Are you a communicating organization?

Communications is an invaluable resource. Organizations can use it to create and deepen relationships, set agendas, move solutions, build trust, inspire big change and so much more. To use communications to its full power, organizations need to embrace not just doing communications but being a communicating organization.

What is a communicating organization? It is one where everyone involved with the organization — from staff to the board to coalition partners — understands that they play a role in communications and know how to play that role well. There is both a strong external AND internal communications strategy, and both are executed well with feedback loops in place to see where there is room for improvement. The organization spends more time on proactive rather than reactive communications and is able to communicate well in a dynamic environment where change is viewed with a sense of opportunity — not dread. Pivots are something to look forward to because they build creative muscle.  

Here are three quick questions to ask to get a sense of whether you are a communicating organization today: 

• When you look at your people page on your website and see the staff and board names, can you confirm that you know what role each of them plays in communicating for the organization and that each has what they need to do this really well? 

• Can you list all the coalitions or coordinated efforts your organization belongs to, name the narrative that as a field you are breathing life into and have a sense of how that is going? 

• As you look to 2025 and all that is up in the air, from who will be president to whether we are having a recession, do you have complete confidence that your teams and partners are proactively planning for how to make the most of whatever context you’ll be doing your work in? 

How can you become a communicating organization?  

Cultivate a mindset that understands the full power of communications. You need a growth mindset when it comes to communications. The world is constantly changing, and to use communications well, you need to welcome uncertainty as a chance to make things the way you want. Sit with your team and think about what power communications has to help you achieve your greatest ambitions. It can help you attract more people to your cause. It can set narratives across fields that build momentum for change. It can raise an issue up the priority list. It can recruit new partners and resources to make change possible. Practicing foresight is a way to expand your definition of communications, which will open possibilities. Where can you use communications strategically that you aren’t now to make more progress on your hopes and dreams?

Explore the untapped potential. Make a list of all your assets that are related to communications. This includes anyone involved with your organization who has a standing with people you want to communicate with, all the coalitions and affinity groups you are a member of, intellectual knowledge you have that is in demand, access to power players who decide what you focus on and what you decide to solve for, and trends that put you in a good position to move forward. Where are you not fully using what you have to work with?

Borrow from others. Envy may be a sin, but it is also a strong motivator. Look at other peer organizations and how they are using communications. Are there things you want to borrow or iterate on? I saw a United Nations partnership with Spotify where they recognized nature as an artist. This offered a spark for me to wonder how to use this idea for some of the issues I was thinking of. Create a mood board of other efforts that stretch your team’s creativity about what is possible. What has caught your attention lately that you might learn from and get inspired by as you consider how to strengthen your communications?  

Get a strong foundation in place. If you want to use all you have to work with in creative and opportunistic ways, you need a strong foundation in place. Everyone you want to serve as a communicator needs to have clear goals to work toward; deep knowledge of the audiences you want to engage and what motivates them; and the narratives, messages and stories you want to socialize and popularize. They also need to know the big questions you are asking that you want intel to help answer. Why aren’t people behaving in ways that are in their self-interest? Why are leaders unwilling to hold someone/something accountable for a problem? Once people have these ingredients, you can let them loose to get creative, take risks and learn from falling flat on their faces (a great way to learn). Where can you  strengthen your foundation so you can get more creative and innovative with your communications? 

Prioritize the possibilities. Once you have a list of where you can use the power of communications to do more with assets you ALREADY have, decide which ones you want to move on now and which you want to percolate on more. What are the best priorities that you can move now? 

Do the priorities really well. Once you know what you want to do, make sure your team has the capacity to execute well. Encourage teammates who take point on different strategies and tactics to ensure their skills are state of the art when it comes to doing communications well. This may mean not only getting better at narrative development but also having deep expertise about how to move using narratives through all your networks and coalitions so that the narratives are sticky and impactful. It may mean upping your storytelling game to be ethical and move in new formats to get attention (Check out KnightLabs for mind-boggling cool tools). It may mean finally deciding how — rather than whether — to use artificial intelligence. Which skills and competencies can your team train up on to make the most of opportunities before you? 

Having been at this for a few decades, I can make you a few promises. If you take a good look, you will find you can get more out of communications by thinking and doing things differently — not just by spending more money. You’ll be able to use the full power of communications if you focus in on skills and competencies so your team does state-of-the-art execution. When you decide to be a communicating organization and not just do communications, you’ll achieve more better and faster. Promise.