our clients about Town Hall or All Hands meetings. They are a fantastic way to signal culture change in a very visible way, because in theory every employee should be attending these gatherings. IC teams can help the organization to think about the message the company really wants to send, how to make it understandable by all, and therefore what can be done to deliver this moment in a different and unforgettable way. That could be as simple as inviting customers to speak to demonstrate a greater focus on customer centricity. 

2. Team Meetings

Any time a leader is in front of their team is a moment that matters. IC can coach leaders to be intentional about the symbolic activity, the demonstrable behavior they can display to signal change. For example, if you want a more experimental culture, you could encourage your leader to share a story about trying something new, what worked/didn’t work, and their learnings. 

Be the change you want to see

IC teams are often highly visible in their business, and even if they’re not, their work is. So, they have opportunities to role model the desired change not just through their behaviors, but also the channels they use and content they share. Having more interactive channels, for example, can encourage and facilitate a culture of greater collaboration. 

Learn more about how to help people managers lead culture change in our guide.

What are internal communications best practices? 

• Leadership communication. Whenever one of your leaders is communicating with employees, ensure they refer to the culture change and connect their overall message to this. If employees can’t see the connection between culture and strategy, they won’t buy in.
• Be proactive. Get involved early and make sure you’re on the central team, so nothing is a surprise. 
• Have an integrated change and communications plan. This gives visibility to all the key culture milestones, so you can align and amplify progress. Learn more about building a culture plan in our guide.

Effective internal communications significantly increase the chances that the messages sent by leaders are the ones intended. Yes, collaboration between Culture/HR and IC teams can sometimes be a challenge, of that there is no doubt. But culture change offers a unique opportunity to come together, lead culture change from the front, and be at the heart of delivering strategic success for your businesses.

We can now support you in more ways than simply culture transformation – we partner in business transformation, leadership acceleration, assessment & succession planning, executive and leadership coaching, and talent acquisition.

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