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The Organization of Communications 145

Council meetings. Council meetings are often seen as critical to the coordination of
communications practitioners from different departments working in different busi-
34
ness units. A council meeting usually consists of representatives of different com-
munications disciplines (e.g. public relations, internal communications, marketing
communications), who meet to discuss the strategic issues concerning communica-
tions and to review their past performance.Typically, ideas for improved coordina-
tion between communications disciplines bubble up at such council meetings, and
the council assigns a subcommittee or team to carry them out. Most of the coordina-
tion of communications across many larger companies takes place in these council
meetings and the subcommittees and teams that emerge from them. Generally, commu-
nications councils support coordination by providing opportunities for communicators
to develop personal relationships among each other, coordinating communications
projects, sharing best practices, learning from each other’s mistakes, learning about the
company, providing professional training, improving the status of communications in
the company,and making communications professionals more committed to the orga-
nization as a whole. For all of this to happen, it is important that the council meeting
remains constructive and participative in its approach towards the coordination of
communications (instead of becoming a control forum or review board that strictly
evaluates communications campaigns), so that professionals can learn, debate and
eventually decide on the strategic long-term view for communications that is in the
interest of the organization as a whole.

Corporate vision and communications strategy. Processes of coordination and integra-
tion of communications can also be supported with a strong vision and formulated
strategy by senior communications practitioners. Senior communications practition-
ers need to meet with CEOs and senior executives to help clarify the company’s
strategies and reach agreement on how communications can strategically support
them, and what performance measures their progress should be evaluated against.
From this, a communications strategy (Chapter 4) can then be developed, which not
only describes the strategic role of communications within the overall corporate and
market strategies of the company, but also articulates the input, activities and perfor-
mance expected of individual practitioners and communications disciplines from
across the organization.

Communications guidelines. A final mechanism for horizontally integrating work
processes of communications practitioners involves the use of communications
guidelines. Such guidelines may range from agreed upon work procedures (whom to
contact, formatting of messages, etc.) to more general design regulations on how to
apply logotypes and which PMS colours to use.Often companies have a ‘house style’
book that includes such design regulations, but also specifies the core values of
the corporate identity. Ericsson, the mobile phone manufacturer, has a ‘global brand
book’ that distils the corporation’s identity in a number of core values that commu-
nications practitioners are expected to adhere to and incorporate in all of their messages
to stakeholders. Ericsson also convenes a number of workshops with communica-
tions practitioners across the organization to familiarize these practitioners with the
Ericsson identity, the brand book, and the general work procedures that come with
their job.