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  • Finding the right direction
    Internal communication is in a bad way. Communicators across the board complain that their expertise and contribution are not sufficiently valued by top management. And employee opinion surveys commonly reveal low satisfaction scores with communication.
  • How to get your CEO talking (productively) with employees
    Are you frustrated because your CEO won't take the time to communicate directly with employees? And when he or she does, are you mortified at the result? The author tells how to convince your CEO to communicate regularly with employees, and coach him or her to communicate effectively.
  • Effective communication starts at the top (article)
    Research shows that CEO communication is likely to be the most cost effective way to improve internal communication. In this presentation to the Strategic Communication Management Asia-Pacific Summit in Sydney in November 2004 Rodney Gray and Larry Robertson outline how communicators can support CEO communication.
  • The fine art of the communication audit
    Communication audits can turn up disappointing news, but even lackluster results are a baseline for improvement. In this feature, Rodney Gray talks about recent data from Australia.
  • Using research in Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong: a case study
    Elizabeth Armstrong at Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong undertook an internal communication improvement process with initial measurement to identify the top improvement priorities, and measurement afterwards to ascertain to what extent perceptions of communication had improved. The successful project received a number of major awards: IABC Gold Quill and Business Issues Awards, Golden World Award from the International Public Relations Association, and the Asian PR Week Award for Internal Communication.
  • Employee Surveys Gone Wrong
    The IABC asked me to write an article, hopefully a funny one, about things that I?ve heard that have gone wrong when clients have attempted to do their own surveys using Zoomerang or Survey Monkey. I responded that I could not do this as my clients engaged me to help with their surveys, being clever enough to know that surveying employees is best done by experienced independent specialists. But I indicated that I could do an article about things I?ve seen go wrong with surveys, even though my clients are leading corporations with internationally recognised brand names. This is the result. It was published in IABC?s Communication World Online, May 2009.
  • How to manage internal communication - but will it win an award?
    Having criticised the IABC Gold Quill Awards in the November 2005 newsletter for an incredible focus on programs and campaigns (at least in the brochure), I promised I?d outline how to win a Gold Quill, Golden Target (or whatever) award for quality internal communication without being distracted by the constant delivery of communication programs.
  • Internal communication awards - a help or hindrance?
    Like you, I get invitations to seek fame and glory by entering various internal communication award competitions. But do these awards help you do a better job? I'd argue that unless you truly understand what are the key drivers of internal communication effectiveness, awards competitions may lead you in quite the wrong direction.
  • Internal communication fails the test
    The International Public Relations Association, commonly known as IPRA, is a 50 year old, truly international association (with members in almost 100 countries). It is based in the UK and focuses on professional development and international networking among PR people. I was asked to write an article for the December 2006 online newsletter on my thoughts about the state of internal communication. As you can read in this article, I still firmly believe that communicators working inside organisations still have a longe way to go. However, the research that confirms this also points the way forward.
  • Measuring Behaviour Change: The Real Destination
    The ultimate success or otherwise of communication depends on how far it moves employee behavior. Here, Rodney Gray argues that unless we measure the impact on behavior - where the rubber hits the road - our efforts will fall short of true evaluation.
  • Open Book Management
    I recently recommended to a client that it consider using Open-Book Management (OBM). In my view this is almost certainly the best communication approach organisations can adopt to dramatically improve productivity. It would be perfect for this client - a private firm with some hundreds of employees and a popular profit-share program. Despite being around for about 20 years, featuring on the front page of the Australian Financial Review some years ago, and being enormously successful in many American private and public sector organisations, OBM has not really achieved the level of popularity it deserves, especially outside the US.
  • Reputation v Brand
    When I presented my paper on Internal Branding at a conference in 2005 a participant suggested that brand was essentially the same as reputation, rather than quite separate and distinct, if related, things as I'd stressed. Because I was to conduct a workshop on the subject later during the conference I spent some time exploring the issue. In this discussion page I show that incredibly popular brands can belong to (and be the same as) organisations on the nose for their corporate reputations.
  • Ten Deadly Sins of Surveying
    Why do so many people think it's really easy to survey employees? I've seen some shockers recently. Put together with the help of my expert colleague Geoff Alford these guidelines many help.