What’s top of mind for you at the moment?
Every month we feature All Things IC Communication Consultant Caroline Cubbon-King in the water cooler, our email newsletter.
Her regular column reveals life behind the scenes of being a consultant. It provides insights into what your peers are asking for help with, which we know you find useful.
We’re now going to start sharing her reflections via the All Things IC blog, so you can discover what we’re hearing and how we can help.
Here’s Caroline…
What we’ve heard from comms pros this month
This month I’ve been having lots of conversations about listening.
We’re often invited to conduct listening on behalf of clients when they want to understand what’s really going on and bring survey insights to life.
We also listen when we are auditing communication. Talking directly with employees allows us to understand how they engage (or don’t) with different communication approaches, how information flows around an organisation and what news and information they need to do their jobs well.
Listening to line managers enables us to hear first hand the challenges they face balancing the demands of the business with the needs of their team. It also allows us to identify what communication guidance and resources will help them to do this well.
So, who are we listening to right now?
My colleague, All Things IC Communication Consultant Dan Holden is about to listen to colleagues at a hospital trust to find out what they need from a new intranet.
He will use the insights he gathers to create user journey maps, which will underpin the development of the new site. We are working in a joint project with Rachel’s husband Jon, who is building the SharePoint intranet, based on what we hear. We regularly combine our respective IC and IT expertise to benefit clients and can support from start to finish on intranet creations using Microsoft 365.
Dan and I will also be supporting an organisation who have conducted an in-depth staff survey. They want to expand this by giving their colleagues a chance to share their feedback verbally. These insights will be turned into an employee engagement action plan.
Join a live 90-minute Masterclass
This week I taught our change communication theory 90-minute Masterclass.
Thank you to one of the attendees who shared this feedback with us:
“It’s been a while since I have been involved in any change communications projects, so I decided to attend ‘The theory of change communications masterclass’ to refresh my memory. It was great to be in an intimate setting where I was given the opportunity to be open and honest. During this interactive session, Caroline took us through the different change models. It was nice to just take a step back and absorb the information rather than having to learn while working on an actual project. I made loads of notes and will definitely keep the workshop summary pack in my ‘work tool box’. I left the session feeling inspired. Now I just need a change project to get my teeth into – bring it on. Thanks All Things IC!”
All of our 90-minute Masterclasses are available as sessions for in-house teams. Do get in touch if you’d like to discuss how we can deliver one for you.
What I have been up to this month
I’ve shared the findings of an IC audit with a client and am now working with them to develop their IC strategy. I’m also designing a workshop for a UK University comms team to help them finalise their next communication plan for staff and students.
I’m often the first person prospective All Things IC clients speak to and I am currently having lots of conversations and developing ideas and proposals.
If you have an IC challenge on your mind and want to talk it through, get in touch so we can arrange a free consultation call with you.