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Leading Transformation & Change with MD of The Good Comms Company, Kate Goodman

Episode 7

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Series 1, Episode 7 – Kate Goodman

Work Happy Podcast: Episode 7

In times of great change, like we’ve faced for the better part of 15 months, transforming the foundations of an organisation’s internal comms strategy becomes a greater challenge, with increased importance placed on communicating culture through new and more accessible channels.

With experience shaping change at Aviva, RAC, Pal International and Dignity to name a few successful endeavours, Kate Goodman has really demonstrated an ability to nurture the key element of her business, The Good Comms Company.

Kate joins us on this week’s Work Happy to discuss her current transformation schemes, the unique considerations that come with varying employee demographics, and how differing attitudes to the future workplace can impact the morale of your workforce.

This episode covers

  • Implementing internal comms in businesses without any prior channels
  • Tailoring your approach to comms based on employee demographics
  • How Kate is using real stories from Covid to offer advice in an upcoming book
  • The role of trust and flexible working in a future workplace

Highlights

Starting from scratch

“There hadn’t been any internal communications before I joined. The channels I put in place such as a website portal so that everyone can access it, a newsletter, listening channels, manager briefings, all came into their own when the COVID crisis hit.”
[3:35]

Getting the basics right

“For other clients I might be putting in podcasts, I might be putting in apps and so on. That wouldn’t have worked for our guys because they just weren’t ready for it, so we needed to get the basics in place first.”
[7:25]

Understanding needs

“When putting together a comms strategy, it’s really ultimately understanding what it is the business needs, what our colleagues need, what we want to achieve in the future and putting tools in place so we can achieve that.”
[13:00]

Weathering the storm

“We’ve all been thrown into this horrible storm together. It might not be that we’re all in the same boat, but we’re certainly in the same storm. So it’s really trying to understand how it’s all affecting people.”
[19:55]

Being dynamic

“We’re a lot more dynamic now. We’ve had to make decisions really, really quickly that would have taken weeks before, and I’m really hoping that that continues.”
[24:00]

Real Time Stories

“We’re using real time stories in the pandemic to deliver some advice and some conversations with people. We want the book to be like sitting across a table with your friends having a brew, and giving you that sound advice that you always want a good friend to give you.”
[30:30]

Return to office

“We’ve seen some big companies in the news – I’ll hesitate to name them – saying, ‘No, we want people back in the office, they have to be in the office or they’re not going to be productive’. Really? Have they not been productive over the past 16 months? If they haven’t been, then what have you been doing as leaders? That’s terrible!”
[33:20]

Active listening

“Active listening is crucial for the success of any communications campaign, or any change campaigns in the business. You’ve got to be listening to the people who are experts.”
[36:45]

Links & References

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