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PM Forum - London
Internal communications back in the spotlight
The PM Forum's event – Internal Communications back in the spotlight – attracted a range of business professionals. From seasoned communication directors and managers (for whom IC is always in the spotlight!) to marketing professionals (who were delving into the depths of IC for the first time), it was a full house. But true to their word of providing valuable insights on successful communication, I think everyone was able to take something useful away from the event.
Presenter Keith Hardie, Head of Communications at Berwin Leighton Paisner, went back to the basics – very useful for anyone outside the communication profession, who was looking at how to more effectively share their work with colleagues. But for the 'communicators' in attendance, he reminded us of some key points, which I'm sure most of us have heard before, but sometimes forget. Here are the key points that I took away:
- Always take people through a strategy, message or change in the same way that you took leadership through it. In other words…if your senior leaders had six weeks to get to grips with a key change, don't expect your employees to do the same after reading a single intranet article!
- Give people 'brain space' to minimise the dreaded information overload. Think about how much time employees have to get their heads around the key messages that you must communicate and then tailor the number and detail of messages accordingly.
- Remember that it's not your job to communicate to the front line – it's your job to enable communication to take place.
Hopefully you will find these reminders as useful as I did – and thanks, Keith, for sharing!
Jodie
Communications Manager
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