Two Voices, One Person
Part 6 of 11 — A Practical Guide to Claude Setup
Your writing file teaches Claude how you sound when you’re speaking to the world.
But you don’t always speak to the world. Perhaps most of your communication is internal. It may be emails to your boss, memos to your team, sensitive conversations with peers, or even delicate navigations of organizational tension.
These types of communication require a completely different voice than the type of voice you use when you are writing online.
CLAUDE_COMMS.md is the file that teaches Claude the difference. By the way, it may be that you need three, four, or ten voices. You can train Claude to use a different voice for a variety of scenarios.
Start with Two
Most leaders have at least two communication modes but many never realize there is a difference.
Public voice
The mode you use for external audiences. This is for newsletters, published articles, conference talks, or public advocacy. These are designed to challenge, provoke, and inspire. Tension is the point. You can afford to push.
Internal voice:
The mode you use for organizational audiences. These are things like leadership emails, peer interaction, sensitive conversations, and team updates. These are designed to build alignment, protect relationships, and advance the mission within real constraints. Tension is managed, not amplified.
Both forms of communication have the same values and mission, but they are very different “instruments” to use at different times. When Claude doesn’t know which instrument to pick up, it defaults to something in the middle. This usually serves neither purpose well.
What This File Contains
CLAUDE_COMMS.md documents the full range of your internal communication needs and gives Claude the principles and templates for each. The following are just a sampling of what your CLAUDE_COMMS.md file might contain. Not all of these apply to everyone.
Leadership communications:
These are messages to your leadership or your supervisor. These probably need a very specific structure. You might lead with the bottom line, one clear ask per message, connect to their priorities, and keep it short.
Peer navigation:
These are messages to colleagues at your level, especially when navigating overlap, tension, or sensitive coordination. The goal here is to communicate clearly without escalating. This communication should assume good intent, name the shared goal, and propose a path forward.
Team communications:
Messages to direct reports and immediate team. These tend to be more direct, more informal, but still purposeful.
External partnership communications:
These are professional but warm. These communications represent your organization. You might be clear about value add and clearly state your ask.
Sensitive Situation Playbook:
This is the section most people never think to build, and it’s where the file earns its value. Document your approach to recurring difficult situations:
When you’ve been excluded from a decision that’s in your lane
When leadership pushes back on an initiative you believe in
When you need to say no to a request without damaging the relationship
When a project gets killed and you need to preserve the relationship and the learning
For each situation: what’s the goal, what’s the approach, and what do you avoid. Hopefully you can see that these scenarios can help you use the right communication style for the right audience and the right situation. These are not designed to create copy and paste solutions. You should see these as helping get you 80% of the way there.
A Fictional Example
Meet James. He’s a VP of Programs at a foundation, navigating a situation where a peer department launched a grantee initiative that overlaps directly with his team’s work without looping him in.
Here’s how CLAUDE_COMMS.md guided his response:
Goal: Assert his team’s mandate without burning the peer relationship or escalating to senior leadership unnecessarily.
Approach from the file: Assume good intent first. Frame as a coordination need, not a territorial dispute. Name the shared goal. Propose a specific path forward. Make it easy to say yes.
Draft email the file helped produce:
“Thanks for moving this forward. The grantees clearly need this kind of support.
Given our team’s work in this area, I’d love to make sure we’re coordinating so we’re not duplicating effort and so we can align on what we’re learning together.
Could we find 30 minutes this week? I think we can set up something that serves both teams and the grantees better.”
This communication doesn’t accuse, doesn’t escalate, but it also doesn’t capitulate. It keeps the relationship intact while making the coordination need clear.
That draft took two minutes to produce because the file already contained the principles. James didn’t have to think through the strategy from scratch while emotionally activated.
A Note on Quality Checks
Before sending any sensitive internal communication, your file should include a checklist:
Is the ask clear? (Can they act on this without asking a follow-up question?)
Does this assume good intent?
Is it as short as it can be while still being complete?
Would I be comfortable if this were forwarded to their supervisor?
Have I waited if I was emotionally activated when I drafted this?
The last one is something AI can’t help you with.
Starter Template
# Internal Communications Guide — [Your Name]
## The Core Distinction
Public voice: [describe your external mode]
Internal voice: [describe your internal mode]
## Communication Types
### Leadership Communications
Principles: [your approach]
Structure: [your template]
### Peer Navigation
Principles: [your approach]
Structure: [your template]
### Team Communications
Principles: [your approach]
## Sensitive Situation Playbook
### [Situation 1]
Goal: [what you're trying to accomplish]
Approach: [your strategy]
Avoid: [what not to do]
## Pre-Send Checklist
- [ ] Is the ask clear?
- [ ] Does this assume good intent?
- [ ] Have I waited if I was activated?
One last thing. Make sure that you have properly noted the CLAUDE_COMMS.md scenarios in your CLAUDE.md file. If you don’t have it listed in your master orchestrator file, it will not be used.
Next: Article 07 — teaching Claude your domain. How to build a specialized file for the specific strategic frameworks you use.