Command and Control 2.0: potentially bigger for comms than COVID 

21 March 2025 Reading Time: 5 minutes

By Janet Hitchen and Mike Klein :

Between ever-increasing workloads and the whiplash from waves of political, social, and economic turmoil sweeping the world, communication leaders are facing extraordinary pressure.

Based on what we are hearing from our peers, there isn’t yet a lot of clarity about what we should do next. But there are some things we do know and are seeing that show a path forward – chief among them being a shift back towards “command and control” among an increasing number of business leaders.

What we know: 

In times like these, Business Survival and Success Is the only priority. Full stop. 

Comms pros are starting to begrudgingly agree that we need to focus on business survival and success. This is about staying in business, making money and being profitable. 

This is the only thing leaders and board members care about until we find calmer waters and can get out of crisis mode. 

(Wise words from Jason: this is why leaders revert to command and control in times like these, because other agendas need to be minimized to focus on the main thing and only the main thing.)

Yet we’re seeing deep sorrow among some comms pros — about cherished programs and initiatives, particularly covering objectives (and for some, ambitions) around making their organizations more humane and empathetic.

We’re also seeing some degree of denial — a view that dismisses the idea that the intensity of political and economic change will inevitably lead to fundamental changes in organizational culture and tone, and a belief that organizational cultures will continue in a prior direction towards being more collaborative, egalitarian, and consensus-driven. This belief tends to be reinforced by a belief that the collaborative direction remains intrinsically superior to any alternatives.

But at a time when employees, managers, and other key internal stakeholders are seeking clarity about where their organizations are headed in the midst of multiple streams of disruptions, defensiveness; denial and passivity are not the path forward.

Why? because senior leaders across multiple sectors and geographies seem to be shifting towards a directive command and control approach.

They’re also counterproductive because the move towards command and control could actually make better use of our talents and skills than we’ve demonstrated since COVID – if we position them as crucial to helping leaders move quickly and decisively while maximizing organizational resilience.. 

If we consider how we can help the business and leaders act more effectively in the current environment, here are five things comms pros can do to increase our impact and put ourselves into a vital position in the weeks, months and years to come:

* Make the way your business makes money, the main thing.

Embrace that the world has changed and we need to change and adapt with it. That may mean letting go of projects that don’t belong in survival mode and renewing focus on supporting the survival and success of the business. 

Be ruthless or risk being redundant. Harsh words? Maybe, but we have seen this play out over the last two years globally. 

We need to define crisis mode for our organizations and make it happen. Fast. 

* Adapt modern communication tools and strategies to a more traditional leadership mindset.

Going back towards command and control doesn’t mean going back to old-school cascading or top-down emails.  

With tools like modern intranets, enterprise social networks, and real-time listening platforms used intentionally, we can support rapid, direct, and highly interactive communication that can increase and improve decision speed and organizational agility.

Indeed, rather than placing the weight of driving and facilitating these changes on middle management, effective modern communication can alleviate the pressure on managers and reduce the friction and unfair overwhelm that an overreliance on managers as communicators and filters of vital information places. (Hasn’t the last 10+ years shown us that line manager comms remains a challenging area with 53% of those surveyed in the 2025 State of the Sector report saying they continue to focus on this, and it taking 2nd place in the What’s keeping Comms busy? question. Feeling like it’s time to think differently about how we approach this). 

* Streamline communication channels and flows with a focus on business relevance and reducing “digital friction” 

In a recent LI post (10 March), Bob Sutton, Organisational psychologist and Stanford faculty member, talked about the “toggling tax” and how “One study of 137 users in 3 big companies found “workers toggled roughly 1,200 times each day, which adds up to just under four hours each week reorienting themselves after toggling.” 

He talks about “digital exhaustion”: an overly complex and large tech stack. People aren’t just overwhelmed by IC channel choice but by the complexities of accidental workplace DX. 

Simplify, simplify, simplify is a motto we heartily applaud,, and encourages comms pros to consider actively removing friction from their channel mix, allowing businesses to operate more efficiently and, people be able to find what they need to do their job. The basics. 

* Identify, connect and mobilize internal influencers

One lesson from social media is that there are individuals across the business who are seen as interesting, active, and credible sources of information and an inspiration in their communities.

For organizations who are actively navigating disruption, identifying, connecting, and mobilizing these influencers isn’t merely “a nice idea” — it’s an essential complement to formal communication and should be carefully navigated to be sure these internal influencers retain their independence and aren’t seen as mouthpieces for leadership. This is  readily achievable with some cost-effective expert support.

* Accelerate connection and integration in the business

Organizations often see a lot of duplicate work when teams and business units work in isolation. It can take time to get new leaders familiar with how the organization comes together and whom they need to know to be effective.  

Accelerating connection, removing silos and getting new leaders up to speed quickly are achievable outcomes with the right intent, strategy and approach.

Why are these the right approaches at the right time?

In our view, the level of crisis, chaos, and disruption we are experiencing is no less significant than that generated by COVID-19.  

During that time, we saw a return to command-and-control-style management during intense organizational and individual uncertainty whilst trying to keep everyone safe.

While we are seeing both again, we are also dealing with far greater complexity as the changes being experienced are not simply about physical safety; instead they are impacting people, organizations and nations in very different ways.  

Now, organizations have to react to the changes as they appear in each of their businesses and markets, and they have to identify the narrative threads grounded in coherence and consistency that will allow them to address these challenges with cohesion and clarity.

The chaos of 2025 doesn’t need the corporate megaphone the way the Covid crisis did. 

Instead, it needs a combination of clarity and nuance that traditional corporate leadership is not necessarily fluent in, but is our strongest competence.  

Our ability to create a coherent and cohesive narrative, with clear stories that bring it to life  and the ability to quickly deploy strategies and tools to align people and move organizations in their chosen direction has never been more important.  

What now?

Does this guarantee us the elusive “seat at the table” this time around? 

Sorry. No.  

Indeed, the natural tendency of corporate leaders is often not only to revert culturally but also to default to old-school communication thinking. 

Having a case to challenge that tendency is what gives us our opportunity.  

As comms experts, we need to show how to increase clarity and focus, and accelerate agility in our organizations. These strategies need to be sharp, accessible, tightly aligned with the business goals,  and overwhelmingly logical.  

These approaches also need to be backed up with credible data and insights,  analysis strategies, and demonstrate the most effective and efficient use of existing communication tools and platforms creating a simplified digital experience.

In closing

Communication professionals face a career-defining opportunity — even greater than what we saw during COVID.  It’s also one that will call on us to be confident partners and strategists just as  COVID required us to be tacticians.

But unlike COVID, the strategic value of communication leadership is not as obvious and apparent in the current chaos.  To take advantage of this moment, we need to make this case succinctly, clearly and powerfully.

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Janet Hitchen and Mike Klein are partners in Navigating Disruption, which combines consulting, training, and hands-on support for communication leaders seeking to position communication as a driver of organizational performance in challenging times.  

Mike and Janet also co-host the Navigating Disruption Podcast and conduct Power Hour sessions with communication leaders to sharpen their positioning and prepare them to engage their leaders more effectively. Mike is also Editor-in-Chief of Strategic and Janet is a Strategic columnist.

Written by: Editor