From Russia with ... A Slight Delay

Greetings from Moscow, everyone!

My name is Jeffery McMillan and I will be your Black Belt Dojo guest blogger for the month of June. As you can see, things are off to a pretty late start — so before I continue here in the dojo it's fifty virtual push-ups from me.

There, that feels better.

I received my internal communications black belt from Liam and Sue back in March of this year. (Regular readers of this blog may recall some gossip about two guys who had to pay the jargon-busting penalty at the end of Module 2 with a speech on pole dancing and accompanying demonstration. Well, I am the one who kept his trousers on.)

An IC Assistant Manager in the Moscow Office of PwC Russia, I have actually been in internal communications for less than a year. There are few straight paths to internal communications, it seems. My own particular path has taken some odd turns at times — a Korean TV show, a Master's in Sociology at the Russian Peoples' Friendship University, a year of translating tax bulletins and editing audit reports — and so I am thrilled to have ended up here in IC.

Here's an example of why (and the reason my tenure as guest blogger is getting started a week late).

Last Monday the Global CEO of PwC flew in to Russia to visit key clients and partners in Moscow and also to attend the St Petersburg Economic Forum. Just before he arrived in the country, an hour was freed up for internal communications in his week-long itinerary. We were given 48 hours to arrange a film crew, set up a filming location, assemble a panel of 10-15 "regular employees" ready to speak confidently with our Global CEO on pre-approved topics in fluent English under bright lights in front of two cameras, and put together a short film to be shown at our upcoming all-staff meeting. Stressful? Yes. But once we got rolling it was really quite magical.

Call me starstruck, but I found it amazing to be given access to the Global CEO — a man at the head of an organisation employing 140,000 people in 149 countries — after only having  worked here in the firm for less than two years.

For me this underlined the importance that is placed on IC at PwC. It also brought home some of my favourite lessons from the Black Belt course. Liam mentioned that as communicators we do not really have any power in our organisations, but we do have influence. It is important to recognise the difference. The second lesson was an interesting technique that Liam recommended for building up that influence: schedule regular meetings with the top managers and be seen to be coming and going from their offices (regardless of whether the meetings have involved little more than small talk). The final lesson is that once you have established influence, you can only use it once. After that, people will figure out ways of getting around you.

This is beginning to sound a little abstract. Let me bring things back down to the mat with a few questions for you, colleagues. What are your thoughts on (and experiences of) the wielding of influence by internal communicators? Where should internal communications position itself in relation to management and staff? Where is the line between deciding how to word a policy and deciding what the policy should be? Have you ever ended up on the wrong side of that line?

Forgive me if these questions sound a bit naive. As I have said, I am quite new at this, and I am exactly half of my IC network here in Russia (so far). I am really looking forward to chatting with you and getting to know you in the month ahead.

Last word for today is a big hello to Liam, Sue and my fellow black belt trainees from February and March. For a short trip down memory lane, follow this link:

http://jefferymcmillan.com/blackbelt

Jeffery

Comments

[Simon Garcia]

Hi Jeffery,

Really enjoyed your first blog post.

In our organisation, the IC team were traditionally seen as the “repro” people – the print shop, a place to get your posters, promo items, etc. But we also have a fantastically privileged position as you found out recently with your CEO, having access to any of our leaders, line management and staff, and the freedom to dip in and out of almost any part of the business without, for the most part, let or hindrance.

We have a big push on here to change our fundamental behaviours from coordinating, advising, consensus building (and lots of other terms that would get me slapped with a Black Belt jargon busting penalty!) to delivering and decision making and most importantly really focussing on the enterprise and its needs. By almost ignoring our natural tendency to immediately propose outcomes – a website, a newsletter, a whatever – we’re really starting to see dividends; trust from leadership teams and an appetite to get us involved from the outset – where we can influence!!!

I think the line is one that connects leaders and staff, and I’m personally happy to cross it either way – write the policy or edit it, as long as the outcome delivers the needs of the leaders and staff, but ultimately the business.

Phew! This is all very deep for 8 o’clock in the morning! Back to my posters and nicely branded pens I think! :)

Simon.

[Jeffery McMillan]

Thank you for your comment, Simon!

Three "moments" in particular (as they say here in Russia) really stood out for me.

The first, of course, is that you put this comment together at 8 o'clock in the morning.

Second, I like how you took what I was saying about access to management and quite correctly broadened it to "the freedom to dip in and out of almost any part of the business...".

You are right that one of privileges of our role — and one of the keys to doing our jobs effectively — is the ability to build good working relationships with a variety of groups within the business. I am sure that we all have our favourite anecdotes about when we were able to get something done by virtue of knowing (and perhaps calling in a favour from) the right PA, HR specialist, IT guy, Admin manager, etc.

I love walking the floor.

One of the lessons of the Black Belt course was to be very clear on who your main stakeholders are, and to be conscious of where you stand with them. I suppose the message to be drawn is that for IC people there is a large variety of potential stakeholders.

One of the ways in which our IC team at PwC Russia builds relationships with various groups within the firm is by doing monthly "featured weeks" — IT Week begins this Monday, for example. I will be blogging about this a bit later.

Finally, I found it very interesting that you wrote about resisting the tendency to immediately propose outcomes, and how this has paid off in trust and greater involvement in decision-making. This was another huge lesson of the Black Belt course for me. Ask why. Push back. Make sure the message is necessary and clear before you pitch ideas on how to deliver it. I have earned more credit by asking simple, timely questions in the last few months ("So, why do we need a separate message to all staff on each of these new IT security procedures?", "Are we 100% committed to the name 'Purge Day' or can we play around with it?") than I have by proposing comms strategies or writing copy. And I like to think that the organisation is a little less info cluttered as a result.

Good luck to your IC team, Simon, in carving out its new niche within the business.

Jeffery