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Every digital workplace is different, but the basic goal of communications remains the same: relaying information from one person, team or department to another. Yet sometimes important messages get lost among the competing signals and channels within an organization.
Establishing a single source of communications truth can help people stay up to date without having to remember where they first saw a piece of information. But that doesn't mean internal communications should stop there. So what goes into establishing a single source of truth and what can companies do to broaden the reach of communications?
Skip the Game of Corporate Telephone
A single source of truth is about more than having one place to find information. It's also about making sure information is current, relevant and universally accessible, through regular updates and a system that integrates feedback and insights from employees, said Interaction Design Foundation founder and CEO Mads Soegaard.
He describes it as an antidote to the corporate game of "telephone," where messages get distorted as they pass through the different individual, team and management layers that typically make up the digital workplace. “It's about cutting through the noise and ensuring clarity in a world overloaded with information,” he said.
Creating one starts by identifying the key information that drives decision-making and workflow. Once identified, he said, this information should be centralized in a universally accessible platform, be it a digital dashboard, an intranet or a cloud-based system. Whatever platform you choose, said Soegaard, make sure it is accessible as well as intuitive for all employees. Ideally, the platform should support sophisticated search functionalities and allow for tagging and categorization of data.
But rather than taking a "if you build it, they will come" approach, Soegaard recommends embedding it within corporate culture and introducing it when onboarding new employees.
"If you have a company culture handbook or course (which I highly recommend for remote teams) then include the SSoT [single source of truth] approach here. The sharing of this SSoT should be part of the daily workflow, integrated into regular meetings, digital communications, and company updates to ensure constant alignment and awareness,” Soegaard added.
Related Article: Internal Communications: Email vs. Chat vs. Discussion vs. Meetings
A Single Source of Truth? Yes. A Megaphone for Comms? No.
Having a single source of truth where people can find information is valuable and can help build direct connections with leaders, said Laurel Dzneladze, employee communications and digital platform leader at LinkedIn. But she's quick to note this hub shouldn't exist as a megaphone for internal communications.
"The information that's being fed to this source of truth isn't fully on internal comms like it used to be. Behaviors have shifted a lot over the years — some people approach content with a search-first mindset some prefer to have the content pushed to them. It's about finding a balance in this and understanding the role of internal communications within that," she said.
But surfacing information in one centralized location helps solve the still rampant reliance on email as a communication medium, she continued. Email siloes communications from anyone not on the chain, but also walls off the information within from generative AI, which is playing an increasing role in surfacing and summarizing internal communications.
Dzneladze echoed Soegaard's exhortation that maintenance plays a big part in sustaining a centralized information hub. "You have got to clean up your content, ensuring your knowledge is fresh, relevant and maintained .... We've been talking about this for years, but no one has really done it. Especially with generative AI, you have to be careful about what's being fed to the learning model or it will start to surface the wrong things or fill in the gaps where knowledge does not exist," she said.
An alternate, more dynamic approach to surfacing and sharing important information is leaning into internal communities, she continued. While Dzneladze acknowledges this approach also comes with its challenges — such as where will you store knowledge and how will you capture tacit knowledge — she notes the more inclusive nature of communities and how they help connect individuals, teams and leaders across an organization.
Related Article: Creating a Culture of Knowledge Sharing, Not Hoarding
Remove Internal Information Silos
Over the past year, work efficiency has become a higher priority due to the uncertain economy, tightened budgets and fewer resources, said Alexey Korotich, VP of Product at Wrike.
Driving the renewed focus in part is the result of the time and money wasted when workers toggle between unnecessary apps and search for information to get their work done, he continued. A single source of truth is therefore a requisite in this era of efficiency, he said, to remove silos, streamline efforts and improve visibility across projects, initiatives and workflows, including the ability to demonstrate contribution to the bottom line.
Wrike research found 76% of knowledge workers said a single source of truth would help them reduce work-related stress, and 80% said it would improve efficiency.
“Establishing well-defined and connected processes can help teams improve their workflows, and allow organizations as a whole to do more impactful work. According to our research, knowledge workers feel that technology consolidation is key for creating a single source of truth,” Korotich said.
Ultimately, using multiple apps and workspaces to manage work can lead to a lack of visibility, which has a trickle-down effect on productivity. When employees spend more time tracking down information, teams sometimes overcompensate for the lack of clarity by creating unnecessary meetings or stalling projects — all of which can lead to decreased efficiency.
A SSOT benefits organizations with improved visibility into what various teams and employees are working on at both the department and cross-functional level, clearing up much of the ambiguity around how to prioritize tasks and what work is being done.
Related Article: Ensuring Internal Communications Are Heard in an Increasingly Complex Landscape
A Central, But Dynamic, Hub
The number and the specialized nature of systems in use within an organization necessitate the creation of a single source of truth, said ClearBox Consulting's Suzie Robinson. Considering the variance in how — and if — these disparate channels present news, the demand for visual communications, questions around accessibility all are arguments for creating a centralized source of truth which can respond to these needs.
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However the hub shouldn't remain static. Rather, Robinson recommends exploring cross-posting or integration options that feed from the SSOT into the various channels to "reach people where they're working." This also lightens the load from the internal communications teams' perspective, saving them from reposting multiple times.
People's information habits in their personal lives carry over to the workplace, she continued, pointing to how people rely on one or two news sites for information while still seeing the stream of information that comes into our different social feeds. When carried into the workforce, it highlights the need to boost important messages across channels to increase their reach and likelihood of reaching their audience, she said.
The hub should also offer the opportunity for personalization given the wide variance in information needs across an enterprise, said Robinson. "While some information is 'nice to know,' employees should see the 'must know' content first and choose whether they even see topics that don’t interest them. As an extreme example, frontline audiences are very time poor and often totally focussed on the practical tasks they need to undertake, such as helping customers in a shop, chopping ingredients, or fitting a roof. Giving them one place to go to find all news will cut down time wasted bouncing between channels to work out where they should go," she said.
Robinson shared a final argument for creating a more dynamic centralized information hub: to give employees a voice. When the information from a centralized hub is shared out to channels which invite and allow for conversation, questions and even challenging the information, organizations and leaders can help build trust in them and the information being shared, she said.