Black Belt Dojo (Australia)

More Summit thoughts

It's been another big morning at the Strategic Communication Management Summit in Sydney. The big theme this morning has been social media, with some fantastic case studies from Sensis and Telstra showing how they are using and managing the impact of social media on their internal and external communication strategies.

Karina Keisler from Sensis had some interesting words of wisdom. She was asked if she agreed that the decision to take on social media depended largely on your organisation's culture and readiness. Her answer? No. Conversations about your company are happening whether you're aware of it or not - and whether you're ready for it or not. Her pithy advice was "you're crazy if you're not part of it."

Lexie Whitwam from Telstra I'm sure had many people in the room green with envy over some of the employee communication channels and programs she showed. Telstra is, I guess, fortunate in that it is the provider of many of the technologies that are needed to really make the leap into a true internal Web 2.0 experience for employees. But you certainly couldn't say that they are letting that advantage go to waste. MMS video messages streamed to employees' mobile phones, guerrilla-style instant videos for store openings and employee blogs were just a few of the elements of Telstra's "inside out" comms strategy that she demonstrated. And I have to admit that her touching stories about employees helping each other through forums and discussion boards brought a little tear to my eye (but then, I am a sook).

The morning began with an interesting discussion on the use of storytelling within Astra Zeneca, and I'd certainly like to hear more about how the company used stories and anecdotes to bring a leadership development program to life.

That's it for now - must go soak up a bit more of that sunshine before heading back into the conference room for more....

Summit Update

Hello from the Melcrum Strategic Communication Management Summit in sunny Sydney. Having just partaken in a lovely lunch harbourside at Darling Harbour, my poor Melburnian skin is still smarting from sitting in the sunshine!

But, on to more important matters...

Its still early in the summit but a couple of themes are emerging. There has definitely been a strong focus on engagement. It seems that engagement is still the topic de jour for internal communicators especially and is showing no signs of waning or becoming one of 'those' fads. In fact, if anything, the talk is getting sharper, more scientific and there is now irrefutable evidence to back the business case for engagement initiatives.

Which brings me to the second and, I think, all-pervasive theme. Not sure if it's just the current global financial climate (or just the gloomy predictions of Australian financial analysists) but there seemes to be an ever-stronger need for internal communication to prove its viability. Exactly how does it contribute to the bottom line? How can internal communication and employee engagement provide better customer satisfaction, loyalty and higher shareholder returns?

Jim Shaffer, one of the Summit's keynote speakers, made the point that too many communicators don't know enough about the business drivers of the organisations we work for and therefore find it difficult to connect the dots for their leadership. (And that's something we bang on about quite a bit at Black Belt.)

Jim presented an interesting case study that proved how internal communication is blurring the lines between HR, organisation development, strategy, leadership and communication. Chatting with an HR colleague afterwards we both commented on the fact that working relationships between HR and IC is not just nice to have, but pretty much compulsory if you're going to achieve the kind of strategic change that leads to real business results.

Anyway, that's just my thoughts on the so far. More to come...