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Here are a collection of my thoughts on all aspects of communication. These are informed to a considerable degree by my years spent working in corporate communications, marketing and internal communication.

They also draw on current news, research and everyday experience to provide perspectives on the issues affecting those working in communications and related fields. And they reflect my fascination with organisational behaviour and psychology in general.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Life-long learning and the 100-year career

[mp_row] [mp_span col="12"] I was rather disappointed not to able to attend the latest in theballroom’s series of thefuturestory events, because it’s a topic that fascinates me. The 100-year career considered how the average working life was getting longer due to improvements in health, changing life perspectives and economic necessity; and the resulting impacts for the workplace and employee…

The forgotten aspect of employee engagement

People often talk about positive outcomes associated with strong employee engagement – including higher levels of productivity, quality and customer service and lower levels of staff sickness and turnover. However, there’s one aspect that is often overlooked. If you’re engaging staff successfully – and encouraging two-way communication – you’ll get more useful feedback to help run…

Writing signposting for better reader experience

When writing for marketing, public relations or internal communication, it’s vital to be able to keep your reader’s attention while you get your main points across. If people can’t work out where a piece of text is headed, they’re likely to lose interest very quickly. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="150"] Effective signposting in writing is important[/caption]…

Employee engagement and stress

The links between levels of employee engagement and stress Mental Health Week this month got me thinking about stress in the workplace and generally what can compromise psychological well-being at work. Recent research This coincided with me reading the recently published Exploring Internal Communication (3rd edition), which discusses a number of research studies showing a correlation between higher levels of…

Some thoughts on communication during the election

What the election tells us about communication Now that the dust has settled on the 2015 election, here are a few points about communication that struck me over the course of the campaigns. If you come across as authentic, your audience will be more enthusiastic and, if necessary, forgiving. Authenticity is hard to convey in…

Does the picture tell the story?

Does the picture tell the story? Rachel Miller recently wrote an excellent article urging people not to use stock photography for internal communication. I'd like to continue that theme with the thought that caution and good judgement is also needed in their use for external communication. Stock pictures can sometimes look a bit 'hammy' and this…

Getting research to really work for you

Getting research to really work for you My views on research have been formed by a number of very specific career experiences, ranging from developing and implementing research programmes as part of a marketing plan; undertaking research to gain views and perspectives of an internal audience; carrying out a communications programme and campaigns based around…

Treating everyone as equal can be a recipe for disaster – leadership lessons

Treating everyone as equal can be a recipe for disaster – lessons for leadership An ‘equality bias’ that leads people to give the same weight to the opinions of others, regardless of whether they are experts “damages” groups, according to a recent study. Scientists have found that men give too much influence to colleagues with bad…

The secret army

The secret army A recent study by the Institute of Internal Communication has found that there are now over 45,000 people working in internal comms in the UK. This focused on those working in-house in the private sector, so this would suggest that overall figures are actually catching up on those for the PR profession,…

Leaders: Good external comms does not equal good internal comms Some senior leaders are great at getting their message over to the outside world. I had a boss once who was completely un-phased by taking part in media interviews and no topic seemed to flummox him. The listener was invariably left feeling positive towards him,…

The battleground otherwise known as the company website Throughout my communication career there's one area of activity that seems to have created tensions and raised blood pressure more than any other, and that's the relaunch of the organisational website. It seems to have endless potential for unleashing differing opinions and priorities, and bringing old bones…

What we can learn from female artists of a bygone era

What we can learn from female artists of a bygone era [caption id="" align="alignright" width="287"] Angelica Kauffmann - El juicio de Paris[/caption] I've been thinking quite a lot about trailblazing women recently, inspired by International Women's Day but also very much by Professor Amanda Vickery's The Story of Women and Art television series. This featured…

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