The future of internal communication, that’s quite a grand title for a blog post huh? It was a subject that came up for discussion when I facilitated an afternoon of conversation for the Institute of Internal Communication recently. There were around 100 of us in the room and the conversation took place as part of the IoIC Annual Conference. I’d been asked to come in and facilitate something a little different so I figured it would be useful to get the delegates talking with each other in among a day and a half of presentations. It certainly felt very useful though I expect our snap decision to hold part of the session outdoors in the sunshine helped.
People talked about what they wanted the future of internal communication to be, and perhaps more importantly, how could they make that future come about? Here are a few things people talked about that interested me:
Future
- Increase communication skills of the workforce – decentralise
- The impact of social depends on the culture – autocrats should be worried
- Social risks and opportunities – lose control, gain understanding
Bold thinking being demonstrated here. I was pleasantly surprised to read this as I sometimes work with internal comms teams and I find their desire to control very limiting. Expressing a desire to let go more feels very useful to me.
- Facilitate, coach and enable
- Move from craft to coach, doing to enabling – more informality
- Anarchy
Coming from a background of facilitation I guess you’d expect me to highlight these. There was lots of talk of developing a coaching culture and even a a murmur of anarchy! It’ll never catch on, surely? 😉
There were a couple of things I was less comfortable with, including:
- Communications as part of engagement scores
- How do we get others to adopt communication principles?
Resist the temptation to measure everything I say, and if you are serious about coaching as part of the role of internal communications, that has to be the answer to the adoption question, no?
There was also some talk about being a part of HR and/or merging internal and external communication. I’d be interested to know what HR practitioners think about that.
Making it Happen
I like it that people were willing to give this next conversation a try. It’s easy to think about what might be, less so to start to plan how to make it happen. There was some discomfort borne out of ‘we’re not the decision makers’ coming from a few voices but hey – if the IoIC can’t decide how to make it happen – who can?! Here are a few things that stood out for me, and I’d be keen to be a fly on the wall in 2013 to learn how much of this has begun to happen.
- Build bridges. At the top level to improve our understanding of decision making processes and at the front line to understand what is needed there. Then connect the two.
- Get out there – be seen
- Invest in digital – HR and IT as delivery partners
- Learn from listening. Trust and openness, don’t shoot people down the first time they make a mistake, we all make them
- Define guidelines – ask the audience
- Social media restrictions come from a place of fear, re-educate
I enjoyed this session very much. It’s useful fun to spend time with different people and gather different perspectives, that’s definitely a big plus about my line of work.
Another good post Doug. As for the internal/external communication issue: in my organization we’ve blended these functions effectively so that we are coordinated on most issues. It’s been a wonderful partnership between HR and Marketing.
It was a fab discussion Doug and I was privileged enough to attend the said conference. I was quite surprised how the majority of attendees shared the same thoughts on where IC stands and should progress to in the future. I think quite a few came away feeling quite empowered and liberated to initiate change in their companies.
I look forward to next year! I wonder how they will top the Blues Brothers!
Great post Doug. My own experiences in internal communications have not been the norm as was part of a HR team during an organisational restructure. Even though a lot of the communication was negative I learnt that being seen in the wider organisation and spending time listening really helped. I agree that the future has to move from ‘crafting to coaching’ especially as more social tools come into play within organisations.
Looking forward to reading your extended notes. I wonder how much being outside influenced the discussion
Zoe
Thanks folks
@Jay – great to hear of your integration work, think that makes a lot of sense and helps things flow better within and without too I imagine?
@Emma – great to get feedback from someone in the room and I’m pleased you picked up good vibes for change, it will be fun to see what happens in 2013. Maybe I’ll be a part of it again, we”ll see. I missed the Blues Brothers sadly, had to dash back home!
@Zoe – absolutely getting out and being seen matters, as does listening too. I think being outside is very helpful in this context. My ignorance can be quite liberating for people, at least I hope it can!
Hi Doug
you asked about the place in HR – well, I never thought it wasn’t. (The power of a double negative). Communications expertise should be part and parcel of the toolkit of every manager/leader in an organisation, and the ownership of the development of this soft skill should be part of the learning and development team’s remit.
Good communication skills are a core component of coaching, mentoring etc. as well an essential part of any change programme, and a change programme that does not have people at its heart will not succeed.
I don’t think it sits in Marketing as that smacks of manipulation – good communications skills and programmes are part of leading people – which is not the responsibility of HR directly I know. However, HR make sure they have the skills through selection policies, coaching and development provision and by continually bringing the focus back to people as the core of an organisation. No wonder we’re not popular…….
Hi Doug,
having been fortunate to have worked in multinationals who have a plethora of initiatives in internal communication (some good, some not so) linked to their corporate culture, as the beancounter I’m always focused on the cost / benefit outcome – to paraphrase Python “what has internal communication done for us?”
I get concerned when the message being communicated becomes an art in double speak, “problems” becoming “opportunities” and “redundancy” becomes “rightsizing”.
Cynical and a pessimist maybe – but I wonder given the current media and political focus on ethics, how much of the conference was dedicated to presenting the future of internal communication in delivering honesty to the employees receiving the message.