Thanks to the Easter school holidays I’ve spent much of the last couple of weeks hanging out with my daughter. Like many 11-year-olds she’s very wise and tells it like it is, so I interviewed her about her views on communication for this month’s guest slot. Listening to young people more is something we should … Read more
I often talk about ‘effective communication’ in my presentations, comms strategy conversations and training workshops. But what does that phrase actually mean? A good friend asked me this question after reviewing some text for me. And I thought ‘If Pat wants to know what effective communication is, then other people will probably be wondering the same … Read more
The term internal communication means many things to many people. The specifics of what is involved, who is involved and the channels that are used can vary greatly between organisations. Factors such as the number of employees, the roles they do, where in the world they are based and so on can make a real … Read more
Today is #WorldHappinessDay. This month’s guest, Alan Price, COO and Employment Law Director at Peninsula, gives us his thoughts on employee engagement, which is something that can help people to feel happy at work. Employee engagement is the approach within a workplace leading to the right working conditions for employees. It relates to an employee’s … Read more
This was my second year at the Strategic People Conference from Agenda Consulting. This year’s theme was ‘Thoughtful leadership for a healthy culture’. Once again I came away with lots of new ideas and questions to consider in my work with my clients. Throughout the day there was ample opportunity to learn from different perspectives … Read more
Last week I ran an Effective Communication for your Charity training masterclass on behalf of Small Charities Coalition. With attendees from a range of different organisations in the room we had lots of discussion, lots of practice of communication skills and techniques and some laughs too. They may have come from different organisations with a … Read more
I have just completed a piece of work for one of my clients who asked me to evaluate the improvements they’ve made to their internal communications over the past year. They felt it had been a successful year but wanted some evidence beyond their gut feeling. I carried out interviews, looked at channel data and … Read more
This month’s guest is internal comms manager, Andrew Hesselden, who shares his thoughts on why as internal communicators we sometimes get in a muddle with metrics. In any line of work, the ability to measure the impact of what you are doing is important to achieving success. After all, how will you know whether or … Read more
Values are important to me. Maybe that’s why I work in the not-for-profit and academic sectors. It certainly helps with running my own business – the values that frame my working life are entirely my own, not something that has been dictated or developed by others. This ensures that the work I choose to do … Read more
I have always loved words and enjoy the fact that a well-chosen one can make a significant difference to outcomes.