Going with the flow

Had an interesting meeting with an accountant type yesterday who wanted to see my comms plans. "Is it in excel or MS Project?"* She innocently enquired.

"Well..." says I rapidly trying to back myself out of an Alice in Wonderland type rabbit hole. "It’s not quite that sort of plan." You see us right-brain thinkers tend to be more fly by the seat of our pants, scribble something on a napkin and a post-it note sort of gals. We like mind mapping and sticky-backed plastic. We don’t like to be constrained by neatly engineered and documented organisation that tells us exactly when to think and what to think and how to think.

While I do have a plan (or else, my employers might wonder what on earth they are paying me for); it’s much more fluid and is full of words, emotions, thoughts and ideas rather than hard data bound in chains to milestones. I like to be able to adapt at a moment’s notice, go with the flow… I’m a believer that there is no right or wrong way to make a communications plan as long as you deliver the end results – meeting and preferably exceeding expectations. I was very fortunate that my last boss was very much the same as me. He knew that while there was no gant chart or visio diagram indicating all probable lines of enquiry and procedure there would certainly be a flow of creativity and that projects would be unique and delivered on time. Now, I just have to explain this to that accountant…

* I once went on a course to learn MS Project - fortunately with a like-minded colleague. We left the training session shuddering and muttering the word Why? over and over again...

Having fun

I'm really enjoying my new job although to be honest I've not done much other than learn a great deal and talk comms but I guess that's important too! Soon, I will be required to put my money where my mouth is and conjure up all these engaging communications I have been promising. Tomorrow sees the latest digital switchover to complete in the South West and I will be making sure we celebrate this event with all the excitement it merits. Not for me some factual intranet piece - no, I shall be putting my journalistic hat on and looking for the interesting human angles. I did attempt this today by attempting to collar two of the senior team but they obviously had wind I was on the prowl and went to ground. Having got lost twice on the way back from their desks, I was forced to retire storyless for now, but no less determined. Tomorrow as they say, is another day...

Fear not dear readers if you offended by another odd background (yes, the plain old green really was much classier), I am attempting, as I write to create my own design... (if it goes back to green you'll know that this proved disastrous)

The little fella is Digit-Al. Glad to see he is H&S compliant before he climbs that ladder.

Teleport is like it is

Excitement builds as I anticipate throwing myself into a new writing challenge. I won't deny that getting to grips with the likes of spectrum and earth stations is going to be easy, but then where would be the fun in an easy life?

Had a meeting today with one of the directors who talked about being happy with a 'small' improvement in communication. "No, no, no", says I - we go for the enormosaurus increase in engagement, we aim to both surprise and delight, we create a communicating company with the right messages flowing seamlessly across the organisation. Small improvement indeed...pfft.

I'm a firm believer in the removal of corporate spin in internal communication. I treat employees like thinking human beings - they know when they're being lied to, or only given half the story (they've seen enough politicians demonstrate the technique after all darling!). If I do this well, I'll gain trust and that means more attention paid to my outputs which leads inevitably to a greatly engaged workforce - well, that's the theory anyway.

I'll soon have them whipped into shape. I'll be out there like the corporate newshound I am, sniffing out the stories in amongst the technobabble that is gradually making sense (apparently, despite what Scottie would have you believe, you can't 'teleport' people, which is a damn shame). The task is many-fold but primarily it's essential that everyone understands what the business is trying to achieve, how it intends to get there, how their role fits in and, essentially, 'what's in it for them'. After all, it's the people that make everything happen - without them you don't have a business. So, I ask: Who are the people? What do they think? How do they react? Perhaps communication is as basic as satisfying that question every toddler asks repeatedly as they try to fathom the world out - Why?

• Why are we doing this?
• Why aren't we making enough money?
• Why is this good for me?
• Why should I bother?

The role of the internal communicator is also great in finding out just what is going on... what do people know? What happened to this team to make that happen? In my view, there's always something interesting and useful to talk about - you just have to go out there and find it and then, most importantly, share it. I want to enrich the organisation with what it doesn't know it knows! Knowledge should be flying across the company faster than a radio wave (these can be dangerous if you get too close for a long period of time which is a health & safety issue for engineers).

I have to go now, I'm worried I'm turning into a techie nerd...