How internal listening affects external communication

What’s internal is external, and what’s external is internal — the two communications functions are inextricably tied to one another. External campaigns are often built on knowledge and cultural know-how that comes from internal communications, emphasizing a deep bond between the two disciplines.

At Ragan’s Future of Communications Conference in Austin, running November 12-14, Megan Korns Russell, executive director of external relations at the TCU Neeley School of Business, will join her fellow communications experts for a panel titled “Influencing the Media: The Frameworks, Formats and Frontiers of the Future.”

Korns Russell said that the most successful external messaging campaigns gain their foundation from a robust culture and support from employees.

“Your internal folks are your biggest advocates for whatever they’re working on,” Korns Russell told Ragan. “Whether you’re launching a strategic plan, a product or even a new video game — if they feel like the message is authentic, that’s what makes it succeed externally.”

Internal knowledge shapes external messaging

Korns Russell told Ragan about an outward-facing strategic plan she worked on the past She said that well before a single word of the plan went out, her team sought to figure out how the plan would resonate internally.

“Before we even thought about how to share it externally, we hosted internal listening sessions,” Korns Russell told Ragan. “We asked people what they thought the plan should mean — what would make it feel real to them. Those conversations shaped everything that came next.”

Listening sessions with employees informed each part of the process from how messages came across to what the final product would look like upon publication. Additionally, taking leadership’s experience into account during the planning process helped add some authority to the exercise.

“We got feedback from the leadership about what made that strategic plan authentic,” she said. “They told us which parts really reflected who we are and which pieces felt more like corporate language. That was invaluable. Their job wasn’t to override the feedback, but to help us understand how to weave it into a story that felt genuine for both internal and external audiences.”

In addition, Korns Russell’s team used the aforementioned internal feedback to test external messaging.

“When we had a draft version of the messaging, we ran it back through some of those same internal groups to see how it landed,” she said. “If something didn’t sound like us, we changed it. We didn’t move forward until it felt right inside.”

Korns Russell also said that the employee-focused work continued once the strategic plan was published, ensuring that those who helped along the way felt their contributions were heard.

“Once the plan was live, we made sure the rollout emphasized faculty and staff contributions — the parts of the plan that came directly from their ideas,” Korns Russell said.

She added that by recognizing the people behind the organization in the published plan, whether their ideas turned into a content deep dive or an illustration featured in the published product, the externally published report had internal roots.

“It gave them ownership, and that sense of ownership carried into the external story. What came out of that process was a shared sense of direction. The strategic plan stopped feeling like a document and started feeling like a cultural piece — something people could see themselves in.”

She also told Ragan that there’s when internal communications are done the right way and reach the right people, your external messaging has the authenticity and backing to make a real impact.

“Internal communication isn’t about keeping people informed — it’s about keeping them inspired,” she said. “When you get that part right, everything you share externally has more weight.”

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications.