Russell Grossman, director of communications at the Office of Rail and Road, and head of profession for IC across the UK government, spoke to Katie Macaulay in episode two of the Internal Comms podcast.
Here are his tops tips:
#1 Share
“Across government, all the departments are absolutely committed to sharing professional practice and what works well. You have a whole that truly is greater than the sum of its parts.”
#2 Use OASIS
The OASIS (Objectives, Audience, Strategy, Implementation and Scoring) Campaign Guide is designed to aid communicators in delivering world-class communications.
#3 Be resilient and recognise your limits
“If you work in communications, internal or external, you have to have a level of resilience. Recognise your limits, recognise that there will be another day – those are the things that show you that you can be resilient.”
#4 Be yourself
The advice Russell gives to those starting in the Government Communication Service: “Be yourself. Recognise that you’ve come into an organisation that often allows you to be yourself. And, the people we most like to see at director of communication level are the people who have worked in at least two, preferably more disciplines.”
#5 ‘The silent café’
“Go down to the canteen, buy yourself a coffee, and just observe what goes on. From an internal perspective you need to be ‘in’ and ‘visible’, not ‘invisible’. Don’t be at your desk more than 50 per cent of the time. Your audience is out there.”
