Five takeaways from the IoIC Festival 2022

If I’m honest, I have recently found myself in a bit of a slump. Work was busy but I lacked the motivation I normally have in spades. It turns out I didn’t realise how much I needed to be around people, and more specifically IC people, until I attended day 1 of the IoIC Festival (my first in-person conference in over two years).

I came away feeling energised from seeing both new and familiar faces, inspired by the fantastic line up of speakers and excited about the future of internal comms.

It struck me that my lack of motivation came from a lack of human connection at work – a theme that came though strongly across the various sessions. What we do really does matter, and it was wonderful to be in a room full of passionate people that want to make a difference.

Here are a few of my key takeaways…

?The positive power of AI

The brilliant Dan Sodergren, co-founder of YourFlock, made the case for world-class communication in a changing world full of uncertainty, hybrid working, and the implementation of AI.

In his fast-paced session he made it clear that the future of work will be different…but fear not, the robots aren’t going to take over just yet. Instead, Dan encouraged us to think about how AI can help us do our jobs better. For me, the overwhelming potential is with data and analysis. Imagine what we could achieve if we can not only harness the power of data but do it quickly.

While there was acknowledgement in the room that AI bring uncertainty and even a bit of fear, this disconnected world we live in at the moment needs effective communication more than ever – communication with a human touch.

Hello tomorrow

Claire Jasper’s session was truly inspiring. To engage employees with a two-year transformation programme, Claire and her team at Quilter reframed the change programme around what it meant to their people rather than what it meant for the business.

This led to a campaign called ‘Hello tomorrow’ and centred around how employees had choice around what their future looked like in this new business model. This involved creating a narrative, having ‘heroes’ rather than champions, physical brochures that set out the change (specifically asked for by employees) and then backing it up with tangible actions such as career workshops, talks from entrepreneurs, training opportunities, and wellbeing support. ?

Some employees did choose to leave the business and did so with help and guidance. And Quilter also allowed the time to say goodbye to people who were leaving. Anyone who’s studied change will be familiar with William Bridges’ transition model around letting go of the past before moving into the future and it was great to see it in practise.

Ethics is not clear cut

I’m passionate about the topic of ethics so it was great to see how many people turned up to listen to the panel discussion and pose questions. IoIC President Suzanne Peck facilitated a conversation between Oli Howard, Shalini Gupta and Wendel Verbeck. It quickly became clear is that there isn’t always an easy answer, it can be extremely difficult to do the right thing in certain situations, and the IC profession isn’t at the point yet where it can hold internal communicators accountable – but we need to be moving in that direction.

The IoIC recently launched its guide to ethics, and I will be taking part in a webinar on the topic in a couple of weeks’ time. What is important is that we keep considering ethics in our work – it builds trust and credibility, plus it’s just the right thing to do.

Super connection is our superpower

Mike Klein, founder of #WeLeadComms shared how internal communicators are perfectly placed to be super connectors within the organisations we work in. We can harness our skills to create networks and make introductions that have a real impact on business outcomes.

It was refreshing to think about how internal comms can start demonstrating their value and gaining greater credibility with stakeholders.

Read fiction, not business books

Writer and journalist Christina Patterson discussed how to put the heart into our content to create connection.

She recommended reading fiction to learn how to weave emotion into a narrative – the art of storytelling is a key component of what we do after all (although I personally don’t think we should be throwing out the business books entirely!).

Throughout her presentation, Christina’s own personal stories demonstrated the power they have to engage – heart and humour were in abundance.

And her other recommendation was simplicity – plain English and don’t overthink it – allow the emotion to come through.

Congratulations to Rebecca, Jen, and the team at IoIC HQ. It was an excellent conference, and I was so disappointed that I couldn’t attend day 2. I can’t wait for next year.?