Building Your Internal Communications OS

It’s often said that the job of the CEO is to set strategy, put the best team he/she can on the field, and make sure that the company doesn’t run out of cash. I would add that CEOs must communicate their vision, the company‘s strategy, and institute a process for goal setting—all of which boils down to communication.

I believe the three main goals of internal communications can be separated into:

Many startup companies begin with a very ad hoc system of communication. When you have less than 10 employees, communication isn’t that hard. As the organization grows, it becomes harder just to keep people in the loop of everything that is going on. Additionally, it becomes necessary to institute a system for goal setting to ensure that everyone knows how they impact the organization. Lastly, as the organization scales beyond a few dozen people, the CEO’s ability to have a relationship with each employee becomes impossible and a system for recognition is also needed.

As a CEO, it surprised me when a team member would ask about our strategy or how I was thinking about a recent product launch. I thought what was talked about in an executive team meeting would roll down through the organization, but it didn’t. And as it turns out, saying something in one all-hands meeting a month ago is not enough!

By establishing a communications operating system for your company, you can get ahead of these issues.

In this guide, we’ll recommend ideas for: