Presented by The Curious Tribe Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I tackle a question from a reader. This week’s question comes from an Internal Communications Manager in Toronto who asks: My company does budget planning in August for the following year and I figure I should shoot my shot and ask for some budget for internal comms. My team is stretched thin and I know we could achieve a lot more with proper investment. But I haven't written a business case for budget before and don't...
10 days ago • 9 min read
Presented by The Curious Tribe Hey Reader, Every week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader who works in internal comms, just like you. This week’s question comes from an internal communications manager at a finance company in London: “Joanna, I’ve been playing around with AI a bit but I could do with some advice on how to use it better or how it could help me in my role as internal comms manager. I see lots of people talking about it online, but most examples seem generic. Any...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Presented by The Curious Tribe Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I take a question from a reader. This week let's dive into this question which came in from an internal communications manager in Germany: “Hey your content is so helpful, thank you so much. My question is about ways to listen to employees. I like the idea of doing short focus groups with employees once a quarter so I can get a better sense of what they’re thinking and what’s working, but I’ve never done a focus group...
about 1 month ago • 8 min read
Presented by The Curious Tribe Hey Reader, Last week in this newsletter I shared how I experimented with text-free slides for my keynote speech at the Connect25 conference in the US. I had a flood of emails in response asking me to share the content of the speech and asking if it’s available online anywhere. Well jeepers, wow thank you for your interest, I loved getting all your emails and for some reason I was super surprised at the level of interest. The bad news is that there is no...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Presented by The Curious Tribe Hey Reader, Last week I visited the US to deliver the opening keynote speech at the Connect25 conference hosted by the Public Relations Society of America. I saw this as a good opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone and try something new with my presentation approach. I mean a keynote is a big deal, right? Especially when you're being flown halfway around the world to deliver it. It needed to be GREAT. So I thought about what I should do, and...
about 2 months ago • 8 min read
Presented by The Frontline Summit Hey Reader, This month I’ve been inundated with reader questions about frontline communications. Lots of you are wondering about how to reach frontline workers, how to bridge the disconnect between frontline workers and leaders, how to reduce the “us vs them” feeling when you have frontline workers and corporate desk-based workers. So let’s talk about that today and I’ll give you an invite to a free event to help you improve your knowledge and your skills in...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Presented by The Curious Tribe Hey Reader, Last week, I explored why communications professionals find it so difficult to say “no” and I suggested there are a lot of hidden costs of always saying yes to stakeholders. If you missed that edition, you can read it here. And I promised to follow it up this week with some solutions. We know it's super hard to say no but how can we change this behaviour? It's really hard! I've got you. Don't worry. One thing I want to say at the outset is that if...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Presented by The Curious Tribe Hey Reader, After more than a decade in internal communications, 12 years in-house and now nearly 2 years as a consultant, I've noticed a problem that seems to cut across organisation size, industry and culture. It's a problem so fundamental and so ingrained in our profession that many of us don't even question it anymore. We simply cannot say no. Let's look at an example I'm sure is familiar to many of you. It's Monday afternoon, your proactive plan for the...
3 months ago • 6 min read
Presented by The Curious Tribe Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. Here's the one I'm going to tackle today: “How can line managers support cascading internal comms messaging and making it relevant to their teams? How can / should the internal comms team support them with this? I work in a large organisation with a large number of line managers with varying levels of ability, competency and levels of engagement in communicating with their teams beyond...
3 months ago • 6 min read