Guest Blogger 2

Blimey, so I’m the guest blogger this month. That means I have to appear like I understand what internal communications is all about. Well, I’ll let you into a secret – I don’t, but I am good at putting people off until I’ve referred back to my Black Belt folder, or Bill Quirke’s books, or phoned up an ex-colleague or two.

As you almost certainly don't know who I am - here is my IC history in a nutshell. I was in HR at Lego until 2000 when Vodafone asked me to do Internal Comms, despite having no direct experience. Luckily I was taken under Darren Briggs's wing when he joined the company. 5 years later, I moved onto Ericsson, who put me on the Black Belt Course. Just 6 months ago I joined Visa to head up the IC team here in Paddington.   My strength is getting under the skin of the company and knowing where IC will improve things.  My weakness is a distinct lack of attention to details (and typos in here will prove it). My passion is the written word and storytelling in the business world (or Fudging for Fun).

I am proud to work in IC, I don't want to do anything else - I just want to learn more.  So hopefully I can learn from the responses I get from you guys (if I get any).  My first question is around "Ohh, that's good" moments.  Whether it be from a book, a colleague, a training course, or your own big brain - what was a eureka moment for you in IC?   I'll let you know one of mine in my next post.

Well I am going to stop now as I want to keep the posts short(ish). My book recommendation (if you've got any vouchers left from Christmas) is go and buy a moleskine journal for work. It's impossible not to want to write better notes and thoughts in one of these babies.  I don't know if they are made of moleskin.  I hope so, because they are expensive.

Comments

[Sue D]

So, did you decide not to tell anyone your name because you like the idea of being a mystery man, or is it one of those attention to detail things?

Our mystery man guest blogger for January, ladies and gentleman, is Mark Darby!

[Mark Darby]

Ah yes - attention to detail.

Mark Darby, unfortunately not Mark Darcy (much to the disappointment of women, and a few men, who meet me).

MARK DARBY

[Liam]

Do we get a photo?

Liam

[Fiona]

My lightbulb moment was when I thought a holiday should be a holiday (Liam...) - seriously, when I got back to work yesterday, I started wondering if email addresses had @ symbols in them - and that was only a week!