Last year turned the work world upside down. For many, day-to-day life is still upside-down. You know this. You’ve been living this reality for more than a year. 

As IC pros, you and your teams have been on the production treadmill working hard to turn the world right-side-up with communications counsel and support, trying to keep pace with a workforce that has gone through unprecedented change and continues to shift.

Your company’s employees are different. They continue to be isolated. Their connection remains in a weakened state. Some suffer from Zoom fatigue. Manager communication acumen is getting a weekly, if not daily, workout. Communicating culture remotely is much harder than demonstrating culture face-to-face. And yes, onboarding a remote workforce has required much more forethought than a scripted gathering at a pre-work mini conference for new employees.

But the big question remains: Have we changed to meet the needs of this evolved workforce? 

I’m not talking about added volume or increased output. Many have slogged through this. The pandemic alone added significant messaging demands to the work of the IC pro. You know this.

I’m talking about our clear understanding of the internal audiences that power our organizations. Most IC pros gradually bank understanding about these internal audiences starting on the day they join a company, getting a periodic booster shot of knowledge when planned change or transformation initiatives land on their desk.

How up-to-date are we when it comes to meeting our audiences where they are at?

This is an important question as we consider strengthening IC program and technology. We’ve captured the attention of our leaders in the past year. How much of our efforts to strengthen IC now will successfully keep the attention of our internal audiences in the coming year? That’s the general discussion we need to have. But let’s get specific.

There are four questions every IC leader should be asking themselves right now.

• How much of what you’re doing right now as an IC leader is based on what you knew of your internal audiences from before the challenges of last year?

• How well are those actions and programs meeting the needs of your internal audiences right now?

• What do your internal audiences now need to know to be successful?

• Do you know enough about your internal audiences to know?

You can answer these questions by investing in a proper communications audit. There are great consultants who can help with this work. And that investment is happening in some places. But the challenge with bringing outside experts in is that the pace of change isn’t slowing down.

A one-time audit catches you up. But it won’t help you keep pace.

Have you invested in your team’s ability to answer these four questions?

There is an alternative measure that can complement the audit approach. You can invest in your team’s ability to proactively and more frequently update their understanding of your internal audiences. Like an outside audit, where you have outside experts make recommendations to your leadership, this time the IC pro is on deck to strategically keep the organization up-to-date.

Becoming an Audience Matter Expert is how the IC pro can capture new expertise and move past just influencing their own work. Your team member can turn what they learn into shareable strategic audience insight that can keep leaders, change makers and project owners up-to-date. So, as leadership adapts the business, your emerging IC leaders can articulate an accurate picture of the workforce and what they need to succeed with the leaders they encounter.

This is a process improvement and leadership muscle that can reduce the amount of times we feel flatfooted as we react to challenge and, instead, increase our ability to respond in stride to whatever’s next.

Here’s the good news. Many CEOs have noticed the contributions of the IC pro in the past year. This is the time to invest in programs and technology. Your workplace needs this. 

This is also the time to invest in the strategic voice of the IC pros on your team. So, when they are now seated at the “big” table, they can speak strategically, using the language of the internal audiences they serve and champion.

If you’re looking for a way to level up your strategic impact and the strategic influence of your team, I have a program designed to build clarity, purpose and confidence as an Audience Matter Expert. This is what your workforce and company needs right now. 

Learn more here.

Let’s invest in emerging IC leaders and make sure their strategic voice is heard.

As an Audience Matter Expert, they can:

• Make sure your targeted investments in programs and technology deliver on what your workforce needs.

• Pull your audiences closer and keep them connected no matter what change washes across the workplace.

• Help you advance the strategic influence and strength of IC in your company.

I’d love to help you and your team move forward. Let’s talk about your team.