As part of my ‘giving back to the community’ activities, I am helping out the PR students at Deakin University in Australia by recording interviews with experienced internal communicators.

Why? Because I believe that the new PR young guns will potentially miss out on exposure to wisdom about a HUGE part of their publics and it behoves we business communicators to ‘wise them up’.

I am looking for seasoned (and only lightly salted) internal communicators who are willing to be interviewed (probably over Skype) for about 30 minutes.

The questions I would put to you are some/all of the following:

• Why do you think internal communications are an important part of the overall communication/PR mix?

• What method is the best for communicating to employees?

• There are some experienced business commentators who say that despite the focus on it, ‘engagement’ is worse now than, say, ten years ago. Do you find this? If it’s true, what are the reasons and what can be done about it?

• Does the size of the company make a difference in how you communicate with employees?

• In your experience is it possible for there to be too much communication?

• There is a saying that everyone sees themselves as being a ‘marketer’, or at least has an opinion; does the same mindset apply to ‘communication’ (i.e. everyone sees themselves as a brilliant communicator) and what is the most effective way of dealing with it?

• What was your biggest internal communication success?

• What was your biggest internal communication ‘learning experience’?

• Finally, any last words for students of communication/PR who may be considering adding internal communications into their skillset?

If you are able to help out and are willing to be ruthlessly grilled to the point of tears give of your wisdom, then please either email me: Lee at LeeHopkins dot com or else leave a comment on this post.

I feel it vitally important that we educate and promote our passion to others, especially those who are about to enter into the giddy world of PR/comms and who may not be aware of how vitally important good employee communication is.

Many thanks in advance,
Lee

I live near Richmond, Virginia USA, whose mayor is Doug Wilder. He is an historic figure in many ways — first elected African-American governor in the United States, one-time presidential candidate, trying to raise funds to build a National African-American Slavery Museum, and now the first mayor of Richmond since voters changed the city charter back to a popularly-elected mayor rather than one appointed by city council.

One thing you can say about Doug Wilder is that he is unafraid of making bold changes, sometimes facing great resistance in the process. I don’t always agree with his ideas, but one of his latest is brilliant. And I’ve seen it before — in my previous life as a communicator in the corporate world.

This week Mayor Wilder appointed a group called the Neighborhood Roundtable. Each of the city’s council districts has a representative on the Roundtable. Their function is to serve as a communication conduit. They will meet regularly with citizens to hear their problems, concerns, ideas and complaints and then pass the information along to the mayor and their city council members. They also will share information with residents. The Neighborhood Roundtable is not intended to circumvent council members or other city leaders, but to enhance communication between citizens and City Hall. Members of the Roundtable are not politicians, but regular folks who have served in leadership roles in various neighborhood associations.

The Roundtable concept works. I know because I saw it in action in the early 1990s when I managed employee communication at an AT&T manufacturing plant in Richmond. The general manager — whose huge ego and brash demeanor actually reminds me of Doug Wilder — wanted to improve communication throughout the business. He and the senior managers reporting to him each held hour-long Roundtable sessions twice a month. No topic was taboo. People brought their problems, concerns, ideas and complaints — and, in fact, people who we called “committed complainers” even left with a contract of sorts with the senior manager to work together and solve whatever problem they had passionately discussed during the Roundtable.

Over the years, Roundtables led to many improvements in the business, from quality problems to ergonomic concerns. I’m convinced the open communication helped make things run more smoothly when time came for labor negotiations, major process changes, leadership transitions and the eventual closing of the business due to changing technologies.

And here’s an interesting footnote: One of the members of Mayor Wilder’s Neighborhood Roundtable was an employee at that AT&T plant and attended those Roundtables. I’m sure she’s happy to see the concept being used to improve communication in her city.