The real reason you should be partnering with Comms Teams

If you think you lead change on your own, think again. There are many other teams and professionals you’ll usually partner with to make your change delivery a success. I outline all of them in Module 1: Setting Up Your Change for Success of my Leading Successful Change program. But perhaps one of the most important teams to partner with is Internal Communications (also sometimes known as Corporate Communications). You absolutely want to build those relationships with Comms Teams because:

They own the channels.

They have the skills. 

They can fly the flag once the change ends.

Let’s dig into these. 

They own the channels

The Internal Communications team usually own the communications channels both inside and outside the organisation. This could include All Staff email distribution lists, the company-wide/group communications calendar, internal social media like Microsoft’s Yammer, Meta’s Workplace, Google+ or Spaces, or Zoom’s Workvivo, along with external channels like the company’s website, LinkedIn page, and customer service line (never forget the IVR!). Some Comms Teams want everything channelled through them, others are more than happy for you to have your own project mailbox or social media account and send out directly. You'll need to meet with and set expectations at the start. I would always encourage that you do give the Comms Team the option to be a reviewer on all comms, and even if they say no to give them a heads up of what's planned to go out, as they can advise if there's any clashes with other organisational comms and changes or if something has happened in the organisation that might be sensitive (such as a team member passing away or a team restructuring or a product recall etc). If they are being a bit resistant and cheeky and it will impact the success of the comms or change too much, escalate to your leaders and potentially bridge across to escalate to theirs so you can keep comms flowing and reduce risk to the change implementation (it happens!).

They have the skills

You absolutely do not need to have a Marketing or Communications background to work in Change Management. If you are not as skilled in the creative / design spaces, you can work with your Internal/Corporate Communications team or your Marketing team in house to develop your change brand, theme, and elements (things like a logo, a banner, benefit icons etc). If these teams are too busy to support or you don't have them in house (many of my medium-sized consulting clients don't have either Internal Comms or Marketing teams!), you can request budget from the project and outsource to an external marketing/creative agency. Note this can get expensive (especially video production) and it can sometimes be tough for Change Management to get budget. So the advanced alternative is to learn Canva for yourself and keep your eye out for my Leading Successful Change Live or my Canva for Change Comms workshop where I teach this as well plus how to create videos in Canva. But first port of call should be your Internal Comms or Marketing teams and usually they are more than happy to help.

They can fly the flag once the change ends

In some instances, your Comms person will draft and distribute everything and the Change Manager is a sign off. In other instances, the Change Manager drafts everything and the Comms person is a sign off and distributes it. In other cases, the Change Manager drafts everything, the Comms person is just an FYI and the Change Manager arranges all the distribution. It's never the same and it depends on how the Comms person wants to work and how you want to work. This is why it's important to build that relationship and set those expectations around ways of working, responsibilities, and approval flows / Service Level Agreements (SLAs). I provide a list of questions in Module 2 of my Leading Successful Change program that can help you flesh out together with your Comms person how you'll best work together. Regardless, here’s the important thing: you won’t be there long-term. Projects and change, by their very definition, move on. But your Comms person is usually a permanent Business as Usual (BAU) role. So always engage them, err on the side of caution and let them say they don't need to be involved, otherwise play by their rules because they are BAU and will be there a lot longer than you. 

These are exactly the kinds of conversations we’ll be having on our Leading Successful Change Bonus Q&A Coaching Call as part of my April Group Cohort. 

Registrations for my April Group Cohort close tonight. If you’d like to grow your change confidence and find a life of freedom and flexibility, join LSC before the registration deadline tonight Tuesday 31 March 8.00pm AEDT (Sydney time).

CLICK HERE to join my April 2026 Group Cohort of Leading Successful Change before the registration deadline

Lata xx