CWC: Journalism to Comms

The Who:

Meet Halley Knigge?(she/her) who serves as divisional vice president of communications for REI Co-op, leading the teams responsible for all internal and external communications, employee events and recognition, and the co-op’s customer-facing inclusion work. She’s worked in a variety of industries, including aviation, healthcare, nonprofits, education and daily newspapers. Halley grew up on Mr. Rogers, so her no. 1 core value is to always be a helper and she serves on the boards of the Washington Trails Association and the Tacoma Urban League. She lives and rabblerouses in Tacoma, Washington with her stay-at-home artist spouse and first grader.

The Q&A:

Q: First, I want to start at the beginning and hear about your journey into communications and how you got to where you are today.

I think probably like many professional communicators, I set out with a plan to become a daily news reporter. My parents met each other at the Ashland Daily Tidings in Ashland, Oregon and it is kind of like journalism was the family business. It was always my plan. I was the editor of my high school paper, kind of went about my younger life thinking that was what I was going to do. And my first job was in journalism. I worked at a tiny daily newspaper and my car broke down and I could not afford to fix it. And so, I called my parents and spent some time and started thinking about, okay, what are my options? And I ended up finding a job opportunity in marketing, kind of an entry level marketing position, and started moving in that direction.

It took me like a good 10 years to stop introducing myself as a journalist currently working in PR because that was what I was gonna do, right? That is my identity. But now I've been on the comms side for the large majority of my career and I confidently introduce myself as a communications professional.

Q: What advantage or impact do you think having that journalism background has given you?

Oh, my gosh, I love this question.

I worked at a tiny newspaper with four staff reporters and we're trying to put on a daily newspaper. So, every day we turn in our stories in the morning and kind of wait for our turn to be edited.

And I have this city editor who I would just wait for him to kind of beckon me over with his finger and then would pull up a chair at his desk and watch him red line my whole story right in front of me and basically told me the things that were wrong with it. And at first, it was really intimidating. I think about that all the time as like one of my core professional skills is really being able to kind of separate my ego from my work and look forward to and embrace and edit and not just in documents, but in my work and my team and how we can embrace continuous improvement. Everyone can always use an edit no matter how perfect the thing you think that you've created is, it can always be refined. I think that was really formative early in my career.

And so, I think there's just so many skills that transfer, and then of course, you know, good writing skills. That's one of the most important tools of the trade. And so, there's a number of folks on my team that are some kind of former reporters, and I just find that that ground really lends itself well to being able to produce really good work quickly, and with accuracy.

Q: And can you share a bit about what you are like as a leader? How would you describe yourself on your teams and how you show up for for leading those teams.

I joke with my team that I bring annoying dad vibes. Like I will be the biggest cheerleader. We have an internal communications platform and I'm the first person to comment like every single story that we put out there and really makes me act very dorky, but the team appreciates it and it’s like who's going to champion this work more so than I am?

And I call myself the Kool Aid man like they know to call me when they need someone to go break through a brick wall.

Q: Now I feel like internal communications is having a big moment and is being discussed more prominently in news and, in crises in a lot of cases. Have you noticed that?

Yeah, I have. We work with a really different employee population. We have about 17,000 employees, the vast majority of those folks are not sitting at a desk for their workday.

We have 190 stores across the country and most of the folks in those stores, if they are doing a good job at their jobs today, are talking to customers and they are helping folks and they are helping get people really excited for their next outdoor activity. And we have those in our distribution centers where there are active forklifts driving around right and you don't want to be looking down at your phone and reading something. Plus, the experiences team where someone's job might literally be hiking through the woods all day with customers and they don't even have cell service.

So, we have really put a lot of effort over the last couple of years in just better access for hourly employee population and communications. One, because they, you know, they really only can access communications when they're on the clock. Folks need time, they need to be able to step off the floor and read things and so we think a lot about what the tools are that they need so that they can go find information quickly.

And then we've put a lot of effort over the last year into really upskilling managers, the company is just like -- hey, we can do amazing work on on this tool, but you are the number one most important communications channel for your employees. Not only are you more connected to them, you have more access to them than we ever will. They're going to trust you more because they know you and so that's been a really big focus.

And so, trying to always think about okay, who is this for? What is the best way to reach this group of folks, what do we need to do that's maybe a little bit different for someone who works in a distribution center than somebody who's sitting at a desk all day. So those are those are a lot of the things that we are juggling.

Q: So I'd love to hear from your perspective about diversity, equity and inclusion and what this looks like in your specific role, especially with inclusion being part of your title even.

Yeah, so I guess I represent outdoor industry, retail industry and communicators.

We got some really good advice from a DEI practitioner, when we were starting to think about how can we be more inclusive with how we approach communications. And she prompted us just think about what is within your sphere of control? There's actually probably more within your control that you think there is right?

So like we own communications policies, we run what we call our speakers' bureau, which is anyone who wants to go out into the world and speak on behalf of REI has to kind of come through. And we added a couple of questions to our intake questionnaire -- one being 'what do you know about who else is being invited to speak?' So what we're trying to get out is we will not set an REI speaker on a demographically homogenous panel so me as a white woman cannot go be on a panel with five other white women like that is not doing anything. And if that's what it's going to be, we need a hard conversation with the organizer if I really want to speak. You know, I need to get someone else and since we've been doing this we've had some really interesting conversations and I think that conversation has progressed quite a bit since we started, you know, five years ago.

There might be things that feel kind of small, but that you can change about how you're setting up your communications practice, they can actually have a really big impact outside of your team outside of your company and putting some of those things into practice.

The other thing that we think about a lot is...about inclusive design. So you know, we make and sell outdoor products and so that's kind of the literal design we have this really cool new line of adult fitness attire, that's gender free. So we did a lot of work to figure out, okay, how do we set up the fit and the sizes and all of this and make sure we have this line that is not gendered. And that is really like if it fits you, it's for you. It's really, really cool. And so going back to the very beginning about how do we design those products...we ask are we designing them with audiences that they're intended for versus like someone who maybe doesn't represent that group, sitting in an office and coming up with ideas for them and and we tried to take that kind of principle of inclusive design and think about it in terms of how do we how do we design communications, how do we design communications programs? Are we talking to the right people or are the right people involved in the work?

Quick Fire Questions

Q: Coffee, mocktail or cocktail?

Since its 8:30 in the morning, I'm going to say coffee because that's what I'm drinking right now. And I am not a fancy coffee drinker.

Q: Online or print?

Online

Q: Favorite publication?

The Washington Post has a special place in my heart. My mom was working as a copy editor at the Washington Post when I was born, and I was born in Washington DC and so I always keep a subscription kind of no matter where I am or what I'm doing in the country.

Q: Oxford comma, or no?

No, AP Style all the way!

Q: Slack or Teams?

I love slack. I use it for personal I think it's actually the older millennial / Gen X social network that we didn't know we needed. Everyone can create a Slack group with just your friends and it's not like infiltrated with other things going on.

Q: Guilty pleasure?

I do not believe in guilty pleasures. I just believe in treat yourself. Like, just enjoy your life.

Q: Favorite hobby outside of work?

I am a big runner but like as a social activity. So, I have a couple of friends that are my running buddies, and we have solved so many of our lives while running.

Q: One word your friends or family would use to describe you.

Cruise director, I know that's two words, but that's me, I like to be in charge. I just like to make the adventures happen.

Q: One word to describe working in communications.

Not boring.

Q: Most underrated skill?

I think the ability to explain something in a way that somebody not at work can understand you. I test things out in my spouse.