ICYMI:Too many emails, judo, and humor
Greetings from Corvallis, Oregon! 🌲 ⛰️
📣 The Diversity in Action conference is March 23.
Twitter is reportedly testing an “undo send” button.
In case you missed it…
1. Email Volume is Up, Way Up
According to PoliteMail’s annual Internal Communications Benchmarks Data report, compared to 2019, the volume of internal comms email skyrocketed in 2020 :
Email broadcast volume was up 72%
Email volume in minutes of content was up 58%
Email engagement was up by 71%
Bottom line: Employees are drowning in email. In 2021, make it a goal to turn down the volume.
2. Industry News
Poppulo and Four Winds are merging for a combined value of $1 billion (Bloomberg)
Flimp launched WorkforceTXT, an employee-texting platform (PR Newswire)
IC pro Jenni Field’s new book Influential Internal Communication is available for pre-order (UK) (KoganPage)
Sheryl Sandberg recalls the day she and Zuck decided Facebook employees would need to work from home (Axios Re:Cap)
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And before that, Why Every Intranet Article Should Have a Byline
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3. Internal Comms Judo 🥋
My latest article for Poppulo shows how the principles of judo can be used to make your internal comms team more valuable.
seiryoku zen’yō (精力善用) which means “maximum efficiency, minimum effort,” and
jita kyōei (自他共栄), which means “mutual welfare and benefit”
As more and more employees participate in creating (and sharing) content, your team will become more efficient and productive. The time you gain, which can be quantified, can be used for strategic efforts that support the company’s growth (and therefore, show the value of internal comms).
Bonus: A few months ago I participated in a webinar hosted by Poppulo on aligning internal comms with business outcomes. Insights from that conversation have been distilled into this nifty document: 5 Top Tips to Ensure Your Employee Comms Drive Business Outcomes.
4. Why Bringing Humor to Work Has Serious Benefits
A professor and a comedian walk into Stanford’s business school…and explain why humor in the workplace can be good for both morale and the bottom line.
Managers with a sense of humor are more motivating and admired. Their employees are more engaged. Their teams are more likely to solve a creativity challenge. There’s all this evidence around the R.O.I. of humor. —Bagdonas
Funny talk is serious biz (NYT).
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Disclaimer: Besides running Mister Editorial, I work in employee comms at Splunk. The views in this newsletter are my own.