The Future of Internal Communication

Spending months underwater will inevitably teach you a huge amount about the role of communication in effective teamwork. And this is what this episode’s guest learned during his military career serving as a US Navy Nuclear Submarine Officer. Ever since, Jon Rennie has been fascinated by leadership communication. With various civilian leadership roles under his belt, today, in addition to his day-job as CEO of Peak Demand Inc, Jon enthusiastically writes, podcasts and keynotes about leadership and leadership communication. We were keen to hear his ideas and hope you’ll agree this conversation is one of our most thought-provoking episodes yet.

To mark World Environment Day, it’s a special treat to hear from co-authors of the best-selling book Sustainable Marketing, Michelle Carvill and Gemma Butler. Since their book was published in early 2021, Michelle and Gemma have gone on to host the ‘Can Marketing Save the Planet’ podcast series. This has led to many fascinating conversations across the marketing domain. When organisations have such a primary role to play in the race to net-zero, we were keen to hear Michelle and Gemma’s views on the evolution of responsible business and the opportunities for both marketing and internal communication as we push towards a carbon-neutral economy.

Bill Quirke was our very first guest, when we launched this podcast back in 2021. As author of the celebrated book, ‘Making the Connections: Using Internal Communication to Turn Strategy Into Action’, he’s an influential figure within the IC field. Given all that’s unfolded in the past two years, we wanted to catch up with Bill to hear his latest reflections on the risks and opportunities for the internal communication profession. With so much change and adaptation required by organisations today, what might internal communication look like five years from now? Tune in to hear from our profession’s most seasoned expert. 

In 2017, Georgie Mack co-founded the mental health charity Minds @ Work. Her goal was to normalise long-overdue conversations around mental health in the workplace. She also wanted employers to examine how their workplaces were contributing to anxiety, stress and mental ill-health. We’ve come a long way since then. Today workforce health and wellbeing are priority agenda items for any discerning internal communication and engagement team. But a primary societal fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic is a marked rise in anxiety and low mood. In this special episode, recorded to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, Jen, Dom and Cat chat with Georgie about what more employers should be doing to address mental health issues at work. And of course, the opportunity for internal communicators to add even more value in this vital area.

The 2023 UK labour market continues to perplex policy makers and frustrate employers. A perfect storm of a shrinking workforce and chronic skills shortages mean it’s harder than ever to recruit, and more crucially, retain, the staff needed to maintain organisational stability. To better understand the trends and undercurrents, we were delighted to welcome the CEO of the UK’s Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), Neil Carberry. Tune in to hear Neil’s thoughts about the current state of employment in the UK and the role internal communication has to play in improving hiring outcomes across the board. 

It’s hard to analyse the present and future of internal communication without some understanding of its past. We’re thrilled the IoIC is partnering a new research project, funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The Institutional History of Internal Communication has been awarded funding to explore the value internal communication has added to some of our most well-known organisations since the 1880s. In this episode, Jen, Dom and Cat welcome Dr. Michael Heller, Professor Michael Rowlinson and Dr. Joe Chick. They learn more about the long history of internal communication project and what this research project hopes to achieve for both industry and internal communication professionals.

We love this conversation with Gabriella Braun. A skilled coach and facilitator, Gabriella works with leaders, teams and organisations to explore interpersonal relationships and help people understand more about human behaviour. Her debut book, ‘All That We Are’ delves into the complexity of group dynamics. Through her work Gabriella has seen first-hand just how damaging  the workplace can be to people’s mental health. Tune in to this episode to hear what Gabriella has to say about team work and, more importantly, what this means for internal communicators.

With a PhD in social anthropology, Dr. Alex Gapud turned our heads at the 2022 IoIC festival when he gave a fascinating talk about going beyond engagement survey data to understand the human stories behind the statistics. We were keen to hear more. In this episode, Jen, Dom and Cat chat with Alex about the importance of hearing individual stories at work and the crucial part this plays in building relationship and strengthening team dynamics. As we hurtle towards very different work futures, there’s a lot we can learn from the field of anthropology to become better internal communicators. Alex shares his insights about the expanding opportunity for the profession.

Welcome to Series 6, Episode 4 of the Future of Internal Communication podcast, brought to you by the Institute of Internal Communication. In this episode Dom, Jen and Cat are in conversation with change practitioner and engagement influencer Céline Schillinger. Author of the 2022 critically acclaimed book ‘Dare to Un-Lead’, Céline tells us what led her to write the book, why organisations need to shift tack and why building inclusive, engaged communities of practice at work is key to organisational agility. All community building requires world-class communication. This episode highlights the opportunity for internal communicators.

Welcome to Series 6, Episode 4 of the Future of Internal Communication podcast, brought to you by the Institute of Internal Communication. The pandemic and hybrid work have triggered a mass re-evaluation of how we work. It’s becoming clear that reaching a ‘new normal’ will take years to resolve. Many organisations have started to re-examine standardised work practices and experiment with alternative ways of working. Between June and December 2022, 70 UK organisations participated in the world’s largest ever trial of a 4-day working week. With results of the pilot revealed this week, we wanted to chat with Joe Ryle – Director of the 4-Day Week Campaign. In this special bonus episode, Joe explained the background behind the campaign for a 4-day work week and shared his views on where the trend for new working patterns is headed. Most importantly, we discussed the opportunity for internal communication professionals to help re-shape how we work, to the benefit of all.