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Demystifying internal communication

Internal communication and employee engagement consultant, lecturer and author with 10+ years industry experience and 4 award wins. I can help you understand the world of internal communication and employee engagement and level up your communication skills. My weekly newsletter, The Curious Route, gives you actionable insights to improve your communication skills and understand how to improve employee engagement in your organisation.

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Internal comms can be a lonely job 🔥 The Curious Route

Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader, and this week's comes from a senior internal communications specialist in Australia. "I've been in internal comms for years and I'm good at what I do, but I work on my own and lately I've started to feel like I've plateaued. There's nobody around me who really gets the work, I've no one to bounce ideas off, no one to learn from, no one in my corner. How do you keep growing in this field when you're doing it solo?" I...

Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's comes from someone who's clearly feeling the squeeze, and I suspect a lot of you will resonate with this question: "My leadership team is completely sold on AI and clearly have an expectation that it'll make everything faster and easier, especially for us in the comms team. But sometimes I can't tell if AI is actually helping us or just adding more work and tools to the pile. How are comms teams getting...

Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's question comes from a Director of Internal Communications in New Zealand who wrote: "Presenting to senior leaders is the part of my job I find hardest. I want to come across as credible and strategic, but I worry I either drown them in detail or fail to connect what I'm doing to what they actually care about. How do I get better at communicating with leaders?" Thank you for sending this in, you'd be...

Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's comes from an Internal Comms Lead in Bristol who asks: "One of our big initiatives this year is to launch a new set of company core values. I haven't done this before and want to do a good job. Have you any advice for rolling out values so that they actually stick?" Ahhhh I must be a total nerd because this topic actually makes me so excited. Is it just me that loves big meaty tricky projects like this?...

Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's comes from an internal comms manager in Germany who's wrestling with something I think you'll all recognise: "One thing I often struggle with is saying no to colleagues, especially someone senior to me. I'm a manager and I can't imagine saying no to a leader in the company, but sometimes they ask me to do things that I don't think are right, and I really should figure out a way to say no. How can I do this...

Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's question comes from an Internal Comms Manager in Manchester who asks: "Our line managers are our most important comms channel but I find them hard to work with. Half the time they don't cascade my messages, or they do but they do it badly. I'm at a loss. Any tips on how to work with them to improve things?" Working with line managers is one of those internal comms themes that comes up again and again. It's...

Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I take a question from a reader. This week's question comes all the way from beautiful New Zealand: "My company has a lot of change coming this year and I'll be leading the comms for it. Our company has a lot of frontline workers and I rely heavily on their managers to communicate effectively and get their people on board with changes (no easy feat!). I'm eager to use AI to help me as much as I can to make the work more manageable. Any ideas for how I...

Hey Reader, In a break from normal programming, today I'm not answering a question from a reader. Instead I shall indulge your curiosity and give you an insider look at how The Curious Tribe Global Gathering unfolded last week in Barcelona. This was our first in-person event and although I had a feeling it would be good, you just never know what will happen on the day. Let's have a look at what happened, shall we? (Spoiler: it was bloody AMAZING) What we set out to achieve Twenty of us flew...

Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. Today’s question comes from a Comms Manager based in Belgium, who writes: "I should probably be using AI more in my work but I feel a bit stuck on where to start. Everyone seems to be ahead of me and I feel like I'm falling behind, it’s like a mental block for me at this point. What should I do?" This is a really interesting take on the AI topic, one that I am keen to talk about. I get lots of questions about using AI...

Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I take a question from a reader. This week’s question feels timely, it comes from a Head of Internal Comms in Belfast: “I’ve been tasked with planning our annual leaders offsite. It’s a two day event and each year it’s a bit stuffy and dull, I feel like I have an opportunity to do something different this year, do you have any inspo or ideas?” Well lucky you because I’ve spent the last 6 months designing my own in-person event for The Curious Tribe so...