Message First – Design Next!

My last post got some interesting viewpoints. Adam expressed the need for blending tone, consistency and image into the communication. Excellent perspective. Rishu talked of involving staff in the conversation and preempt questions they may have. Valid points. Annie highlighted the importance of including the ‘what’s in it for staff’ and also adding visuals that [...]

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Can We Have a Mascot For The Campaign? – Final Part

This post seems to have generated a lot of interest and I am impressed by the quality of comments and the passion that communicators share for and against using ‘mascots’. Thank you all for your insights. Here is a summary of what readers both in India and abroad commented: Bish pointed to a campaign in [...]

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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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The Pistachio Principle and the Art of Internal Communication Dieting

Is your internal communication clogging staff’s mailboxes? Do your stakeholders engage intently with their communication to reduce flab? Are your efforts in sharing ‘bite’ size chunks of information adding up? If you have ever been tempted to share more information so that your team ‘gets’ all they need or of passing on content without including [...]

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Internal Communications Pointers from the Chile Miners Rescue Mission

I have been following the Chile miners rescue very closely and felt there were many lessons to learn from how the entire program was executed and communicated. To begin, it was one of the world’s most successful operations to get miners out from the longest underground entrapment in history. The meticulous planning, the pace at [...]

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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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The Benefits of Revisiting Your Internal Communication Priorities

This month I caught up with my team at Chicago and we stepped back to re-chart our goals and focus areas for the year and beyond. To me it meant unlearning and looking at our stakeholders from a different lens altogether. Personally this meeting taught me a few pointers on structuring a team’s strategy for [...]

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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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The Power of Feedback in Evaluating Internal Communication Work

Nothing compares to the power of feedback and networking. I recently witnessed its influence while shaping a set of internal communication posters we created for a milestone event. The posters were an element of a larger campaign to get employees excited about the organization’s history, progress, people, culture and talent. When we began the campaign [...]

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Internal Communication Trend Spotting For 2010

In 2009, as the world coped with one of its worst economic downturns it also created opportunities for internal communicators to revisit their practice and come out stronger. Internal communicators were called to craft some of their toughest messages in organizations which reduced workforces and froze pay. They also had the ‘not-so-envious’ task of communicating [...]

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