Having worked in the internal communications field in varying degrees since my first organizational newsletter in 1994, I’ve noticed that the concept of culture change is never far from the lips of fellow internal comms pros. Indeed, last month’s exchange between Steve Crescenzo and I hinged on whether or not internal communicators can play a meaningful role in changing cultures.
One thing that’s dawned on me in my thinking about this rendition of CommsOffensive325 is that there is certainly one culture that we internal communicators are fully empowered to change—and that is our own culture as a profession.
Rather than spell out the culture change I would like to see in the internal comms world—and particularly in the
Service vs. Servility?
The distinction between service and servility is a good starting point—should internal communicators come up to our own conclusions about where our services can make a positive difference for our organizations, or are we best suited to taking orders and focusing on producing output with clean language and good visual quality?
Networked vs. Scattered?
While the UK has a number of nationwide internal communication networks, US practitioners are scattered, particularly as IABC has yet to create an internal comms network and no parallel organization (like Britain’s excellent Communicators in Business or Internal Communications Alliance) has yet to be formed. Sure, there are proprietary networks through the main professional publishing houses, but much of the energy from the publishing houses (and indeed from IABC) comes from selling $200-$300 webinars rather than connecting peers and colleagues. Is this a time for us to start creating those connections by other means—or should we remain scattered and unconnected for the most part?
Media Aware vs. Media Frenzied?
Over the years since I’ve been in this business, the number of media used in internal communications has skyrocketed. But with the benefits of new channels come the pressures from clients, and even colleagues, to start regular blogs, podcasts, videos, and even newsletters for the sake of having them, and soon the role of the internal communicator moves towards one where the prime objective is to fill the channel rather than use it (or not use it) to support real organizational goals. Should we be the ones advancing new tools—or the ones exhibiting the greater skepticism about doing things that may not be needed or useful?
Sharing vs. Buying?
One of the things I notice in the endless advertisements for webinars from IABC, Melcrum, Ragan and others is that a relatively small group of practitioners are featured time and time again. But I know there are thousands of people out there who are doing great things in internal communication who aren’t being featured at $240 a pop.
The conventions and seminars offered, likewise, cost between $1000 and $2000 per session—affordable perhaps to in-house practitioners, but quite stiff for independents and those who work for small consultancies, and independents and those who work for small consultancies tend to be left of the speakers list for these events.
Instead of relying on the commercial elements of our industry to provide us with new ideas and useful examples, could we perhaps come up with some alternative models for sharing information and ideas? Has anyone heard of an “open space event”—where you get 50-500 people into a venue, give people a chance to stake out space to deliver their own presentations, and free people to attend the sessions that interest them? It’s worked great in other spheres—why not with internal comms folks?
Hire Attitudes vs. Hiring of Skills?
On a completely different front, is it easy to see that one of the great determiners of a profession’s culture is the group of people hired to join that profession? Are we looking too hard for skill sets—and not hard enough for assertive and visionary temperaments? As someone seeking a role myself, I see a lot of postings that are precisely specified and offer little in terms of flexibility or room for challenge. Is that healthy?
In Closing
I’ll be interested to see what people think—my views should be fairly obvious, and reflect my desire to see internal communicators go “on the offensive” and create a more robust internal culture and external positioning.
