A Seat At The Table: Why To Include Comms Early & Often
"The earlier communications has a seat at the table, the fewer surprises an organization faces later."
Jason Queseda
“Can you help us communicate this?”These words are all too common for Comms professionals to hear. When you're at this point, that means the decision has already been made. The rational established. The direction is set. The timeline is decided. The stakeholders have been aligned.
This is one of the most common ways organizations misunderstand the role of Communications. They treat Comms as a Production Generator, instead of a Strategic Partner.
Give us the information, and we'll...
Turn it into a message.
Write the announcement.
Draft the talking points.
Update the website.
Send the email.
Prepare the FAQ.
Manage the press.
But strategic Communications isn't simply the function that puts organizational decisions into words and publishes them. In an ideal world, Communications should be involved in shaping the decisions themselves.
Every business decision requires a communication decision, so communication has to be at the table.
Alan Crozier
The earlier Comms is involved, the more opportunities there are to advise, challenge, clarify and anticipate. The later we're involved, the more likely our role becomes tactical execution, or fixing problems and cleaning up messes that could have been prevented or avoided all along.
Presence vs Participation
If you're one of the Comms leaders who is lucky enough to be invited to executive leadership meetings, culture conversations or planning sessions- Congrats!
But being present isn't the same as being involved.
Some of the biggest business decisions, planning conversations and emerging issues happen without Comms in the room. Then, once the decision has been made, we're brought in to quickly understand the context, anticipate stakeholder reactions, develop a strategy, manage communications and make everything land successfully.
That's not Strategic Comms. That's inefficient comms. That's pressurized execution. That's damage control.
When Comms is brought in at the end of a complex conversation, we are forced to backwards:
What happened?
Why was this decision made?
What options were considered?
Who was involved?
What are the sensitivities?
What does everyone already know?
What haven't they considered?
What questions are people likely to ask?
What could go wrong?
We're trying to reconstruct a conversation we could have been part of from the beginning.
Your team needs someone skilled, experienced, influential and intuitive who knows what the people outside the room are likely to see, hear, feel and wonder. They are the filter to run ideas and plans through.
Repeat After Me: Comms is a Strategic Partner, not a Service Provider.
Organizations make decisions in one context and audiences experience them in another. Comms pros bridge that gap.
A Birds Eye View
One of the most valuable things a Communications professional brings to a leadership conversation is an audience perspective.
Comms often acts as a proxy for the people who aren't in the room.
Employees.
Customers.
Donors.
Members.
Volunteers.
Funders.
Partners.
The media.
The broader community.
The biggest myth about Comms folks is that we're not just trained to answer imporant questions ("How do we announce this? How do we communicate this?") We're also trained to ASK questions.
Not just curiosity questions, but the uncomfortable, frustrating but essential questions:
How will this land?
How might different stakeholders interpret this decision?
What will they be concerned about?
What questions will they have?
Where could this be misunderstood?
What context are we taking for granted?
Where might resistance emerge?
What aren't we telling people yet because we've become too close to the issue ourselves?
What do we know that they don't know yet?
What will our audiences need to understand?”
What questions aren't we asking?”
How might this affect trust?”
What are we missing?”
Should we be thinking about this differently before we communicate it?”
To some, these questions may feel like we're trying to slow an organization down. But in reality we're simply trying to prevent backpedaling later: idnentify risks
It reduces confusion.
It surfaces risks.
It creates stronger alignment.
And it gives people the context they need to understand—not simply receive—the decision.
Reminder: Marketing isn't merely an output-producing function. It is a judgment function. Marketing teams fail when they're treated as asset generation factories, and not key players in the overall business strategy.
Developing a product or service without consulting comms is like training for a marathon but skimping on the running shoes. You're ultimately just wasting your own time and money.
The Canaries in the Coal Mine: Comms as an early warning system
Communications sits at the intersection of strategy and reality. We're trained in risk assessment, pattern recognition and emotional intelligence. That makes us particularly well positioned to identify the subtle signals and shifts that might otherwise go unnoticed until they're much harder to address.
We can often identify second-order consequences earlier than other functions.
Not necessarily because we have better information. But because we're constantly thinking about how the same decision will be interpreted by different people.
A decision that makes perfect sense operationally may create confusion for employees.
A financially sound change may create concern among customers.
A new initiative may seem straightforward internally but conflict with what an organization has previously promised publicly.
A seemingly minor change may expose a much larger gap in trust.
The best communicators aren't there to be the leadership team's “yes” person. They're there to ask the questions nobody else is asking yet, and sometimes that means slowly the process and going back to the drawing board so you can get it right.
Having a “seat at the table” doesn't mean Communications needs to be involved in every decision. It's about context and timing.
The Conversations where Comms belongs early
A Communications professional can't provide meaningful strategic counsel without understanding the conversations that shape the organization. And an organization can't fully benefit from Communications if it only asks for input once there is something to communicate.
Communications needs to attend every single organizational meeting, but we do need to be involved in the right conversations, at the right time.
Reorganizations. Policy changes. Budget decisions. Product launches. Acquisitions. Leadership behavior. Leadership changes. Organizational values. Employee engagement. Priorities. Promises.
If you're talking about anything of value (anything that will affect the team, customers, or the public), it's likely that Communications has a valuable perspective to contribute.
1. Executive leadership conversations
Comms needs enough context to understand the organization's strategy, priorities and challenges so it can develop the narrative strategy alongside the business strategy.
2. Major decision-making
If people will be affected by a decision, Communications should be part of the conversation before the decision is finalized.
3. Planning sessions
Don't wait until the execution phase. Bring Comms in while you're still figuring out the what and the why. That's when we can identify blind spots, anticipate questions, surface stakeholder concerns and help make the eventual communication much clearer.
4. Culture conversations
Culture isn't communicated only through internal newsletters or employee campaigns.
It's communicated through decisions and the signals an organization sends every day.
5. Crisis and risk conversations
Communications shouldn't be brought in after a crisis has already started.
By then, we're just playing catch-up. Reputational risk belongs alongside legal, financial and operational considerations while key decisions are still being shaped.
Stop calling Comms in when the house is already built. Bring them into the conversation while the blueprints are being drawn.
Reminder: The goal of your business or organization isn't simply to respond and react to decisions or conditions. It's to recognize potential problems early enough that they can be prevented altogether.
Here For You
The value of Communications isn't just about making your organization sound polished and professional.
It's about helping your organization make more informed decisions about what it says, why it's saying it, how it shows up, and how those decisions will be experienced by the people who matter.
Strategic comms is about bringing all of your best thinkers in while there's still time to shape the thinking.
Need a Communications partner who can help you think strategically—not just execute the plan? Let's talk.
Erin Ratliff is a holistic marketing mentor and creative consultant specializing in organic growth + visibility for heart-led soul-preneurs who value personal and planetary health.
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