The comms blog

An exercise in audience understanding

Effective communication is based on audience understanding. To build connections, communicate messages and listen to others, you need to understand them. What are they interested in? What motivates them? What have their experiences been? With this knowledge you can plan communications that are meaningful and move towards achieving your organisation’s objectives. Put yourself in their … Read more

How effective communication solves problems #1

I believe that effective communication solves problems by motivating people to take actions. But which problems? And which actions? To help my readers understand where communication can support them and their organisation, I have written a series of blog posts covering different problems you can solve by communicating well. This week I am looking at … Read more

3 tips for communicating with your internal customers

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

Comms training for Small Charities Coalition

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

Communications masterclass for charities

“It’s useful to have a structure to use for communications.” Charity delegate Today I ran a Communications Masterclass for charities on behalf of the Small Charities Coalition. During the half-day workshop we covered areas such as making the case for effective communication at your organisation, ensuring your communication is effective, how to build a strategic … Read more

Guest post: Becoming an IC trusted adviser

With the summer holidays drawing to an end, offices and workplaces will start to fill up again and it’s time to start (re)building working relationships. This month’s guest post comes from internal comms expert, Advita Patel, who shares some tips for becoming a trusted adviser. If you’ve ever worked as an Internal Communications professional you … Read more

Retro post: how to understand culture through tea

Since I work with a lot of different organisations, I get to work with many teams and in a variety of environments – the best way to understand their culture is to suss out the tea and coffee making facilities. Back in 2014 I wrote a blog about the things I’d learnt from the humble … Read more

Retro post: summer hols communication lessons

At this point, several weeks into the school summer hols, communication with children is not always at its best. But in 2013 – the first summer holiday I had experienced since my then-5-year-old daughter had started school – I was inspired to write this blog about the comms lessons that you can learn from interaction … Read more

Guest post: How to make difficult conversations easier

In this month’s guest post, positive psychologist, coach and trainer, Lucy Whitehall, shares some tips on improving workplace communication by making difficult conversations easier. It’s not uncommon to need to have a potentially difficult conversation in the workplace. What’s more common is the tendency to put off having these conversations; usually for fear of upsetting … Read more

How to communicate: a tip from Sir Terry

At the height of his broadcasting fame, Sir Terry Wogan was apparently asked how many listeners he had. He was the much-loved presenter of Wake up to Wogan, Radio 2’s popular breakfast show, at the time. His actual listening figure was around 10 million. But his answer to the question? “One.” Communication genius I am … Read more