I’ve always found it helpful to read around and beyond the subject in order to understand it better, whatever ‘the subject’ may be. Scenes of people escaping theatres of war, oppression or economic misery to seek refuge or a better life elsewhere can be understood on an immediate level (imagine if that was you...) This immediate sensory and emotional response helps us to locate those searing pictures of large-scale human need somewhere where our brains can absorb and deal with them.

This gives us the personal resources (empathy, impetus, compassion) to fight the fire, by taking action, perhaps by responding to a charity appeal, by lobbying the people who command the resources and decision-making powers that can effect change or simply by talking about it and exchanging opinions with those around us.

Beyond the immediacy of this or any change-inducing event, though, is the need to understand the underlying causes that have led to this moment. It’s about studying that fire, learning from it so that you can respond better next time. At this point a little humility is called for. When we communicators might struggle to exert our influence on organisations of a few thousand people, it may sound delusional to imply that we have the power to mitigate a human tragedy unfolding on the scale of a refugee crisis. However, if we do make an effort to understand the wider context in which these or other momentous events happen, we can at least form conclusions about the environment we’re in.

Still with me? Good. Even so, you may wonder how this relates to IC. There are two answers. The first is that it’s wholly relevant to IC practitioners helping workforces comprehend and adapt to change. The second is that it isn’t relevant but that’s fine because sometimes things touch our moral core on such a scale that they deserve our attention and a human response, whoever we might be and whatever we do in our working lives.

And now a hopefully not-too-tenuous link to some comments about the newly-launched British Standard BS76000 – Valuing People in Organisations. It is a quality standard against which to measure how well organisations value the people who work for them.

The basis of BS76000 is that people are an organisation’s biggest asset. The new standard sets out high-level requirements for a management system for valuing people, with a focus on process and measurement. At its heart is a recognition of how important workplace relationships are to organisational success. As a management system standard, BS76000 provides a framework for organisations to put processes in place to help to sustain those relationships. This isn’t exclusively IC territory but among the 12 core themes factored into the drafting of BS76000 were ‘involvement, voice and engagement’ and these certainly are on the concourse at IC Grand Central. BS76000 also stresses the importance of encouraging and enabling employee feedback, another IC tenet.

For me, BS76000 marks a gradual sea-change in attitude, as organisations increasingly assess the quality of relationships with their employees on a par with other core organisational systems. It’s also another sign of a traditionally ‘soft’ management discipline acquiring a harder edge and an emphasis on measurement, review and timely changes in approach when needed. BS76000 recognises that the fundamental principles of valuing people apply in all types and sizes of organisation, and that senior leaders have a pivotal role in setting the right tone and priorities. That’s true in conflicts, too.

Steve Doswell is chief executive of the Institute of Internal Communication