President of the IoIC, Suzanne Peck, says change is due in internal comms, but communicators can prepare themselves to change with the industry

“The world doesn’t need internal communication. Communication is needed, engagement is needed, but not the function. You have to reinvent yourselves.”

There was a sharp intake of breath in the room from the 130 or so people at May’s annual IoIC conference when viral change expert Dr. Leandro Herrero spoke these words.

Not needed? Redundant? Us? We’re only just congratulating ourselves that our jobs aren’t likely to be replaced by robots.

His view is that with the advances in technology, the functionality of communication is needed, but not the function. The same way that hotels are needed, but not hotel chains, banking is needed, but not bank buildings.

We should be ‘rehumanising’ the language we use (speaking to each other like humans) and be talking about employee engagement as a people- focused activity, not as something that makes people more productive. Reclaiming informal discussions and fighting the reductionism epidemic – stop simplifying and condensing things into bullet points, as some things just can’t be simplified – are also on his list.

His advice to ask, “Why on earth are you still here?” as a key question in the employee engagement survey was contentious, but did have most people nodding in agreement.

Leandro’s advice is that we need to reinvent ourselves. He applauds our appetite for change, but says we need to be revolutionaries, to occupy and claim uncharted territory at work and to develop a new set of skills to survive.

This sounds pretty scary. But if we agree with the need for reinvention, these would be the steps to take.

Knowing where you want to be surely comes first. I think we already have a good sense of where internal communication is going. It’s following the organisations that we work with into a knowledge-based economy where people, the ideas they have, and their ability to share and grow them, is of more value than their ability to perform a particular task.

Social technology is giving us access to an ever-growing pool of user-generated content. We should seek out this valuable seam of internal social commentary and add value by refining and widely sharing the human stories within it. Leaders also like us to be on hand and are leaning on us more to help them join the conversationwith employees and consumers.

I believe it’s about the kind of communicator you want to be. Are you going to be the trusted advisor, the educator, the enabler, the interpreter, the collaborator/connector who brings the voice of employees to the boardroom and vice versa? Can you do less stuff, better?

But there’s also your personal motivation for doing what you do, which brings us back to Herrero’s question. If you can answer that, you’re well on your way to knowing how you want to develop and grow your career and the skills you need to get you there.

At IoIC, we’re trying to anticipate these future needs by keeping professional development at the heart of what we do. This means widening from job skills to people and knowledge skills like effective collaboration, mentoring, coaching, mindfulness and helping non-communicators to communicate better.

The reinvention of our industry is already happening. As an institute and as communicators, we can’t stick our heads in the sand and hope the storm will pass. It’s going to look a lot different in three, five or 10 years.

It’s going to feel uncomfortable and it will be challenging at times, but the more we are open to ideas and able to position ourselves as essential and as a valuable source of knowledge, guidance and support in the workspaces we occupy, the better placed we are for that future.