Bad Exec Comms, the History of IC
The authority on mixternal comms
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. And hello October!
Mark your calendar:
Yom Kippur is Oct. 4, National Manufacturing Day (U.S.A.) is Oct. 7, and Sukkot is Oct. 9.
The much anticipated 2022 salary report from Staffbase is dropping Oct. 18. Register for the deep dive.
Attune ‘22, which explores the science of engagement, happens Oct. 18-20.
Diversity in Action, the conference about leadership, values, trust, and inclusion, is happening Nov. 7-11.
CommConnect for internal comms practitioners is happening Nov. 10.
Tsk Tsk
Google CEO Sundar Pichai spent much of a recent all-hands meeting talking about the company’s cost-cutting measures. Such is to be expected in a volatile tech market, but one comment caught my attention.
One employee asked why Google was “nickel-and-diming employees” by slashing travel and swag budgets at a time when “Google has record profits and huge cash reserves.”
Pichai’s response:
Look, I hope all of you are reading the news, externally. The fact that you know, we are being a bit more responsible through one of the toughest macroeconomic conditions underway in the past decade, I think it’s important that as a company, we pull together to get through moments like this.
😮 Did you catch that? “I hope all of you are reading the news, externally.”
Forgive me for being a traditionalist, but employees shouldn’t have to read The Wall Street Journal to understand what’s happening inside their company.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also stumbled when he communicated a “do more with less” message in an all-employee memo.
The memo closes with a series of BIG words: “category-defining innovation,” “epic,” “once-in-a-generation company,” and “legendary.”
The all-caps closing cheer of “GO GET IT!” was off. He just spent 879 words telling employees the road is long and difficult (and some of you might not make it to the other side). Better to end not with a fist-pump, but rather with a firm handshake.
Read the memo: Insider Comms: Uber's CEO Tells Employees to Do More With Less (Mister Editorial membership)
One company doing a decent job explaining belt-tightening is Snap. After burying the lede a few paragraphs deep in two all-staff memos this year, Snap’s CEO Evan Spiegel clearly explain the rationale behind the spending cuts and downsizing.
Insider Comms: Snap's CEO on a Slowdown in Hiring (Mister Editorial membership)
Insider Comms: Snap CEO Explains Layoffs (Mister Editorial membership)
Bottom line: If your exec has to point to external news sources to explain what’s happening at the company, you’re doing comms wrong.
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#2/14. Delete Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. Waste of Time.
When I made the above comment I chose 14 out of thin air. Seeing as how Staffbase put it out there for the world the see, I stepped up to the challenge.
Here are the 14 things I recommend doing to help promote mental health. What would you add?
Quick Hits
👮♀️ 4 Four Ways to Improve Communications With Your Officers: The headline is misleading here. Dig deeper into the article for actionable advice that goes beyond theory and fluff. (Police1)
📶 8 Steps to Create an Ask Me Anything Session. A classic. (Mister Editorial membership)
🤝 LinkedIn ran a connections experiment and found that relatively weak social connections were more helpful in finding jobs than stronger social ties. (NYT)
💗 Microsoft announced Viva Pulse, a new app that empowers managers and team leads to seek regular and confidential feedback about their team’s experience, right in the flow of work in Teams. (Microsoft)
🚗 G.M. backed away from a call for corporate workers to return to offices at least three days a week starting later this year after employees pushed back. G.M. said it wouldn’t mandate specific days for in-person attendance and wouldn’t require a return until next year. (CNBC)
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Today, communication itself is the problem. We have become the world’s first overcommunicated society. Each year, we send more and receive less.
—Al Ries and Jack Trout in Positioning, originally published in 1981
Hiring
If you’re not happy at your current job, leave it and find something more fulfilling. Just look at all the remote opportunities in the U.S.!
Earth Justice - Internal Comms Specialist (San Francisco, Washington, D.C., remote)
Palo Alto Networks - Exec Comms Manager (remote)
Stripe - Corporate Comms (No job title here, but it’s an exec and external comms role) (San Francisco, Seattle, NYC, or remote)
Target - director communications, corporate media relations (Minneapolis hybrid or remote)
Taskrabbit - Internal and Exec Comms Lead (remote)
The History of Internal Communications
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Disclaimer: Besides running Mister Editorial, I am the editor-in-chief of Digital Publications at Lam Research. The views in this newsletter are my own.
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