Why every employee is in the communications department

What do you think when you hear a company say they're in communications?

Most people think media, PR, Austin Powers-type shmoozers air-kissing each other on the cheek.

But communications is a much more massive beast. The way your employees interact with each other is communications. Your systems are communications systems: they are the means of communicating your company's way of getting things done. Your internal sales jobs -- budget requests, anyone? -- are all driven by how people communicate with each other.

In its simplest definition, communication just means information exchange, and you cannot have an interaction without communication. Even totally do-it-yourself services like filling up your car's gas tank or buying air travel online require communication. The driver needs visual indicators that communicate where to go and where to park and how to pump and how to pay. The traveler needs communications about flight schedules and prices and how to book and where to sit.

Every single human interaction requires communication.

And that's why I say that every employee is in the communications department. How does information travel in your company? How is staff trained? How do marketing and manufacturing work together so that people want the stuff being made and other people are making the stuff people want? How do people know where the toilets are or whose turn it is to do the dishes?

We need a shift in thinking, where communications people aren't just outward-looking. We need to understand that we all communicate, every day: explicitly, by talking or writing; or implicitly, by keeping our headphones on and our backs to the rest of the open-plan office.

Think about what frustrates you most in your workplace. Is it that people don't do what they're meant to do? Is it poor training? Is it office politics? Is it a lack of sales?

These are all communications problems.

The most dramatic thing you can do to positively affect your bottom line is look to your communication.

What have been some of the communication problems in your company? I look forward to hearing from you in the comments.