Communicating in the City

I feel old

I'm only 38 but today I feel like I'm 68.

It used to be I was the youngest one in the crowd - among friends, family members and in the office. But now...I'm the old one.

In the workplace, I'm surrounded by youth - colleagues in their early-to-mid twenties - full of new ideas and passionate about shiny new tools to introduce inside the company. It's all good, of course. Fresh ideas are always a good thing. But these days, it's all just too much.

Every time we get used to using a new tool or platform, another one comes along that's better and faster. There's no time to enjoy or appreciate a tool; it's bang -- on to the next one! Yet another thing to learn and adapt to...in addition to our normal every day activities.

And with all these new tools, I don't even think my staff reads my emails anymore.

Companies like Atos and Volkswagen are cutting down on internal email to reduce overload and it's giving people ideas. Sure, we all suffer from electronic noise but like I said, these alternative tools in themselves are noise.

Whatever happened to a good old-fashioned phone call?

Minnesota bound

Off to Best Buy's Richfield, Minnesota HQ this week to cover their town hall for simply-communicate. What makes their internal town halls unique? They're completed unscripted with no agenda and have proven to be an effective internal communications vehicle for staff.

While Best Buy's CEO Brian Dunn has been under fire as of late, kudos to him for exhibiting transparency and expressing a desire to set the record straight for his employees. It's always great to see a CEO blog and do videos - he's obviously a champion of social media.

And from what I hear, Dunn is just as transparent and accessible during the company's internal town hall broadcasts. He also makes it his business to visit Best Buy stores and interact with retail employees.

Looking forward to hearing what he has to say this week and meeting the friendly and hospitable Best Buy internal comms team.

In this day and age of struggling economies and nervous employees everywhere, it's nice to see a CEO like Dunn visit the front lines and not hide in an office or behind impersonal, scripted emails. More and more leaders are seeing what it takes to truly engage employees and build a sense of trust.

Look out for my video report about my Best Buy visit in the February 1st edition of simply-communicate.

But more sooner than that - be sure to check out this Wednesday's edition where I'll be reporting on Alcatel-Lucent's social intranet. We'll also have 2012 internal communications predictions, a handy toolkit on creating a successful internal social media campaign, as well as top tips on employee surveys and how to conduct research/engagement during challenging times.

And of course, tune into simply-tv on Wednesday where we'll be bringing you our usual array of informative and entertaining interviews live from London and New York!