Come and Spin The Wheel on Wednesday
Every Wednesday for the past eight weeks I've co-hosted Spin The Wheel with my friend Chuck Gose to support Comms professionals around the globe. Our final show of season one is at 8pm BST, 3pm EST, on Wednesday 1 July and I'd love you to join us. Sign up here to be...
Returning to work after lockdown: lessons from New Zealand
New Zealand is in the enviable position of being virtually Covid-free. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s policy of ‘go hard, go early’ has paid off and lockdown restrictions have been eased. The country is tiptoeing its way back to work. Businesses, offices and...
How to start a conversation about racism and unconscious bias
Conversations about racial injustice are louder than they've ever been and people are sharing their stories to educate others. We need to check our own bias and take action. Today I have a guest post for you by Gihan Hyde on how to start the conversations and gauge if...
How to host a socially-distanced staff awards ceremony
If you have annual awards coming up for your employees, what are you doing this year? If your thoughts have turned to cancelling or postponing them, I urge you to reconsider. I have a guest post for you today to share how an NHS Trust successfully ran a socially...
COVID-19 and Comms – we’re not done yet
We’ve been living with the reality of COVID-19 for months now. The shock and stress that rippled across the globe is gradually being replaced with an acceptance that the way we live and work is changing for the foreseeable future. So, as we continue to adapt...
A Question of Comms: Janet Hitchen
Janet Hitchen is the Founder and Consultant of JanCo, which is launching soon. She's the latest Comms professional to sit in my All Things IC hot seat and answer my questions. Would you like to see your name here? These are the questions you need to answer, keep...
How it feels to finally be able to communicate
This morning I had a hearing aid fitted. I was anxious as I'd not left my house at all since 20 April due to the vulnerable members of my household. As I headed to my local hospital's audiology department, I was nervous and didn't know what to expect. The streets were...
A Question of Comms: Christine Armstrong
Christine Armstrong describes herself as an "aspiring IC Manager" and is the first person to sit in my new All Things IC hot seat. Regular readers of my blog may remember I first ran this series back in 2017. It's now back and Christine is the first to answer the...
Come and sit in my hot seat and share your views
What's the best career advice you've been given or read? What's your top tip to make sure internal comms is inclusive? These are just two of the questions in my brand new A Question of Comms series. Regular readers of my blog may remember I first ran this series back...
We need to talk about planning
If I asked you how you feel about Comms planning, what would you say? Do you find it easy or difficult? What techniques do you use? Over the past few weeks, readers of my Water Cooler email newsletter have been testing a new Comms plan on a page for me. It forms part...
How to communicate with compassion
Compassion and kindness are incredibly powerful in our personal lives. The ability to forgive, provide comfort and nurture ourselves and each other is priceless. Whenever I'm communicating change, I look for opportunities to inject compassion into my work. Whether...
Your invitation to join me live every week
I have a brand new offering for Comms practitioners and would like to invite you to join me live. Spin The Wheel is an Internal Comms themed game show, created by my friend Chuck Gose @ChuckGose and SocialChorus. I know how hard everyone is working to navigate the...
What is a COVID-secure workplace?
Tonight's update from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "We have been working to establish new guidance for employers to make workplaces COVID-secure." He also talked about COVID-secure standards. Below I've pasted some of the transcript from the broadcast. You'll...
What does the Government’s new messaging mean?
My social media feeds are full of discussions today about the UK Government's latest COVID-19 messaging. The original was: Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives. Design iterations aside, the messaging has remained constant throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to date....
Putting employees first in a crisis
How do you put employees first in a crisis? How does your organisation prioritise its people? If you want to learn about crisis comms, check your thinking and plan for the future, I urge you to have Amanda Coleman's brand new book Crisis Communication Strategies to...
The Secret in the Lockers – a gratitude initiative at NHS Digital
I have a really special guest post to share with you today. I think it's the best thing I've read all year. It's a tale of hope, kindness, values and looking ahead with a positive mindset. It's the tonic I needed to read and I can't wait for you to experience it too....
Video: Ask Me Anything – Rachel Miller answers your queries
Hi all, as part of my ongoing efforts to support Comms practitioners around the globe, particularly as we work through the COVID-19 pandemic, I've launched a brand new Ask Me Anything video series. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions for me to answer, I've...
Diary of communicating in a pandemic
Have you had a chance to pause and reflect on the past few months yet? I can guess your answer. If you haven't, I encourage you to grab a cuppa and delve into the diary of Nicola Rowland, HR Manager at Energy UK. She's kindly written for the All Things IC blog to...
How to use video for your Internal Comms
Are you using video now more than ever before? I know that's the case for many organisations as we live with COVID-19 and adjust our channels accordingly. In a recent survey from the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC), 92% of Comms practitioners using video or...
How to prepare your employees for the future
I left my house for the first time in three weeks today to get some groceries for my family. I sent a text to my mum-in-law shortly afterwards and wrote: "The world has certainly changed, but at the same time, it's strangely familiar." It looked like the road I know...
How to communicate with remote workers during the pandemic
Whether your employees are usually based all in one building or spread out across the country, we're all having to communicate in different ways right now. How can you best communicate with employees who are working remotely at this time? What if the majority are...
How to connect your people
How are you connecting your employees during this time of COVID-19? I ran a poll on Twitter asking what you would like me to write about on my All Things IC blog and you said connecting your people. I'm going to explore that topic here, share examples with you and...
What do you need from me?
Hi everyone, as the weekend approaches, I've taken a few moments to pause and reflect. I've just recorded a short video and would love you to tell me what you need from All Things IC to support you, particularly as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. What do you need...
Podcast: How to thrive in internal communication
How can you thrive in internal communication? Due to COVID-19, what we do as Comms practitioners has been analysed, appreciated and dare I say valued, more than ever. I'm so proud of everything you're doing, well done and keep going. Today I have news of a new podcast...
How to communicate business as unusual
I keep hearing the phrase the new normal in relation to the situation we're in right now with COVID-19. It's not normal, it's anything but! This image from the fabulous team at Alive With Ideas jumped out at me this week... business as unusual. That's exactly it. We...
How to communicate with furloughed employees
Do you have furloughed employees in your workplace? I've been having conversations today with my clients and with IC practitioners via Twitter about this topic. I've written this article to point you towards advice and guidance and to discover what others are doing,...
How to use messaging in the workplace
What are the opportunities and challenges of using messaging at work? How can you use messaging tools to foster a culture of collaboration, while also navigating security, privacy and compliance pitfalls? I've contributed to a brand new report, which is hot off the...
Video: How to encourage your leaders to be virtually visible
I had a conversation with a client the other day who used the phrase virtually visible in relation to her leaders. We were talking about COVID-19 comms (obviously, aren't we all?!), and it struck me as an incredibly suitable way to describe the situation we're in....
How to do whatever it takes
The title of this blog post should have a question mark at the end. How on earth do we do whatever it takes to get through this? I've been watching the news and reeling from each update as the full extent of COVID-19 has started to unfold for us here in the UK. I'm...
How to run a virtual Town Hall
Are you responsible for running Town Halls in your company? (You may know them as All Hands or All Employee events). Are you thinking about running them virtually rather than in person? If so, you're in the right place to find out more. Following on from my article...
Get your badge
