It’s time to unplug for the summer but before you head off on holiday make sure you pack these essential reads, as recommended by The IC Podcast guests from season 1.
#1 Jenni Field, director of Redefining Comms, was Katie’s guest for episode 3 when they discussed Gatehouse’s State of the Sector.
‘It was the first book we did at the CIPR Inside Book Club and I’ve given it to probably about four clients since then. It’s really good for helping with managing time and understanding about how to prioritise people – it’s fantastic.’
#2 Jennifer Sproul, chief executive of the Institute for Internal Communication, picked two books during her interview in episode 4.
‘I struggle with one (recommendation) because I really am an advocate for knowing the best practice of your topics so you should certainly read the good texts that are out there: the Quirke’s, the Fitzpatrick’s, the Gower’s, to give you that critical strengthening view.’
Making the Connections: Using Internal Communication to Turn Strategy into Action by Bill Quirke
#3 This is a firm favourite of Katie’s but is also highly regarded by PR guru Steven Waddington in episode 5, who nominated his blog as recommended reading.
‘I’ve got to say my blog, haven’t I! I’ve blogged now for about ten years and found it really rewarding… what I’ve started to do every week though is write a letter to people who follow my blog and that’s just become hugely rewarding, it’s started to get back that conversational approach and I really enjoy that.’
The Cluetrain Manifesto by Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger
#4 Bruce Daisley, the European vice president of Twitter and author of The Joy of Work, recommended this informative read during his chat with Katie in episode 8
‘I love the work of [Sandy Pentland] and I think as humans we often don’t think of how systems of humans work together – we look at an ant hill as a system – but we don’t do that about our own offices… When I read Sandy Pentland’s book, I was presented with lots of stuff I’d never heard before.’
Social Physics by Sandy Pentland
#5 Martin Fitzpatrick, internal communications and engagement business partner at B&Q, had three recommendation all based around behavioural economics when he spoke to Katie for episode 10
“There is some great advice in all three for internal comms people to leverage in terms of how do we start to build comms plans and how do we drive change in our businesses, given that people are a bit mental most of the time.”
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman
Stay tuned for the next season of The Internal Comms Podcast on 11 September.
