Internal Comm Best Practices

What an exciting day I had yesterday!

I was invited to give a two hour long seminar on Internal Best Practices to members of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce as part of their summer series, Chamber U.

My motivation for this topic comes from the merger that my company went through in 2008. The company formerly known as Blesco was purchased by a Germany headquartered company, viastore. Now viastore we have combined two companies and cultures here in the US and we also regularly communicate with our colleagues in Europe. Many exciting challenges have popped up as a result.

Simultaneously I began my Masters in Communication at Grand Valley State University. As part of the program I am doing three independent studies. I decided one would be around exploring internal communication at various other successful companies while incorporating my own research and experience.

I thought sharing this information with others was a great next step and a good motivating factor for me to kick this study into gear!

So far I have met with four area companies:
A medium sized manufacturer
A large insurance company
A small public relations firm
A large bank

The information I've gathered so far has been very interesting.

As a first step to the seminar I used a fun tool I recently discovered called "Mind Mapping" to understand and map out everyone's expectations of the seminar. We then re-visited that at the end to make sure we did touch on all the expectations.

Earlier in the summer I attended a Chamber U session given by Pondera Advisors - a leadership training company here in Grand Rapids. The speaker lead us through an activity where we thought about our own personalities and how we best respond and communicate.

I thought this was an important next step for my lesson.

We must first examine and think about ourselves before we can begin to know our audience. How do I best communicate? What do I respond to? In what situations do I prefer what medium? Once you go through this self-realization process it's then easier to understand the messages you're sending out and then how others are receiving them.
This exercise also demonstrated one method for better understanding your audience. Each participant could then take this activity back and present it or demonstrate it to their internal audiences to better understand how to communicate with them.

The next part of the seminar entailed information sharing about the main topic areas under internal communication realizing that it was high level information that everyone needed to then take back and think about how to apply in their own organizations.
Here are a few topics:
Why? What is the importance of internal communication and what can a strategic plan foster within a group
Know your Audience - who is it that you're trying to communicate to
Mediums - discussion of the different forms and tools to use for internal comm
Relevant Messaging - developing messaging that is relevant for the specific groups you're communicating to
The Future - how is the changing workplace going to impact internal communication?

Lastly I went through the take aways I've had so far from my meetings with the four companies.
Here are a few highlights:
Identification of the natural process of how internal comm grows and changes as the company does, i.e. starts out as an HR function, addition of marketing, two channels then integration into one.
Employee Engagement - how to ask and involve your employees in the process
Top-down Communication methods: CEO Lunches, Regularly scheduled company wide meetings, writing a column in the newsletter, having buy in on all programming
Internal BEFORE External Comm Focus - creation of ambassadors!
Share the Good News too!

The program was very engaging and well received. Discussion and ideas were fostered.

I came back and share my excitement with viastore's President. We then mind mapped a whole plan for how I would continue to develop and research this topic engaging our customer and supplier base along with those I was already talking to.

This is a topic that is relevant and important for any company and anyone. Communication and relating to those around us are what makes us valuable and indispensable employees!

Stay tuned for more results!

Please message me if you'd be willing to help me with this process either by allowing me to interview you about what your company is doing or by allowing me to present and engage your employees with my findings.