People in the centre of the new world
The second day of the CIPR National Conference #CIPRconf20 was a day dedicated to PEOPLE. I was honoured to be asked to step in at the last moment and co-chair the day with Advita Patel and facilitate three lively Q&A sessions. The quality of speakers was excellent which made my job easy... my cheeks hurt from smiling so much!
The CIPR National Conference 2020 took place over three days, in a new virtual format. With a line up of 26 speakers sharing their thoughts on communication in the new world and their experiences on how communication changed as a result of the COVID pandemic.
To me, people need to be in the centre of every organisation. The topics and stories shared this week showed just how the connection to humans has kept the wheels turning through the pandemic and will do well beyond.
Here were the topics and my summary of some themes that came up:
1) Team management and virtual working with Jenni Field, David Macdonald and Angela Scaffidi.
Some people and teams just won't let a pandemic hold them down. Collaboration is essential, internal, external, HR, operations customers, partners all need each other.
Uncertainty is the new certainty. Change and transformation happens over and over and going with the flow of change with that in mind helps to build resilience and some muscles to not get stuck in one place... keep moving forward. The four rooms of change is a model I love, the fluid and circular motions that help us to navigate change make this a very helpful model. Angela’s presentation of it was really engaging!
2) Wellbeing with Mandy Rutter and Emma Mamo.
Mental health is health! We need to keep taking care of ourselves and others at all times not just tough times. Our culture or real care is essential to make sure we can notice when we move from healthy stress to strain.
There is a role here for leaders, managers and communicators. We might not have the skills as leaders and managers to lead and communicate with emotional intelligence, so we need to build it. The most senior leaders have the most need for but lowest tendency toward wellbeing.
There is trauma behind the tiredness and the pandemic has highlighted every inequality that existed before. 7% of people are spending time reflecting on achievements and only 11% of people are asking for help.
So many practical tips were shared… my favourite was HALT - When you are stressed … check…Are you you HUNGRY, ANGRY, LONELY or TIRED
3) Internal communication panel with Naomi Jones, Annique Simpson, Bill Hamilton and Anna Russell. In our virtual world there is still so much that is possible to connect on a human level. The frontline should be front of mind to enable business success that means that visibility is essential. For communications to work, we need to get the drum beat right and communicators need to be with decision makers while they are making decisions. Misalignment can result in a tsunami of messages to an overwhelmed audience.
Leadership and management with skills to listen, empathise and deliver negative messages is essential because of our tendency toward negativity and our need to take care of those taking care of others. This change is not just a surface change, it has shifted the ground.
This was just day 2 and the rest of the conference was a delight to watch and take part in.
Thank you to the the speakers I met and those I didn’t the organisers and people behind the scenes, the CIPR committee. Be sure the check out the content and the conversations #CIPRConf20
