Author: jonathanchamp

#writing #comms #internalcomms #leadership #engagement #IABC #csr #collaboration #story #screenwriting #media #change | opinion = own

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

 

And we are back…

Following an exciting two years as Research and Content Director for Melcrum Asia Pacific, I am pleased to report I will be continuing my consulting work as Meaning Business.

In the past two years, I have had a fantastic opportunity to work with leading communication practitioners globally. In the Asia Pacific region, we delivered in-house briefings to ASX25 companies, curated three Summits on employee and digital communication and facilitated the Introduction to Internal Communication (which I created) and Effective Change Communication programs.

I will continue to deliver a range of in-house programs for Melcrum such as Leadership Communication for Managers.