INSPIRATION AND INSIGHT IN IC
Name 10 books, records, cities (choose your own category) that have had the biggest impact on your life. Compilations like this make some people groan and turn the page. Others immediately grab a pen (other scribing tools also available) and start compiling. I suspect many will first emit the groan and then begin the trawl through shelves, collections and memory vaults to produce their own list. It’s become a modern-day version of a Victorian parlour game. I mention it here because the publication of new volumes on internal communication has led me firstly to wonder which texts my fellow IC practitioners have on their own shelves and secondly which of those texts they would regard as essential reading for understanding internal communication.
Before naming names, though, it’s worth asking, who should we turn to for inspiration and insight? Can we truly model our working practices on texts that offer success in 10 key steps, seven proven habits or five easy pieces? Maybe we should look far beyond IC’s own rather petite parish in our quest for insights. Some draw on the Art of War (Sun Tzu, anyone?) or ancient philosophers as a source of strategic guidance. For others in our own professional world of trusted advisorship, employee engagement and leadership conferences, the classics may be a little too far removed in time and context (‘Another budget cut – what would Plato have done?’). Maybe we can learn more from the work- and home-spun wisdom of influential colleagues, friends or family. Everyone will have their own answer, from the universal to the local, from Confucius to their year nine English teacher.
I’d like to share a few of my own reading tips about IC, change and the world of work. There’s no countdown or order of importance. Nor is this an exhaustive list:
Understanding Organisations, Understanding Voluntary Organisations, Beyond Certainty and The Empty Raincoat Charles Handy, various dates 1976-1995, Practical understanding and reflective observations from a philosopher of work who coined the term ‘portfolio worker.’
Better Change: Best Practices for Transforming Your Organisation Price Waterhouse, 1995, Case examples a-plenty in this hard-headed and systematic real-world approach to corporate change.
Communicating Corporate Change Bill Quirke, 1996, Key text from the doyen of IC consultants.
Corporate Reputation: Managing the New Strategic Asset John Smythe, Colette Dorward, Jerome Reback, 1992, Strategic communication planning tips from a seminal consultancy.
Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change William Bridges, 2003, A fine source of insights about the human dimension of organisational change.
Loose: The Future of Business is Letting Go Martin Thomas, 2011, Engaging text about a working world moving from control to moderation mode.
Internal Communication: Bledcom 2011 Various, Proceedings from the 18th Bledcom symposium that brought a critical academic gaze to the world of IC.
Exploring Internal Communication: Towards Informed Employee Voice Kevin Ruck, 2012, An essential IC primer now in its second edition. Third edition due 2015. Finally, if you’re engulfed by the sheer volume of reports to write, leaders to coach, campaigns to lead and other stuff coming at you from all directions, Getting Things Done David Allen, 2011, will save you, not least from yourself.
