I once participated in a client meeting at which approximately eight different departments were represented (not including MIS, Communications, and a C-level executive). We were discussing Web Communications strategy, and there was a lot of talking about the various needs of the departments.

Sometimes at meetings you have “talking at cross purposes”, which is when people think they are talking about the same thing, but in fact are talking about two entirely different things. But in this case, the opposite was true: what people wanted was about 90% the same, but nobody realized it.

In this case, I was able to use Communications skills to get people on the same page, build consensus, identify trouble spots, and talk about a plan to move forward.

There are many circumstances in which Communications personnel have the ability to be inter-department translators. First, Communications experts know how to lead someone to express their position in a positive way, separating knowledge from assumptions from emotion. Second, Communications experts are used to absorbing and assimilating information—and then representing it in a digestible manner for a broader audience.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, Communications should be able to assume the perspective of everyone in the room. One of the necessary aspects of being successful at Marketing is being able to see yourself as the market sees you. In other words, you have to be able to step inside the shoes of your competitors, customers, etc. Now, translate that into internal Communications, and put yourself into the shoes of each “stakeholder” and eyeball the issue from that vantage point.

You can assume whatever you want by looking at people’s shoes from across the room, but that doesn’t help you to determine with certainty why they chose to purchase those shoes, why they decided to wear them today, whether or not the shoes are comfortable, and whether the person covets someone else’s shoes (or if other people’s shoes are otherwise upsetting to them).

This task is all the more complicated in that most shoes are hidden under the conference table, and you can’t see those shoes without being seen sticking your head under the table (which is embarrassing for you and everyone else). So Communications can help to draw out who is wearing the highly polished Allen-Edmonds business oxfords, but secretly has always wanted to wear bright red sneakers with his suit, like Garrison Keillor.

OK, enough with the shoe analogy. The point is that Communications is adept and creative at boiling everything that is being said into a common language, and making sure that the conversation doesn’t get unnecessarily bogged down because of hidden things that have to be tactfully unearthed in order to move forward productively. And in this, Communications tries to see things from all positions, without judgment, as truth-seekers.

In fact, Communications should take the perspective that everyone is right until they are proven wrong—not by someone else, but by information. If Communications takes this demeanor when contributing to the internal dialogue of a company, it elevates the level of that dialogue and lends a good contribution to building a strong corporate culture.

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