Guest Blogger 3

Good day, fellow blackbelts! As the new guest blogger for this month, Sue and Liam put their trust in me to entertain you throughout February. While I do have some experience in blogging, being a guest blogger is a new challenge for me.

For those who don't know me: My name is Timm Suess, I'm Swiss and probably one of the odder blackbelts, as my specialty lies in HR Communication. For the last seven years I've been working in various HR positions at Novartis, one of the big players in the pharmaceutical market, where I've been combining HR content with IC tools to produce campaigns and new channels. Before that, I've been working in HR positions for BrainStore inc., an idea factory, and the Basel City Police Department.

In my spare time, I enjoy photographing abandoned factories, writing my own blog, The Honeyjar, playing the Asian Board game Go and drinking lots of green tea. Currently, my fiancé and I are planning our two weddings, one of which is due this summer. Oh, and that's me on the picture, in my younger years (note the vintage smurf t-shirt and the fashionable man-bag).

As Liam knows, exploring new possibilities for internal communications is one of my passions: Call me a geek, but I believe that the future holds much more in store for IC than corporate blogs and instant messaging. My first question to you is: Do you think that for internal communications, new technologies make things easier or more difficult? Is IC profiting from increased degrees of freedom technology offers, or do these degrees of freedom stifle communications because of their complexity?

Comments

[Sue]

Hej Timm

Love the photo, and looking forward to hearing about the wedding plans!

So, the vexed question of new technology. I've said before that I don't think it's about corporate blogs either.

It has to be about giving people a voice - letting them create content, helping them to get to know each other, encouraging dialogue, breaking down silos. But how do we do that? I don't know, and I've yet to hear of anyone outside of IBM, the BBC, Philips and possibly Yahoo going down this kind of route.

We're used to having plans, being in control and having the answers, and the problem with giving thousands of people a very public voice is that you lose all that. (One mobile phone at Saddam Hussein's execution = collapse of no doubt carefully planned comms strategy).

The conversation in this week's black belt reflected lots of other similar conversations I've heard. General confusion and fundamental questions about 'but what exactly is the point, and how do we use it as part of an IC strategy?'

I'm looking foward to hearing your views, and your experiences with all this too. I see lots of people talking about stuff like myspace and second life, but I know you actually use it ...

Sue

[Timm]

@Sue: I fully agree with you - regardless of the tools we use, one of IC's big goals should be to give people a voice and encourage dialogue.

The biggest trap we - or rather our customers - tend to fall in with new technology (note: I'm not calling it channels, because this term seems to become very limiting) is to introduce them purely for their novelty value. That way, we clutter our information sources with useless, purposeless trinkets and gadgets, which leads to the common criticism that we have too much information to absorb. But a close look reveals that it's not the amount of information that lies at the heart of this problem - it's the low signal-to-noise ratio that confuses us and takes away our time.

Maybe we need a feng-shui for data: A set of rules to guide us - senders and receivers - how to place and arrange of data to achieve harmony with the environment.

[Liam]

Just sitting here with Sue...

I said "why did you open your post with 'Hej' - that's Swedish isn't it?"

And she said ... "well he is Swedish isn't he?"

"Well Swiss actually" I replied "It's the same two opening letters..."

"You know geopgraphy's not my strong point.."

So if she ever visits you in Basel Timm, make sure you've got a stock of marinated herrings and vodka to offer her...

[Timm]

@Liam: Herring? Vodka? That would be Swaziland, wouldn't it?