From Silos to Synergy: How Strong Internal Communication Builds a Winning Team

In my short time here, I have read and seen many conversations about employees' lack of ownership mentality or asking people to give more to the establishment they are part of.

While there may be various factors contributing to the lack of an ownership mentality, a significant portion of this responsibility falls on the shoulders of companies’ internal communication capabilities. It’s crucial to understand that expecting people to replicate anything that you cannot effectively communicate at scale is unrealistic.

More often than not, the lack of a proper internal communications system can show in:

• How asection of the team sees the other: marketing vs. founders, Operators vs. Creatives, Marketing vs. Sales or Branding, Engineers vs. Marketing, etc.
• Lack-lustre hiring culture.
• Oga led-marketing.
• Misalignment in direction.
• Ko ni ti ese mi baje system (everybody moves tasks quickly to the next table to ensure that “no be my hand e go spoil”)
• Wrong employment.
• Employees not having your back during a crisis, etc.

However, a lot can also happen when you get this right.

When the whole Sam Altman issue was happening and the many and forth that happened online, I was just seeing how much bond the team would have built in the direction of their mission. They were willing to leave “a current arrangement” and move to any other place he was setting up, publicly sticking out their heads for what they believed in.

“If someone came for your company today?

Do you think your team believes where you are going enough to stand with you?

Effective internal communication will keep all the departments and employees connected and working together towards a common goal. And not just this, there are many other things that you can achieve when you have built a working internal system to get everybody on the same page. They include:

• Alignment: common objectives, strategies, and expectations ensure everybody on the team is working towards a shared vision.
• Collaboration: rather than teams competing to see who is more important in a company, employees are optimized to see opportunities to collaborate for the good of the company. People will readily share knowledge, resources, and this can spark a consistent flow of creativity, productivity, and innovation.
• Employee Engagement: Your people will feel valued when you involve them in decisions that concern them. That sense of “feeling seen” and that you value their contributions to what you are building can lead to higher employee satisfaction and motivation.
• Openness: Transparent communication builds trust in the system, vertically and horizontally. Do you want a company where people readily share, where people are honest in their dealings, responsible, and accountable? Openness is key. You can’t get what you are not giving.
• It will affect efficiency and productivity on the team, as people will understand what their tasks are and how they tie up with the overarching goals of the company.
• Clear communication makes change easier. When employees understand the reasons behind a change, they’re less likely to be confused or resistant. This smooths things out between explaining the change and getting everyone on board.
• Company culture: people are the custodians of culture. If people are not interacting, the culture you are trying to build is like a pack of cards and will fail the test of time. Except you have employed a team of mind readers, it is interesting to expect people to work in the way that you have in your mind–especially when the yardsticks for measurement are unknown.
• Regular communication of your values, missions, and goals, in acts, words, and incentives, will help team members establish what the culture is, understand it, and align, fostering a positive work environment.

How do you build this internal communication?

1. Identify who you are, what you do, and how you do it, and distill it into key messages, storyboards, and documents that are readily available to everybody in the company.

This will help ensure that there are clear, objective ways of defining progress. Leaders know the standards they have communicated and understand that they must adhere to them, too. Team members are clear about how the leadership expects them to act and work, and falling short is obvious to everybody on the team.

• Use storytelling.
• Use visuals.
• Be consistent.

2. Foster a culture of open communication.

It is easy to say that we are running lean because of X, Y, and Z, but the team is seeing what you are spending money on, how much loss we are making on experiments that are failing (especially the ones that erred on caution), or the hush-hush conversations happening behind the scenes.

If you cannot provide an example of the culture you want to see, talking about it will not help.

Also, demonstrating and rewarding good behaviour in the area of transparent communication will set the tone for the entire organization.

3. A close follow-up would be encouraging feedback and suggestions.

Surveys, forms, open dialogues, and a setting where people feel comfortable having conversations with their line managers are important. Acknowledge and appreciate feedback, especially those that are valuable to the organization.

4. Allow line managers to be line managers! Empower your team leads to do their jobs, which also includes properly managing the people in your team’s different categories.

Your team leads are closer to the people who report to them. If you continue to undermine them by how your team is set up, you are bound to cause information silos and disgruntled teammates and open a can of unintended consequences in the team dynamics.

5. Measure/Track your efforts to get information seamlessly and efficiently across your team.