How Can Internal Communicators Overcome the ‘Postman’ Syndrome?

A participant at the recently concluded internal communications workshop I ran in Bangalore, India highlighted a common concern that professionals in the industry face but rarely discuss. She said she felt like a ‘dakiya’ – (Hindi for postman) at her workplace. This conversation became a passionate discussion among many in the room and I realized [...]

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Fire-Drilling Your Internal Communications

In India fire-drills conducted by organizations are considered a necessary but a drab affair. With thousands of staff working in high rise buildings fire safety is a priority and standards needs to be explained effectively. Most organizations have a health and safety officer who interfaces with a third party vendor to organize demos periodically and [...]

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Wikileaks, Corporate Espionage and Whistle Blowing – Implications for Internal Communication

The world is gripped by the ‘drip-drip-drip’ of cable internal communication shared by Wikileaks through their website. Apart from gauging the impact to international relations and politics these candid revelations also put the focus firmly on the power of transparency in internal communication. Interestingly, the India diplomatic corps have looked at the positive side of [...]

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Lead From the Front to Build Leadership Credibility

It isn’t easy these days being a leader. With trust, confidence levels and credibility dropping rapidly among employees leaders face an uphill task to rally staff, convey messages and move forward on the organization’s goals. Trust in Leaders is Eroding The usual grouse is that leaders don’t show up, are not putting value on communication, [...]

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Engaged Workplaces = Trust + Consistency + Leadership

On Friday, July 23 I attended the Great Place To Work Conference at Bangalore and I wanted to share my key take-aways and recommendations that you can take forward within your organizations, irrespective of the industry and size. To begin, best workplaces had nothing to do with size or number of employees. The theme of [...]

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Reigniting the Culture Conversation – Internal Communications and Storytelling

‘Culture alignment is what makes organizations successful’. This message stuck to my mind like never before! I attended one of the best sessions ever on a topic often considered to be ‘esoteric’ and ‘abstract’ – culture. This post is to share my personal take-aways. Conducted by a senior leader this session had no presentation slides [...]

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Adopting social media inside the enterprise – challenges and opportunities for internal communicators

This article featured in Simply-Communicate, a UK based internal communication publication that reaches 15,000 communicators globally. http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/companies-india-adopt-social-media-inside-enterprise Read on for the complete article here as well. According to an IABC report over 79% of global companies leverage social media internally to improve productivity and engagement. India, however, still lags behind when it comes to adoption.  To [...]

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Thinking of a Career in Internal Communications?

I wanted to pen down my thoughts on the evolving internal communications function based on numerous queries that have come my way from students, practicing professionals and educationists. This post also articulates the role of the internal communicator, key skills and competencies needed to excel in this field and the various career opportunities that exist.  Internal [...]

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Citizens’ Distrust of Leaders – Implications for Organizations and Internal Communication

While the Tiger Woods controversy took the sporting and corporate worlds by storm, another incident in India shook the establishment and the trust in their politicians and leaders. A well known politician was allegedly caught in a compromising situation within a state’s highest office bringing a new low to how leaders are perceived. Though we [...]

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Re-branding of Satyam weighs in on ‘values’ and ‘internal expertise’

Quite interestingly, the re-branding of Satyam as Mahindra Satyam takes cues from ‘within’ – relying heavily on values and inherent strengths. This amplifies the role of internal communication and branding on how employees and external stakeholders perceive the company’s image. Also important to note the emphasis on ‘internal’ attributes which the new entity defines as [...]

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