Einstein once said "If you can explain it simply, you don’t understand it"
Earlier this summer, I presented a Secrets from Hollywood Storytelling Workshop at the IoIC Festival. It was a busy, jam-packed session and great to have the opportunity to chat with delegates and hear a bit of feedback on the current landscape and the challenges they face. With those conversations in mind, I was interested to read the latest IoIC Report - the IC Index 2024.
It’s full of great insights - too many to go into here, but there’s a couple of big takeaways that resonate with conversations I had at the festival:
>> The quality of internal comms is directly linked to engagement Index scores. High scores for excellent internal comms. This also goes for employee retention and levels of trust during periods of change.
>> TRUST IS AN ISSUE
I’ll start with ‘excellent’ internal comms because that’s what the IoIC is all about, followed closely by trust because both came up in a conversation I had with a strategist who came along to our workshop.
It was lunchtime, after our session, and I was in the main marquee grabbing some salad and couscous when he sat down with me for a natter. He’d enjoyed the Hollywood Storytelling Workshop and valued the reminders of some key elements to steal from savvy screenwriters (Get’em with a great hook, use conflict/tension and powerful imagery). He said it was great to re-engage with story principles - so often messaging can get stripped back to facts and he’d valued the fresh perspectives that came from working with people outside of his organisation.
I said I was surprised there was so much self censorship at the workshop. My fellow presenter, our Toucan creative partner Rob Steeles said it felt like people were squashing their creative thinking at the stage when no ideas are bad ideas, because they’d trained themselves to second guess their reactions and focus on what would get positive feedback from their immediate stakeholders. One lady told me she couldn’t get her boss and his dislike of anything even mildly provocative out of her head, the very same boss who would also be demanding greater cut through and increased dwell time!
We talked about brand guidelines and keeping messaging consistent and the trap of repetition. If the brand is too rigid and always contains the same words and phrases, people switch off - the very opposite of high engagement.
>> TRUST AND FAMILY SECRETS
Still chewing over the balance of coherent, brand identity and arresting, attention grabbing content, my new friend, the strategist, said something that I promised I was going to steal because I liked his analogy so much. He said, sometimes in a company, particularly one managing changes, it feels like there’s a family secret that no one mentions. Everyone suspects something has happened or is happening, and some people definitely know more than others, but a lot of people just experience generalised unease.
Family secret - yikes! Talk about using storytelling to get the message across. My stomach lurched just hearing the phrase, but he’s right isn’t he? In times where change is relentless across all industries (and right now it is), internal communications is acknowledged as the key way to build and maintain trust and belief within a company. And trust and belief are essential to productivity, engagement and retention. Trust because people want to know they are being kept fully informed and belief which comes from employees having a clear understanding of the company’s goals and strategies and their own personal contribution to those goals. No family secrets, just open communication.
>> WHO CREATES THIS TRUST IS IMPORTANT TOO
The IoIC report notes that employees are more likely to trust those close to them, their immediate colleagues and their line manager, but further up the company, trust in more senior leaders declines rapidly and that is a big problem because leaders set the tone. The message and messenger both have an impact on what people actually hear.
A great leader is almost always a storyteller. Styles may vary. They might be inspirational or down to earth, quirky or bombastic, as long as their authenticity shines through they’re going to set the tone and…
> Cut through the noise and simplify the message
> Inform, engage and empower employees
> Build belief and trust
> Ensure employees understand and care about their personal contribution to company strategy and goals.
> Listen to the feedback from the workforce
>> STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE
Do comms professionals have the right information to do a great job?
Comms professionals go into comms because they’re good with words and understand powerful imagery. They’re creative and ambitious for their campaigns. They want to make a tangible difference, but here’s the rub. What exactly is being asked of these professional communicators? Impressive metrics, impact and positive changes in sentiment? The question is, are they being given all the pieces of the puzzle? Are they clear what the overarching business strategy and story is or has it become many different stories?
I saw people tie themselves into knots because they were trying to both deliver on a brief we’d designed purely for the purposes of our Hollywood Storytelling workshop and yet, in the back of their minds, they were tuning into the nuances and tastes of their immediate bosses who were themselves working with their own interpretation of what the big company message was.
Einstein once said. "IF YOU CAN'T EXPLAIN IT SIMPLY, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT"
A business with a muddled message can definitely still function, it just doesn’t function very efficiently.
TIME TO ADDRESS EXCELLENT INTERNAL COMMS AND BUSINESS SUCCESS
If internal communications is so integral to business success, why do so few internal comms teams feel completely aligned to the overarching company strategy? If they were crystal clear about the big picture, they’d have consistency, less clutter and better cut-through across all channels and touch-points across the business. It'd be cost effective because when everyone has their story straight that builds confidence, trust and speeds up the workflow.
As a Strategic Storytelling Agency we’re often contractually obliged to be a little bit of an ‘enfant terrible’. We pose searching questions and push boundaries, but if that’s what it takes to get to both the business strategy and all the internal communications in healthy alignment, it’s not just valuable, it’s essential for business success.
WORKSHOP WITH US
If you want to change up your communications and get your stories straight, we have lots of creative and strategic workshops that can help. Book a call in with Alex Redfarn, our Strategic Partnerships Manager, and we’ll help you get your story straight.
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