And that’s a wrap … After ten episodes, 11 guests, more than 10,000 downloads in more than 50 countries, plus a whole heap of great feedback, it’s time to say farewell to the first season of The Internal Comms Podcast.
Choosing highlights was tricky. Nonetheless, the Content Team at AB stuck their heads above the parapet and chose five favourites.
1) Work has changed – radically
It’s hardly a secret that doing a Dolly (Partan, that is) has gone the way of the dodo. Working 9-5, for forty years in the same career is no longer a tenable, or even desirable, aspiration. Flexi-working, portfolio careers, gigging – these are the new landmarks in the seismically-shifted world of work. Much of IC, though, has failed to keep up. Or so thought Matt Batten and Martin Fitzpatrick, our guests for episode ten. Did you know, for instance, that the over-65s are one of the fastest growing sectors of the workforce? Food for thought.
2) Shine a light
It would have sent a shiver down Orwell’s back, but we live in a world of unprecedented surveillance. There’s a positive side though – technology has enabled and necessitated greater levels of corporate transparency than ever before. What does this mean for IC? It means we need to step up our game and embrace opportunities to showcase the values, personality and identity of our organisations. You could follow the example of entrepreneur Harry Hugo, episode nine’s expert, who films a vlog with his employees every day.
3) Compassion is the root of all storytelling
Empathy is at the heart of why we tell stories – a good writer allows the reader to slip into another’s shoes. And that applies to successful IC, as Henry Normal, poet, producer and writer behind Alan Partridge, Gavin & Stacey and The Mighty Boosh, told us in episode six. Normal also reflected movingly about how a lifetime in communications has taught him about crossing gulfs and building bridges in conversations with his autistic son.
4) Spark Joy
No, it’s not the title for another self-help screed. Instead, it’s the key principle of Bruce Daisley’s recent book The Joy of Work, discussed in episode eight. Daisley’s message is rather wonderful: we work better, collaborate better and live better if we find – and keep – joy at the forefront of our minds. It’s a simple thought. But all the more powerful in its simplicity.
5) The shift to strategy
In the very first episode, Katie caught up with all-round comms guru Rachel Miller in her ‘shedquarters’ at the bottom of her garden. Rachel talked us through shifts in the IC industry. Where once IC focused almost exclusively on the culture of an organisation, it is now increasingly about the intersection of culture and strategy. In other words, culture and strategy are two sides of the same coin. And the thing that binds them? You guessed it – IC.
And that’s it, our highlights from the first season of the Internal Comms Podcast. No doubt you’ll have your own, so please share. Thanks once again to our host Katie, our wonderful guests and, of course, our loyal and vocal fans. Roll on September when we return. Over and out.
