While this process escalates – and is repeated, probably – employees (not top level management) will have their own assumptions about what is happening, some will have already picked up on aspects of what is happening too. Theories about what is about to be done (to them, not with them or by them) will be discussed and engagement, productivity and time will inevitably be lost. Such delays – or perceived silences – often attack trust. And while internal communication is rightly at the top of the senior management agenda, this focus is not actually getting the job done.

Times have changed – the right people are discussing how to communicate and realising the importance of communication within the organisation. It’s just that in some cases, it’s not these people that are doing the communicating, they’re talking about doing it…

Our topic ‘New frontiers in internal communication’ was an interesting one… We looked at lots of internal communications tools that were growing in usefulness and prominence (the role of web 2.0 internally, wikis, podcasts, every picture telling a story, feedback, feedback and more feedback) and also talked about the key drivers in employee engagement. Take a look at the presentation which is packed full of budget-proof statistics that prove internal communication matters. And what large conclusions global surveys of communication professionals drew.

What were our conclusions?

Leadership communication is the number 1 in internal engagement. Formal media are weak in impact compared to the words and actions – informal and formal – of the people at the top. Our leaders are judged on how they communicate, their reputation is vital and face to face is where they really make the most impact…

The future for internal communications is an interesting one – we’ll be ‘holding the space’ for the communication tools that allow unfettered interactivity. And we’ll be the personal brand managers of the leaders that count.

Are there really ‘new frontiers’? Probably not. The tools are different and we have more choice in what we use and how we use it. However, the business imperative and proving the business benefit are still – and always will be – the keys. There is nothing new there.

New Frontiers presentation (PowerPoint)

She asked me how Upstairs had been introduced to them. I explained that the chain of recommendation had started with one client 8 years ago (2000, previous life) who had got in touch in the early days of Upstairs (2004) recommended us to his old colleague who had talked to us about one project that never happened in 2006 and then, she had remembered us last year (2007) and we are working for her and her team now (2008) and she talked about us to her old client who is now going to be working with us (to come) … I’m sure my friend wished she hadn’t asked.

This ‘chain of recommendation’ got me thinking about a number of things – how old I am (narcissism, immediately). Also, the importance of reputation in everything we – who need to work for a living – do.  In fact, how actually these ‘champions’ of our business have moulded what we do and without them, well, we’d be smaller, anxious, spending ‘working’ time talking about hot, warm, cold and frankly vanishing act contacts and that really, they should be recognised. We do make sure ‘you’ (blog readers each and every one we are sure…) are thanked, or try to… So, just after our fifth birthday, we have worked out a simple way of naming each and every one of ‘you’ while minimising the risk of really upsetting those we don’t remember to name – see our ‘Supporters’ section in About.

The bizarre, polite version of the ‘chain-game’ 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon can then be played across, around and up and down our ‘we’re glad you thought of us’ list…and we would be surprised if any chain actually gets to 6…that might take another 5 years. By which time we’ll all be tired and ancient.

More, on what our (confirmed, now) new client really does too…