Closing the gap between leader expectations and employee capacity is where communicators can deliver competitive advantage.
To paraphrase the uncle of a certain web-slinging Marvel superhero, with great change comes great responsibility.
And so it is that communicators find themselves at a pivotal point in organizational development. They are tasked with driving business outcomes, coaching leaders and guiding employees through transformation, all while navigating a rising wave of change fatigue.
How communicators effectively drive change at this pivot point has the potential to be a source of enduring business value. As one senior communicator put it, “We’re in the middle of everything, and everyone expects us to make sense of it.”
Mary C. Buhay, Ragan chief growth officer and head of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, welcomed a group of more than two dozen senior communicators to an executive roundtable on Nov. 12 at Ragan’s Future of Communications Conference in Austin, Texas, to explore this source of competitive advantage.
A tipping point for organizational change
The conversation opened with research from The Grossman Group showing that U.S. organizations have reached what David Grossman, CEO of The Grossman Group, called a “tipping point” for change.
Employees can absorb one to two major changes a year, he said, yet more than half of business leaders plan to deploy three or more major initiatives over the same period. “We’ve discovered our organizations have a speed limit for change,” Grossman said. “And right now, we’re pushing people past their capacity.”
This tension is showing up everywhere, from disengagement and turnover to inconsistent adoption of initiatives. Couple that challenge with a relentless competitive business environment and you have a recipe for fatigue and loss of productivity. “Change management never feels done,” said the head of internal communications at a social media platform who was in attendance. “We’re always riding that line pretty tight.”
The group discussed the consequences of overwhelming employees: productivity loss, cultural erosion, resistance and confusion. And while leaders often believe they’re communicating clearly, Grossman’s research shows 99% of leaders think they communicate change well, but only 75% of employees agree.
“That 25% gap is where transformation dies,” Grossman said.
The expanding strategic role of communicators
That gap is also where communicators can add value, if they’re ready. Roundtable attendees described a shift in their role from message distribution to business adviser, strategist and integrator across the enterprise.
Communicators are often the only function with visibility across HR, operations, safety, legal, marketing and executive leadership. “I find myself being a bridge between executives and different departments across the organization,” said Christina Thorsen, director of internal communications at Goodwill Central Texas. “My role is cross-functional so I get to hear a lot about what’s happening across the org rather than within just one area. I’m then able to connect the dots and bring the right people into the conversation as projects are being developed and rolled out.”
Another participant noted that communications is frequently asked to solve problems created upstream without visibility into business rationale. Several participants described implementing intake processes or governance models to help manage the resulting flood of initiatives.
Jana Dawson, director of employee communications at Terracon, shared how her team created a structured system requiring new initiatives to meet specific criteria before moving forward.
“We became stakeholder engagement coaches,” Dawson said. “If teams hadn’t aligned cross-functionally or couldn’t show how a change tied to strategy, they weren’t ready. The process itself helped reduce chaos.”
Storytelling as cultural infrastructure
Another theme of the conversation was the power of storytelling to reinforce culture and unlock business value.
One communicator from an architecture firm explained how leaders use personal stories to build trust and emotional connection during change, with one leader telling employees about her mammogram experience to explain why she’s committed to designing better healthcare spaces. “People connect with that. It makes her approachable and gives meaning to the work,” said Michael McManus, vice president at CannonDesign.
Storytelling is also an important tool to deploy when working with leaders to define communications’ business value. “It’s about the stories we tell,” said Kathy Humphrey, head of communications North America at Novonesis. “What are the hot spots? What’s the underlying feeling? We feel it as communicators but it’s up to us to tell that story to leadership.”
Stories are one of the most powerful ways to align culture with external brand promise. “Your brand doesn’t exist without your culture,” said Andy Tolton, vice president of marketing at MangoApps. “If the internal experience doesn’t match what you say externally, the brand falls apart.”
Tolton further argued for the application of metrics to communications and storytelling, noting when communicators are able to do that many of the questions of value go away.
“You have to be able to create the baseline,” he said. “Without that, everything you communicate in terms of value is up for debate.”
AI: Both accelerator and anxiety generator
AI was a major thread running through the session, reflecting both optimism and apprehension. Communicators reported using AI to accelerate content creation, automate translation, streamline workflows and free up time for more strategic work.
AI has allowed communicators to work faster, be more agile and bridge gaps with HR and IT, one participant noted. Another added that training demand is through the roof. “We’re seeing a lot of interest in AI training,” said Chere Babcock, communications director at global commercial real estate firm CBRE. “The use of AI is skyrocketing, and employees want to know how to use it to their advantage.”
AI will have to serve as an accelerator for the communications function as it grows along with the enterprise. “How do you grow without growing your bottom line?” asked the director of communications at a medical device manufacturer. “You don’t do that without AI. We’re expanding through getting more efficient.”
Still, concerns remain about hallucinations, misinformation, quality control and job displacement. The communications function should retain its pivotal role as the voice of the employee and the customer, she said.
“We need that communal understanding of the audience, whoever your audience may be, because AI can’t take that understanding … and elevate the function,” she said.
Ashley Brooks, senior director of communications at Chick-fil-A, said that her team’s focus is on working closely with business partners to unlock business value.
“As our IT department is rolling out AI, we’re trying to be in lockstep with them,” she said. “We’re working on integrating AI with our intranet and other channels and thinking about how our internal communications needs to change as AI influences our audience’s behavior with content.”
Looking ahead
The challenges are real, from unrelenting change, resource pressure, imperfect leadership behaviors and technological disruption, but so is the opportunity. Communicators are positioned to guide organizations through the complexity, bringing humanity, clarity, alignment and the resulting business value at moments when they’re needed most.
“You drive business,” Buhay told the group. “The part that will change is how you express your value, but the value itself is undeniable.”
Learn more about Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council.
Mike Prokopeak is director of Council learning, community and content.
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