There is a phrase I like to use when talking about Internal Communication: “The most brilliant strategy is worth zero if no one understands it.” It sounds simple. Almost obvious. And it is precisely this apparent obviousness that means Internal Communication remains, even today, one of the most underestimated dimensions of organisational management.
We are living through a moment of rupture. Not only technological, but profoundly human. Hybrid working models have fragmented the physical space of organisations — the space where, for decades, culture was transmitted through proximity, shared lunches, and corridor conversations. Today, many teams work in a dispersed way. And when space ceases to be the vehicle of culture, communication becomes an imperative.
On the other hand, artificial intelligence has entered organisations not through the back door, as so many changes do, but through the main entrance. With it came legitimate questions: What is going to change? Does my role still make sense? Where is the company heading? These are questions that leaders have a duty to answer. And the way they answer — or refrain from answering — is, in itself, an act of communication.
From noise to alignment
There is also an important difference to consider between informing and communicating. Informing means issuing a message. Communicating means ensuring that the message has been understood, integrated and, ideally, has generated action. Although this distinction may seem merely semantic, it has enormous practical consequences.
When we flood employees with newsletters, intranets, announcements and corporate videos without a clear strategy, we are creating noise. And noise has a cost, beyond all the effort involved: disconnection, disengagement and resistance to change. On the other hand, when communication is designed with intentionality, starting from a clear purpose, respecting different internal audiences, choosing the right channels and remaining consistent with leadership behaviours, it becomes an instrument of cultural alignment.
Cultural alignment is the difference between a team that knows why it does what it does and one that simply executes tasks. It is the difference between an organisation that moves through change with cohesion and one that experiences it in a state of chaos.
Leadership as the first act of communication
Leaders are always communicating. Even when they are silent. The absence of communication is, in itself, a message – and rarely a good one. That is why one of the greatest misconceptions in organisations is to treat Internal Communication as a support function, disconnected from leadership. In reality, they are inseparable.
A leader who communicates clearly, who is able to provide context for difficult decisions, and who listens genuinely before speaking creates the conditions for engagement. And engagement is not an HR indicator. It is a performance indicator. Organisations with truly committed teams are consistently more innovative, more resilient and more capable of executing strategy.
That is why I do not believe in Internal Communication without communicative leadership. The message from the top sets the tone. The behaviour of middle leaders defines the reality. And between tone and reality, there is a space that communication either fills — or rumours and myths occupy.
Communication as a tool for strategic execution
There is an understandable but dangerous temptation to separate strategy from communication. As if the former were the serious work and the latter merely the packaging. This view is outdated. In an environment of accelerated change, communication is an integral part of strategic execution. It is what transforms a decision made at the top into a reality lived on the ground.
Thinking strategically about Internal Communication means asking the right questions: Who needs to know what, when, and through which channel? What narrative supports this transformation? How do we ensure that leaders are ambassadors rather than obstacles? How do we measure impact?
These are management questions. And it is with this ambition — to elevate Internal Communication to its true strategic status — that I address these topics in Porto Business School’s Advanced Programme in Strategic Communication.
I do not bring ready-made formulas. I bring a conviction: in the organisations we want to build more human, more agile, more prepared for uncertainty Internal Communication is not just a department. It is a leadership competence. And like any competence, it can and should be developed.
Article by Isabel Carla Silva, Head of Employee Experience & Internal Communication na NOS SGPS and faculty member of the Advanced Program in Strategic Communication.