Company-Wide Comms Strategy

As a leader of a growing organization, it’s helpful to think about all of the different types of people on your team and how you are going to communicate with them over the course of the year. How often will each group of people need to hear from you? In what format? What messages will you need to repeat yourself in different contexts to get your messages across?

Your leadership team should take a look at a calendar together and map out your communication game plan for the full year ahead.

Think about all levels of the company and how many communications each person will experience. Try to vary your communication strategies so that each individual experiences a range of formats and structures. Everyone learns differently, so it’s important to vary your approach to make sure you are reaching everyone in multiple modes over the course of the year.

Most leaders underestimate how frequently they need to communicate (way more than you’d think) and how important it is to remind people what matters (goals and culture). Leaders also forget that they are thinking about the vision, strategy, and culture all of the time - and the team may be so immersed in the day-to-day hustle that they aren’t thinking about it that often at all. It’s your job to remind them again and again: who are we, why what we’re doing matters, and what’s important right now.

It’s also important to leave “change breadcrumbs” - little morsels of information that will give people a heads-up that change may be coming. Regardless of whether it’s good or bad news, people don’t like surprises. Often new ideas can be adopted successfully - with less resistance - if little morsels of information are left along the way so that the change feels more gradual than abrupt.

Meetings are a form of communication. Parties and gatherings are sending messages to your team about what we celebrate. It’s helpful to look at your communications strategy in conjunction with your meetings and company holiday calendars. You can often double or triple-dip so that one event or communication may serve multiple purposes.

EXAMPLES OF COMPANY-WIDE COMMUNICATIONS:

  • All company emails: Send an all-company or all-team meeting [Weekly or monthly]

  • Skip-a-line lunches: Invite the people who report to your direct report for lunch to get to know them and hear their ideas [Bi-Annually]

  • Company celebration: It's great to celebrate and keep morale high on your team. It's important to set expectations and policies to keep them positive. [Bi-Annually]

  • Goal setting: Setting goals is one of the most essential ways to ensure that your company gets the right stuff done - and on time [Quarterly]

  • Town hall meetings: Town hall meetings are a great way to align the team on the big picture and answer questions about company direction [Bi-Annually]

  • Taking and sharing notes from meetings: Establish shared norms for taking notes and where/how to share them [Weekly]

  • “Walk the Halls” tour: Take the longer route back to your office and chat with a few talks on the way [Weekly or monthly]

  • Social events: Get to know your team as people with social gatherings [Monthly]

  • New employee welcome emails: Send a welcome email introducing new employees to the team and key stakeholders; make sure to get their feedback before sending. [As new people join]

  • Full-family gatherings: Invite everyone and their "special people" to join for an event designed for all ages [Annually]

  • Retreats: Retreats are great to build your team and allow you to do deep work together [2-4 times per year]

  • Office hours: Consider hosting a weekly drop-in hour for people to come and talk to you. You'll need to remind people regularly and warmly invite them to come. [Weekly or monthly]

  • Swag fest + surprise “love”: Create some nice branded presents and give them out [Quarterly]

  • Awards + recognitions: Awards and recognitions are highly valuable for signaling people who are doing great work to help inspire greatness in others [Annually]

  • Board meetings: As part of the goal-setting process, it's important to time your board meetings to coordinate with your goal-setting timeline. That way you align everyone before sprinting for the next quarter. [Quarterly]