After last year’s fantastic event, I was never going to miss this year’s and I’m glad I didn’t! Below are a few of my top quotes and thoughts from an amazing day of Internal Comms networking and unconferencing!
- You can’t put lipstick on a pig, but if you have enough time you can turn it into bacon
This was without doubt my favourite quote of the day, from @benjaminellis! Not only does it mention bacon, but it also perfectly explains what we need to do as communicators. Too often we’re brought in too late and just asked to communicate a message. If the topic we’re being asked to communicate isn’t positive then we don’t have to time to create anything to help the message (the pig) land beter (lipstick). However, if we’re brought in earlier we can take this mesage and create something which employees will respond to (bacon)!
- Leave an empty chair in all meetings, to represent the rest of the organisation who aren’t in the room
Another input from @benjaminellis (can you see a theme here). He mentioned how a company he has worked with keeps an empty chair in every meeting so they can always focus on all other employees. This company also often turn to the chair and reference it in terms of what this means for the wider organisation. This is a great idea and something I’m going to try to do more often
- You should treat your employees at least as well, or hopefully much better than you do your customers
For too long customers have been the main focus of businesses and making sure they have a good experience! Employees are often forgotten about and just expected to give great customer service. However, if you treat your employees amazingly well then they will do that to customers. I read a fantastic book about this by Vineet Nayer, well worth a read!
- Just because no one asks for the measurement report doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing it
In the space of 12 months, measurement looks to have gone from something we thought about and sometimes did…to something we all see as vital and consider for every project. I liked this point because it shows that we’re proactively thinking about measurement and not just using it because we think senior managers want it.
- Chronopsychology – Leaders talk about the future, managers about the present and frontline staff about the past…results in confusing messaging!
Another great point from @benjaminellis (seriously, follow him if you don’t already!) For me this point is vital when you consider change communication and how we deliver messages to all levels of the business. Just talking about the future will mean frontline employees struggle to join you on the journey!
- Talk about the why, not just the what and how
This is something I talk about a lot and originally came from a Simon Sinek TED talk I saw (below). It’s a great thing to think about when you’re looking at difficult comms and making sure the message you’re delivering will have the biggest impact.
- If you only ever use top down recognition, no wonder your senior execs are moody
While this wasn’t a Culturevist or Responsive Org event, there were some discussions about culture and how IC can impact on that. This was a point I made about how if everything comes from top down level then the people at the top often get forgotten. Two-way recognition and communication benefits everyone!
- All problems/disasters are an Internal Comms issue
Rather fittingly, my final point is another one from @benjaminellis. Everything comes back to communication and whether it’s good or bad. If you’re trying to persuade people around the importance of comms then pick a disaster and show how good communications would have fixed the problem before it began!
If you missed out this year, make sure you don’t miss out next year by subscribing to @theiccrowd mailing list