IABC World Presentation : Transmedia storytelling for internal communication

In the era of the remix and mashup culture, I am really excited to be presenting a session on two topics that need to meet: transmedia storytelling and organisational communication. The IABC World Conference in June has me presenting the following session:

The end of the story: Corporate narrative in a transmedia universe

 Traditional approaches to corporate narrative are being disrupted by the multiple forces of technology, social change, trust and a shift in the role of the corporation. In this environment the role of the communicator is shaping, telling and retelling the story of the company is shifting. Employees are co-creators, subject matter experts are curators and traditional business models become opportunities for collaboration. This session will explore:

  • The death of the corporate story
  • Sense making through social media
  • Co-creation as a model for true engagement
  • Empowering employees to own the narrative
  • How IC is the original transmedia communication strategy

As the conference approaches, I will add some pre reading here on the blog.

http://wc.iabc.com/sessions/the-end-of-the-story-corporate-narrative-in-a-transmedia-universe/

Build it and they will come, but design it and they will collaborate…

As Enterprise Social Networks become the ‘killer app’ for unlocking tacit information and enabling connections within organisations, there can be a tendency to take an organic approach to the relationships and networks that will emerge.  However, this 2007 (!) article from McKinsey & Company, describes the underlying structures of informal networks. Authored by Lowell Bryan, Eric Matson and Leigh Weiss, it is an essential foundation read for communicators and technologists striving to foster networks on their collaboration platforms, whether they be Yammer, Jive, Connections or other.

Harnessing the power of informal employee networks | McKinsey & Company.

Just as formal hierarchical structures define management roles, formal network structures define collaborative professional ones. In this way such networks can enable large companies to overcome the problems of very large numbers by creating small, focused communities of interest integrated within larger, more wide-ranging communities—for instance, subcommunities focused on different aspects of financial services, such as wholesale and retail banking.

This post first appeared on jonathanchamp.com

What do we mean by story?

As trends become fads and specialist practices become hot new things, definitions become increasingly important. I’ve written before on how the term ‘engagement’ has been stretched across the fields of human resources, marketing, digital, and employee communication to the point of near-meaninglessness.

‘Story’ is another of those terms. As I look at my various social feeds, RSS alerts, newsletters and journals, ‘story’ and ‘storytelling’ are everywhere.  But the idea of what a story is varies according to the context. This post, Story: A Definition, from the blog of Eager Eyes is a good example, describing the how data storytelling isn’t always telling the story of the data.

“The strength of visualization is not just to give you a story, but also give you a world. If you don’t agree with the story, or if you want to explore further, you can. Take the visualization and the data and explore for yourself.” Robert Kosara.

From the Melcrum Blog: Has employee engagement lost its humanity?

Engagement remains an essential topic for organisations and leaders. I recently contributed to an online debate on whether in the process, employee engagement has lost its humanity. This is an extract. For the full discussion, including Jane Sparrow’s response, see the Melcrum blog.

For the employee, engagement doesn’t happen at a conceptual level. Like trust, engagement for them is an accumulation of perceptions and experiences, relationships and interactions.

The intensity of these individual experiences – positive or negative – will determine their scoring on factors that describe how connected they feel to their work, whether they enjoy what they do, the degree to which they feel they make an impact, whether they are able to provide good customer service.

Workplaces can foster or impede this. Engagement in organizations – when we look beyond the drivers and the factors in the instruments that measure it – consists of the accumulation of these human experiences.

– See more at: https://www.melcrum.com/blog/has-employee-engagement-lost-its-humanity#sthash.zuaDF7oe.dpuf