Posted on March 24, 2016 6:37 pm by Shel Holtz | Business | Internal | Research | Trust
One of the most oft-cited cliches in the corporate world has to do with “breaking down silos.” I have never been shy about sharing my belief that silos serve a purpose: Tear them down and all the grain spills out. They just need better ventilation.
There are silos, however, that do need to be torn down, silos that are causing untold harm to…
Posted on March 18, 2016 8:43 am by Shel Holtz | The Workplace Experience | Content | Instagram | Visual Communication | Brands | Business | Channels | Internal | Marketing | Media | PR | Publishing | Transparency | Twitter
The Friday Wrap is my weekly collection of news stories, posts, studies, and reports designed to help organizational communicators stay current on the trends and technology that affect their jobs. These may be items that flew under the radar while other stories grabbed big headlines. As always, I collect material from which I select Wrap stories (as well as stories…
Posted on March 3, 2016 11:54 am by Shel Holtz | The Workplace Experience | Internal | Marketing | PR
Employee advocacy is hard work. There are tools that make it easier, but whenever such tools are available, some organizations stop doing the hard work altogether. The figure because they have deployed the tool, they have ticked the advocacy box and can move on to other things.
So it is with tools of just about any kind. The glut of eye-searingly…
Posted on February 23, 2016 1:31 pm by Shel Holtz | Internal
Through a visit last week to an iconic Bay Area tech company and judging a batch of entries to communication competitions, I have seen some excellent new-hire orientation materials. One of the standout elements in each of these is an introduction to the company narrative: Who are we? Were did we come from? Where are we now? Where are we…
Posted on February 20, 2016 3:33 pm by Shel Holtz | Internal
In 2011, venture capitalist John Doerr quoted the late Steve Jobs, saying, “It"s not the consumer’s job to figure out what they want.” It’s a sentiment internal communicators should take to heart.
A few weeks ago, I participated in an online conversation about the effectiveness of publishing news to an intranet. I suggested that mobile delivery of news is far more effective today, a view that got…
Posted on February 4, 2016 10:11 am by Shel Holtz | Crisis Communication | Internal | PR | Trust
In Hollywood Westerns, the hired gun is called in to clean up the town after problems have spun out of control. (The problems usually involve a cattle baron.) More often than not, communicators are the hired guns of business. Unless they have that coveted “seat at the table,” they are never part of the decisions they’ll wind up having to communicate. Even then,…
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