By Jill Thomas

It’s a Rocky Road, but Worth the Trip

Build an internal communication strategy that supports innovation.

Lesson 1: Don’t Wing It
A well-planned and robust internal communication strategy smooths the pathway for innovation. In fact, one cannot happen without the other. Without a shared understanding of what and why, resistance and acrimony will escalate. Once that happens, it is a long road back to harmony.

Lesson 2: It’s Going to Be Harder Than You Think
Building shared understanding is no easy task. For instance, email announcements (formerly the most common tactic in my arsenal) are appallingly inadequate. More often, they cause more confusion and anxiety than they resolve.

Lesson 3: They Will Not Come to You, So You Must Go to Them
Internal (much like public-facing) marketing strategies need to be executed seamlessly on multiple channels. Your team members (like consumers) are distracted, inundated with information, and multigenerational, and they have varying access to and comfort with technology. Today, our in-house agency manages a robust internal communication strategy that employs a variety of tactics, such as company-wide email newsletters, instant messaging on Slack, a corporate blog, social media platforms, and in-person training sessions and workshops. Most recently, we invested in a social intranet with cool features such as two-way searchable news feeds and discussion threads. We have ongoing one-on-one and small-group training sessions, engaging content, and incentives that drive daily engagement.

Lesson 4: The Marketing Team Must Lead
Even though it was never the plan, hindsight shows that it was a natural fit for our in-house marketing to manage internal communications. For great internal communication (as for all marketing campaigns), content is king, and content production sits in the marketing department. Innisfree is likely the only hotel-management group in the United States with a Lead Storyteller, Photographer, and Videographer on the company payroll—and I believe these people are key to our success.

Lesson 5: It’s Not Cheap, But It’s Worth It
Growing our internal communication strategy and sustaining it with amazing content requires a significant investment, and we expect a return. How we measure this return is yet to be determined, but we can already see many business advantages.