Talking Internal Communication...

Free article to download - Moving Minds

Those of you who aren't CiB members (it was recently published in Communicators magazine) or who don't subscribe to www.simply-communicate.com may be interested in this new article penned by Simon Wright, my business partner at Gatehouse.

It's all about communicating office moves, something we believe represents a unique and powerful opportunity to engage employees and kick-start a culture change programme. 

Simon has focused here on his experiences as a senior communicator at Ernst & Young, the global accountancy firm (which, incidentally, was one of the stars in the 2007 Best Companies to Work For study). He explains how the firm capitalised on its move to a new head office to re-engage its people and provide a catalyst for change. He also shares ten useful tips for communicators embarking on an office move.

Let us know what you think - and don't hesitate to call us if you need help and support with your own office move.   

Free download - latest article in SCM

My latest article, which discusses my experiences doing an MSc, has just been published in Melcrum's Strategic Communication Management magazine. Click here to view it:

Download SCM11.24.pdf

The new look February/March 2007 issue of SCM is themed around learning and development and showcases some superb research undertaken recently by my pals Liam Fitzpatrick and Sue Dewhurst of Competent Communicators. 

Based on a survey of 700 in-house practitioners, Liam and Sue have developed a compelling six-type career model for internal communicators. Unlike previous attempts (notably the Inter-Comm Matrix which I worked on alongside the pair) the new model acknowledges the importance of specialist 'tactical' roles like events expert or intranet specialist.  The research also highlights 12 core competencies required to be a 'star' performer in this profession. 

I won't steal their thunder here, but their SCM article is well worth a read - download a free copy here.

Free article - social media and the internal communicator

I was reading The Melcrum Blog today and spotted an interesting post from Robin Crumby on social networking.

He flags a recent story from the New York Times about the soon-to-be-launched Lotus Connections software from IBM. It promises to do for the employees of big businesses what MySpace has done for teenagers.

Robin asks whether developments like this will change the way we communicate internally, or simply create another channel for us to juggle.  Good question.

I'm firmly in the former camp. I'm a believer. I think social media will have a profound and lasting impact on our profession and on the world of work in general. Indeed, I think it's already happening.

I wrote the following article for the December 2006 issue of Internal Communication magazine. It covers the basics of social media and outlines some of the ways I think it will affect us. I've penned a similar piece for the current issue of Simply Communicate. I hope you find it interesting.

Download social_media_for_internal_communicators_january_2007.pdf

Free article: communication creativity

I've been busy writing again, so here's another free article to download. This time it's all about creativity, a particular passion of mine. It was originally published on Simply Communicate. 

Click here to download it in PDF form:

Download simply_november__creativity_.pdf

If you're intested in following up on the article, you might find the following links useful:

• Fast Company on the myths of creativity
• Wikipedia on creativity
• Edward de Bono's official website
• Edward de Bono's blog
• Mindtools
• Wikipedia on brainstorming

Free article to download – organizational listening

Here’s my latest feature article for you to download. It was published this month on Simply Communicate, the web-based subscription service for communicators. It focuses on organizational listening, a subject I’m really passionate about and one I’ll be returning to again in the near future. I hope you find it interesting....

Download towards_the_listening_organization.pdf

Interviewing communicators - useful resources

There was some traffic on Melcrum's email network last week about the joys of recruitment and selection for internal communicators. Here is a small collection of resources you may find helpful if you're involved in the recruitment process...

A few years ago I was involved in pulling together the first industry-backed development framework for internal communicators here in the UK. Under the banner of Inter-Comm, we created a four-stage matrix looking at the knowledge, skills and competencies required at various career stages. The Inter-Comm website is still up and running - from there you can download the original matrix, a recommended reading list and a useful competency-based version. You can use these as a starting point for designing role profiles, structuring interviews, etc.

Using the Inter-Comm work as my starting point, I have also prepared some skeleton questions you could use as the basis for an interview. Click here to download them in PDF format:

Download interviewing_internal_communicators.pdf

The following links are also worth looking at:

• Melcrum's case study on the Bank of America's competency model (free article)
• An interesting article by Fiona Robertson at Simply Communicate (free article)
• A report by Working's Liam FitzPatrick - Developing Tomorrow's Internal Communicator (free report)
• Melcrum's research report - How to Structure Internal Communication (full report £395)

Communicating with the cynics - new article to download

My latest article has just been published in the September issue of Communicators, the magazine of the British Association of Communicators in Business (CiB). If you're a member it will be landing on your desk this week. If not, you can download it via the following link:

Download communicators_lee_smith.pdf

It's my take on the challenge we all face in communicating with cynics. They exist in every large organisation and usually in numbers that simply cannot be ignored (no matter how much we try to deny their existence!!)

Let me know what you think...