Internal Communication

Welcome to this toolkit on developing an internal communication strategy for your organisation. The aim of the toolkit is to help organisations to improve their efficiency and effectiveness through the creation of internal communication processes that create a cohesive organisational culture.

Civil society organisations are focused on specific issues, on improving situations and having a real impact in addressing the many challenges facing the world. Often, the focus is so exclusively on what is going on 'out there' that very little attention is given to what is going on within the organisation. Communicating and sharing information with colleagues is overlooked as everyone concentrates on getting work done and achieving the organisation's objectives.

Within communication strategies, internal communication is often overlooked, yet it is vitally important. It is the communication that relates directly to the foundation of your organisation: the people - staff, management and volunteers - that give your organisation its ability to function. Developing sound internal communication processes and evaluating these processes on a regular basis is the same as making sure your car runs smoothly and is serviced regularly. If the many different pieces of your car do not fit smoothly together, you will not get where you are going very quickly, if you get there at all. Similarly, if the people that make up your organisation do not work together effectively, your organisation will not achieve its objectives as fast, if at all. An internal communication strategy is the key to ensuring a cohesive organisation focused on achieving its goals and objectives.

Your internal communication strategy should emerge from, and be guided by, your organisation's overall strategic plan. This is because strategic internal communication is simply a step towards helping your organisation achieve its aims more effectively.

Improving your internal communication requires careful thought, creativity and detailed planning. As well, monitoring and evaluation must be built into your plan. As your internal communication plan should be integrated within your organisation's overall structure and strategic plan, you may find these other CIVICUS toolkits (available at www.civicus.org) useful in starting the planning process:

- Strategic planning

- Monitoring and evaluation

- Action planning

- Overview of planning

- Budgeting

CIVICUS also offers two toolkits to assist your internal written communication: 'Writing effectively and powerfully,' and 'Writings within your organisation'. In addition, the following three toolkits will help you plan your external communication, which should be done in conjunction with your internal communication plan:

- Promoting your organisation

- Handling the media

- Producing your own media

We refer to these toolkits and sections within them throughout this toolkit.

Note: this toolkit focuses primarily on staff-management communication and not inter-management, staff/management-board or inter-board communication. In addition several important and in many cases sensitive issues such as change management, social exclusion, harassment and multi-cultural communication are not discussed in detail. This toolkit should be taken only as an introduction to internal communication and not a complete guide to all the issues that arise in this area.

Site Map - Internal Communication Toolkit

Who will find this toolkit useful?

This toolkit will be useful for all organisations that want to improve their internal communication. In particular, it will be useful for those organisations that want to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their organisation by creating increased cohesion among staff, management and volunteers. In addition, the toolkit also offers food for thought and some tips for organisations that may already feel that they have effective internal communication process but want to ensure that these are maintained and utilised consistently.