Most growing companies hit a wall where casual conversations at the water cooler stop working. What got them started won’t take them further, but founders are too busy growing to notice the problem until it’s costing them talent and momentum. Nadine Green spent seven years at Vitiello Communications Group helping pharmaceutical companies build internal communications before the company sold, and she’s applied those lessons to help smaller organizations avoid the communication breakdowns that create expensive chaos.
Building Communication from Pharma Lessons
Green’s time at Vitiello shaped how she thinks about business communication. The company built internal communications for pharmaceutical companies, and the results were clear. “They built internal communications for pharmaceutical companies that engaged employees and drove results,” she explains. “Based on that, we started to do the same internally for Vitiello, thus leading to growth results.” After seven years there, she saw the company sell successfully. The experience drove home a key lesson. “It is critical to have a good communication framework where people inside the company can understand their purpose in the higher order of things.” That understanding matters just as much externally for bringing the right people into a company to drive growth.
Green says the same thing in every interview because it’s that important. “Change is the only constant in companies, and I think people get fatigued by the change.” The small companies she works with can pivot quickly, which sounds advantageous. But there’s a downside. “People are always thinking about the next shiny object and not necessarily seeing their goals all the way through.” Clear communication solves several problems at once. “One, it frames and helps set achievable goals. Two, it improves employee engagement. And three, it drives accountability throughout the organization,” Green notes. Without it, things get messy fast. A manager gets frustrated with someone’s work but never communicated expectations clearly. Everyone gets frustrated, and good employees leave when the situation might have been fixable.
Improving Alignment with Three Key Steps
Here are Green’s three steps that leaders can take to improve their alignment:
- Green’s first recommendation is straightforward. Leaders need to build a business plan every year to understand their goals and articulate them throughout the organization. Sounds basic, but plenty of companies skip this step.
- Second, that business plan must include a strategic sales and marketing plan. “People understand externally what they’re going after in the market, and internally, the types of work they may receive,” she says. This keeps everyone aligned on what the company is actually doing.
- Third, create real communication touchpoints. “Make sure that you are taking the time to meet with employees, not just one-on-one every quarter to find out where people are and what types of support they may need, but also to ensure that as a company you are being transparent in your communication,” Green explains. That means quarterly company-wide meetings where leadership shares progress on goals so everyone knows where things stand.
Understanding Why Founders Miss Communication Gaps
These steps seem obvious when you list them out. So why do companies struggle? Green sees the pattern repeatedly with the small to medium-sized businesses she serves. “What worked when they started the business as just water cooler communication and conversation—they get to a point where that just doesn’t work anymore, and they’ve not gone back to put in the structure they need.” It’s not that founders ignore communication on purpose. They’re growing fast and trying to handle everything. The founder-owner doesn’t have time to build a proper structure, so they keep using informal communication, which has worked with ten people but failed with fifty. “It almost is counterproductive because it then becomes more of a game of telephone than actual communication heard from one voice,” she points out.
Communication isn’t something you build once and forget about. “Communication is an iterative process that must change as the organization changes. It’s not something that’s a checklist item,” Green says. Job descriptions evolve as employees grow and company needs change, and communication frameworks need the same attention.
Enhancing Internal Clarity with AI Tools
Green doesn’t position herself as a communications expert or professional writer. “I am not a communications expert per se. I’m not a writer per se,” she admits. But she uses AI daily in her business, and it’s made her better at communication. “It gives me a better starting point and a quicker starting point than starting with a blank canvas.” The technology helps people who struggle with communication get to a basic level without hiring specialists immediately. “I think even somebody who says they’re not a good communicator and struggles with this now has a different tool in their tool set to be able to do this at least at a minimal level,” she notes. You still need professionals to humanize the message, but AI removes some initial barriers. Tools like Gamma AI and Canva AI give people a running start on basic communications they couldn’t create before.
At the end of the day, internal communication comes down to something simple but often overlooked. “Employees want to know the bigger purpose,” Green says. “They want more than just a paycheck. They want to be involved in something greater than themselves through a good internal communication strategy.” When companies communicate that bigger purpose effectively, they build loyal employees who stick around. That loyalty matters more than most leaders realize.
Follow Nadine Green on LinkedIn for more insights on leadership, communication, and business growth.
