I have been submitting some thought leadership pieces to a few publications recently and I just received word that a few of them are about to get published. The first of them is focused on my experience of using a late night TV talk show format to deliver internal communications at Google. You can read it on PR Manager here and I have included a little screengrab of it below.
As you know, I have written about internal communications before on this blog and in the Irish Independent, where my focus was on the overall Employee Experience. This time I wrote more extensively about tactics and specific ways to reinvent typical internal comms formats, and they excerpted my piece about converting an otherwise pedestrian company All Hands at Google into a late night talk show format. Which was nice.
Host with the most (and some political ghosts)
When I look back on it now, I realise a lot of it was riding on the abilities of the host. I was lucky that the main boss in EMEA, Matt Brittin, was more than adept on stage and handled the format wwell. A genial host goes a long way, but equally one who is unperturbed by the challenges that often befall a live broadcast. The format was a roaring success, thanks in part to the host, not to mention the many hours I put into scripting and “casting” the show (which required navigating office politics to include some leaders, and balancing them with others who had onscreen presence and the chops for presenting).
Turn on. Tune in. Amp up.
Sometimes a simple idea like that can give the company culture an unexpected boost, simply due to its freshness and creativity. There will always be naysayers but, much like an old school television with rabbit ears, they are easy to tune out, because they don’t speak for the majority.
Leave a Reply