Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

About 26 years ago I started communicating yet I've learned more about the difficulties of skill in the last six months than those previous years. With a particular focus on internal company communication and employee engagement.

I find it fascinating that in a world where there's an app for everything and a concept for every eventuality we still struggle to communicate. I recently attended the World Communicators Conference in Montreal and spoke with some of the largest global leaders and successors in various industries. The conference approached the theme of "A Communication Crossroads" which hints at confusion. People driven by data and measurement are dumbfounded by employee behaviour and engagement.

I sat in a room of nearly a thousand people as a CEO proclaimed the use of letter writing as a tactic for responding to customer feedback. I watched as hundreds of pens scribbled this suggestion down. 5 maybe 10 years ago, he would have been called "dated", "not with the times", "prehistoric", but now he's some sort of "traditional innovator". What a horrid conflicting term I've coined but it's true. Communicators are so blinded by shiny objects, any excuse to return to traditional methods seems like a winner.

The variety of people, geography and industry at this conference was a true insight. A global problem across all industries and professions. A good friend of mine spoke excellently about language and science. The conflict of storytelling and accuracy. It's a wonderful talk and I'm delighted to share it with you.

And if you'd like to put this into practice maybe this could support. https://www.poppulo.com/resources/12-top-tips-and-insights-for-great-storytelling/

Like Fergus and the thousands of communicators in Montreal, I face a conflict to be traditional and engaging but accurate and understandable. Communications nowadays must be measurable, I believe all IABC attendees could agree on this but how was the big question. How to put tactics into a review and how to start the process. This may provide some support. A Practical workbook on internal comms measurement.

This workbook is different to anything I've seen before in this space. It also has some additional templates to play around with too, Templates Link.

There's a middle ground for engagement and measurement. More and more communicators are seeking out solutions. CEOS and higherups are paying more and more attention to engagement levels and seeing a direct relationship with results. #IABC18, @IABC came down to two questions in my eyes.

"Can you engage?"

&

"Can you measure?"

If the answer is yes to both you are winning! Hopefully, there's some tips and tricks in this that can help you along your way for both.

#internalcommunications #employeeengagement #employeeexperience #internalcomms #icmeasurement #comms