ICYMI: Tech Adoption, 'Noisebreaking,' and Tool Tips

😀 Welcome to the free edition of Mister Editorial. Every Friday (mostly) I publish a round-up of news about how to up your internal comms game through insights, stats, and headlines, and even by showing mistakes others have made so you can learn from them. If you enjoy this, I encourage you to check out the archive.

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• 🤝 Dynamic Signal and SocialChorus are merging.

• 😕 Is it SurveyMonkey or a laxative?

In case you missed it…

1. Getting Employees to Adopt New Tech

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How do you get employees to embrace new technology? Before you spend gobs of money on a platform in search of a solution, listen to this ~4-minute episode of the Comms Minute, where comms expert Shel Holtz explains that technology should do one of three things:

1. Solve a problem

2. Improve a process

3. Do something before that wasn’t possible

Which of these solutions do you seek?

• Don’t forget to do a pilot test with the tech!

In part 2 of my series on how internal comms professionals and teams can avoid the innovator’s dilemma, I tackle this very issue:

• The pace of progress in communications that employees demand or can absorb may be different from the progress offered by technology and innovation. This means that communications efforts that do not appear to be useful to employees today (i.e., a disruptive innovation) may squarely address their needs tomorrow.

• Just like telephonic and music consumers did not demand the yet-to-be-invented iPhone from Apple, we cannot expect employees to lead us toward innovations they don’t need right now. 

2. When All Hands Go All Bad

Nicolo Laurent, CEO of Riot Games.

You gotta love a story that begins with, “The internal communications team at Riot Games were hard at work once again.”

CEO Nicolo Laurent had said during an Unplugged bi-weekly meeting that having children was a solution to the lack of social interactions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Laurent, sitting in his bright colored room with a VALORANT cap on his drawer, began his pre-recorded apology while members of the internal communications team at Riot helped him prepare.

“To be honest, I felt bad even during the presentation — and after Unplugged I didn’t stop to think about what that joke could’ve been feeling for many of you and how it could’ve been interpreted,” he said. It was another misstep for the CEO of a company embroiled in controversy the past few years.

Cringeworthy.

3. Something Sneaky

It was my pleasure to be in Poppulo’s webinar featuring Zora Artis (CEO, Artis Advisory) and Jared Curtis (Director of Communications, Maximus) discussing how to engage employees in support of business goals.

• In the above clip, I suggest a sneaky way to get a seat at the table (starts at 3:37).

4. ‘Noisebreaking’

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Mike Klein (@mklein818), internal comms consultant and Mister Editorial subscriber, kicked off a multipart series of articles based on research of IC pros across 14 countries. The first two articles are live:

• What do communication leaders see as top opportunities right now - as we begin to look beyond the Pandemic?

• What’s unique about internal comms at the moment - as we begin to look beyond the Pandemic

My favorite part is the introduction (to me, at least) of the term “noisebreaking,” “the ability to reduce organizational overload and channel noise away from critical conversations.”

• Have you published an article, participated in a webinar, given a presentation, or appeared on a podcast? Reply to this email with the links and info and I’ll feature it in a future edition of Mister Editorial.

5. Online Tools I Regularly Use

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These are the online tools I rely on most to get the job done.

• ahdictionary: To ensure I use the exact word.

• TomatoTimer: To focus, break, focus, break…repeat.

• Emojipedia: For ✨, 😊, 🚨, 🧩, 🪕, and 🚱.

• Investopedia: For when investors say things like “convexity.”

• Lorem Ipsum generator: For when I need placeholder text.

Reply to this email with your web-based tools of choice and I’ll share them back with the crowd.

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Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter | Mister Editorial archive | editorshaun@gmail.com

Disclaimer: Besides running Mister Editorial, I work in employee comms at Splunk. The views in this newsletter are my own.

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