Time to Smile Video

It's not often I see a video that exemplifies my philosophy of clarifying, simplifying and engaging employees; but my colleague Allison Jones at the City of Hamilton has done just that. Based on an idea she got from a City of New Market communications video called Glow, she put together a video that sends a clear, simple and engaging message to employees at Community Services: what they do makes a difference, one starfish at a time. Since the production, the City Manager decided to use it when he presented the Strategic Plan to Council to illustrate the good work the City does. See it for yourself.

Comments

"We can't tell them that."

The scenario: A project is delayed. Employees haven't heard any updates in about a month and the manager realizes he's 'got to get something out soon' because his boss has been asking what's going on. Manager: I need a draft message for the project update. How soon can you get it to me? Communications Officer: How about tomorrow? Manager: I kind of need it today some time. Communications Officer: How about today? Manager: Okay good. Communications Officer: So the reason for the delay is other projects took priority but now it's time to return to this one, right? Manager: "We can't tell them that." Communications Officer: Why not? Manager: Well because it looks bad. I hear those words from a senior manager or executive and sigh. There are precious few things we truly "CAN'T" tell employees: private information about other employees financially-sensitive information the CEO's kid's cellpho

Dear Executive: Say What You Mean

If you read Clare Lynch's article called: " 10 Ways to Protect Your Copy from A Verbose Exec ", you'll see the following sentence: "There's nothing worse than some verbose exec "improving" your finely crafted copy by inserting references to "delivering key learnings," "driving employee integration strategies," and "interfacing holistically with clients." If you're anything like me, you actually want to tackle rewriting those mucky terms she's highlighted. Let's start with the first one: delivering key learnings. The word 'learning' is a noun; that's not the problem. When you put an 's' on it, you are attempting to count an abstract concept like learning, and that causes confusion. Allow me to give you an example: Merriam-Wester defines learning as: "knowledge or skill acquired by instruction or study." You do not typically count the number of knowledges you've acq

Communications As A Function

Communications is a function or expertise in an organization like Finance or Information Technology (IT) that serves internal clients throughout that workplace. Communications takes care of getting messages to the right people at the right time through the right medium. So, for example, any written materials produced by an organization has likely been done by a communications professional: > written materials such as newsletters, emails, memos, announcements, web pages, social media posts, press releases, briefing notes, issues papers, etc...; > written materials for the purposes of supporting verbal interactions such as speeches, media lines, presentations (usually in PowerPoint) Depending on company size and whether or not the organization is in the private, public or non-profit sectors can have a major influence on the type of communications activities that happen, and the kinds of documents prepared. For example, in the public sector, media lines are an

iClarify | Simplify | Engage

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