The conversations that happen before the statement 

The fallout from Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour has played out very publicly. Other supporting acts withdrew, Sheeran addressed the situation on stage, and people have been debating what he said and how he said it. But the part that interests me is what may have happened before any of that. 

Macklemore has been vocal about his views for years. Bringing artists with different opinions and obligations onto a major tour was always going to involve decisions about what they could say on stage, how venues might respond and what would happen if those expectations came into conflict. I don’t know which of those conversations took place, but from the outside, it doesn’t feel like conversations were effectively had. The events are a reminder of how much pressure falls on a public statement when the people involved are no longer aligned. 

That is where internal communications earns its place. For a business, the equivalent might be a difficult restructuring, a change in leadership or a decision that employees know will affect customers. The first instinct is often to work on the announcement. Yet the people expected to carry out the decision need a chance to understand it, raise concerns and know what they can say when others come to them with questions. Think about it like the sky is falling type exercise.  

That takes more than a briefing sent just before something goes live. Communications teams can help leaders identify where a decision may meet resistance, bring the right people into the discussion early and prepare managers for conversations that won’t follow a script. They can also spot the gap between what a statement says and what colleagues are experiencing. If that gap is there, polishing the wording won’t close it. 

When people feel they’ve been brought into a difficult decision too late, they’re left to make sense of it for themselves while also answering questions from colleagues, customers or partners. Even a carefully worded public response can struggle in that situation, because the people closest to the issue may not understand the reasoning behind it or feel able to stand behind it. Giving them space to ask questions early won’t guarantee agreement, but it gives the organisation a much better chance of communicating with clarity and consistency. 

Public communication matters, of course. But when an organisation faces a difficult moment, the work that makes its words credible often happens long before anyone steps up to a microphone.