resources.

09 May 2014

IC excellence – six strands for smarter working: IoIC Live 2014 series

Following the recent IoIC Live 2014 conference, we had just too many interesting points to take away from the speakers. So we have made series of blogs, one for each speaker, that will be posted on Storyboard over the next few days.

Second up on the day, Russell Grossman, Director of Communications at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills discussed leading a new drive for excellence in communication within Government.

IC excellence: six strands for smarter working

Following on with his thoughts from the BT speakers on language he said the key was to ‘write as you speak not speak as you write’.

For the topic at hand he opened with discussing changes in the world of business, how individuals have gone from ‘deference’ to ‘reference’ meaning that now they won’t just do something just because someone in authority tells them to, they instead need to be given a reason – an opinion that some may question.

He showed a short video about being part of the Government Communication Service with Sean Larkins, Head of Government Communication Policy and Capability at Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office.

He discussed the IC Excellence program – #ICExcellence – and the IC Space, a public guide to IC for government professionals. The IC Space has a wealth of information, not least discussing what internal communications is for, what it does and looking at four different levels – vision and leadership, engaging managers, hearing staff voice and organisational integrity.

It will be fully launched in July 2014, with a line manager’s toolkit also in development at the moment.

Russell wants all communicators to have done a spell in Internal Communications, in an aim to raise the profile and perceived importance of it. He also believes that internal communications is too important to leave just to the internal communicators – the leaders in the organisation are responsible for providing the strategic narratives and ensuring employee voice.

Finally, Russell mentioned seeing the measurement of change as looking back in five years’ time and believing we could have never done it in a different way.

Click here to see the IoIC’s blog – Raising standards in IC.

Our IoIC Live 2014 series

Some of the best bits from Twitter #IoICLive14