Common Operational Blockers: Internal Communication

In the latest in this series, David Smithson-Rudd explores the pitfalls of poor internal communication, and how to build and maintain a joined-up, effective workforce.

The Managing Director thinks everything is in hand.

The operations team is waiting on the marketing team for an update.

The marketing team is working on something else while they await the arrival of the content from the development team.

The development team have not been briefed and are working on other priorities.

Some time later, the Managing Director receives an angry email from the customer.

Sound familiar?

Internal communication problems aren’t just workplace irritations; they are one of the most consistent and damaging blockers a business can face. They delay delivery, frustrate the workforce, and cost money.

What does poor internal communication look like?

The major challenge here is when poor internal communication sets in, it’s harder for leaders to spot, but obvious to frontline teams. An outsider looking in will immediately note poor internal communication if they see the following:

·      No clear owner for a product, project or task

·      Conflicting messaging across teams

·      Last-minute decisions

·      Electronic messaging (Slack, WhatsApp etc) filled with questions and explanatory chat

·      Important updates shared verbally, inconsistently, or at the wrong time

Frustrations are at risk of becoming bedded in very quickly, which often turns employees, teams and leaders against one another. An important note here is to recognise it as a systems issue, rather than a personality flaw of those involved, and address it accordingly.

Before we address it though, we need to understand the root causes.

Why does communication break down?

The root causes are likely to vary across every business struggling with internal communication, but there will be some common themes, regardless of the type of company and the environment around the workforce:

• No agreed communications framework across departments

• A culture of assumption: “they’ll know what I meant”

• Siloed leadership that avoids cross-functional check-ins

• A critical gap in leadership training: managers aren’t routinely taught what stakeholder management actually is, or how to build alignment across functions

• Strategic messaging that gets diluted because those responsible for internal comms are mistaken as glorified messengers, rather than the connective tissue between a business’s vision and its people

Similarly, there are common themes in the end results:

• Delays + missed deadlines = lost revenue

• Friction between teams, leading to higher employee attrition

• Leaders firefighting and duplicating efforts, reducing productivity

• Business strategy begins to lose focus, impacting the direction of the company

• Employees feeling like they’re left out of the loop, causing them to disengage, hitting performance, morale, and customer experience

What does great internal communication look like?

Never fear, the solution does not (necessarily) look like more meetings. It has much more to do with structured, consistent and joined-up messaging:

• Regular communication rhythms across leadership and delivery teams

• Internal updates align with the company's external strategic narrative

• A clear owner (or team) for internal communications, not to “send things out,” but to ensure coherence, tone, and impact

• Leaders trained and supported to manage upwards, sideways, and downwards

• Most importantly: boundaries are respected. Communications that allow people to work well, not never switch off

The WhatsApp Trap

Once the adoption of WhatsApp became widespread in the UK, many workplaces embraced group texts as a tool for leadership communication, and sometimes for the whole workforce.

Used well, WhatsApp can support rapid communication, but unmanaged, it creates a fast-track to burnout. Messages flying in at 9pm on a Thursday, when your business is 9-5? That’s not agile, it’s unsustainable, and fails to respect the needed rest time of your workforce, even the most senior of leaders.

My recommendation – keep it for (real) emergencies only, such as the business needing to trigger its Business Continuity Plan.

Lesson from experience

One of the best things I ever did as a leader was introduce regular 30-minute catchups with my key stakeholders within a given business. They’re set up with no agenda, and the frequency of the catchups would vary according to how closely we needed to work together. Some were weekly, others fortnightly or monthly.

When I first did this while working in the public sector, some leaders recognised the potential value immediately, whereas others questioned whether it was necessary, and some were even somewhat startled, afraid that I’d be questioning them on their department. After the first couple of sessions though, almost everyone saw the value – they could tell me what they were working on, and vice-versa. Clashing priorities were identified and resolved quickly, without an audience. Even better, new ideas emerged that helped push the company along in its mission faster.

My only regret? I waited seven years into management to start. Previously, I’d followed a hierarchical approach, and assumed that the leaders above me were all aligned. As ever, never assume!

How Consult DSR can help

This is a topic I’m particularly passionate about, as its critical to business success and growth. Consult DSR can help by:

• Auditing your communication rhythms and tools

• Building systems that enable clarity and reduce duplication

• Training managers in stakeholder management; not just what to say, but how, when and why

• Creating communication strategies that link day-to-day operations with big-picture goals

Crucially, founders and leaders must recognise that communication is not a soft skill – it’s infrastructure. If it’s broken, you will feel the pain in your bottom line.

The great news: these problems are preventable, and you can unlock new value. Get in touch today for an initial, no-obligation chat.