An astute CEO that I know, once told me of the reason for his company's investment in Communications. "It is eighty percent of everything you do every day,” he told me. I once read that we think 60,000 thoughts a day. So, by imaginative extension, we use about  48,000 thoughts figuring out how to communicate. Iconic organizations have this figured out--especially on the inside.

Now consider this. You can easily figure the number of ways to communicate in an organization. These are the unofficial communication channels in your organization. I am using Vijay Vikram’s formula from his book Managing the Project Team here, which C= n(n-1)/2.  Here, C is the number of communication channels. And ‘n’ stands for the number of people.  So, a team of 100 people uses 4950 ways or ‘channels’ to communicate. A majority of them, you will instinctively know, are unofficial.

Once you have this figured out, you then need to work on powerful communications experiences (celebrations, meetings, newsletters, rewards, intranets, websites) that will inform, involve and inspire people across your organization. Look beyond technology. Look at the dynamics of your teams—its invisible leaders and opinion makers. Look at ways to have everyone see and understand your organizational road map. Tie every organizational communication with I with your vision. Let everyone see the big picture. Communicate in relevant ways to each of your internal audiences. Speak the same language. And, you will experience that powerful surge that drives performance through our planet's most iconic organizations.

Remember, it's about the eighty percent of everything you do. Every day.