Why I'll never drive down the M6 motorway (and other nonsense)

"Hey... you've written here that's it's the biggest earthquake EVER!"

I am a former newspaper reporter – in fact, I’m so old that I can remember the day they installed “the internet” in our office at the Crewe Guardian (one dial-up modem, connected to the editor’s subbing machine).

And one of the first newspapers I worked for – the Uttoxeter Advertiser – was produced on hot metal in the next room, with me typing out the stories on an electric typewriter, printing them out, and walking them round to hand them over to the printers. But that was actually in 1993, and it was very much a step back in time, even then.

I did my time in college and then a couple of years apprenticeship, picking up a number of half-remembered rules as I went on.

Some of those rules have stuck with me to this day, much to the chagrin of my younger colleagues. I’ll often cut a swathe through someone’s copy, changing numbers and buggering about with their sentence structure, I just can’t help it.

But am I right? Some of those "rules" may not have actually been correct (shock horror) – they were very much the whims of the kind of nutjobs that became local newspaper editors in those days. Others are just things I believe to be right, and I’m more than likely to give people the Paddington stare if they dare to challenge my “professional” opinion. But they may not even have ever actually been rules, or perhaps I wasn’t really listening properly (my rather relaxed interpretation of the Magistrate’s Court Act over the years being a case in point).

I’ve found myself softening my approach over recent years – some of these archaic rules seem to have been designed simply to make reporters’ lives a misery, and frankly, life’s too short to demand we include everyone’s ages in our internal comms. But they’re still there, stuck in my brain. Here’s a few, I’m sure there’s more to come:

You CAN start sentences with “And…” and “But…”

You should never start a story with a number.

Only one sentence per paragraph.

If you name someone you should include their age.

One to nine, 10, 11, 12, 1,000,569, etc.

He said:

He added:

(And nothing else)

It’s the M6, not the “M6 motorway”

It’s “2am”, or “two o’clock in the morning”. NEVER “2am in the morning”.

The word “local” is not to be used.

It’s “The First World War”, never “World War One”.

And there’s only one cenotaph, in London.

Every story needs a quote.

If you’re asked for 300 words, that’s what you write.

Babies and dogs sell newspapers.

There’s nothing funnier than a fish pun. Unless it’s a cheese pun.

Everyone in a photo needs to be named in the caption.

If you want people to read it, put it in the first three paragraphs.

If in doubt, leave it out.

If you can easily take 50 words out, you can afford to lose another 50.

Something is never “brand new”.

If it’s “the best thing ever”, that means it has always been the best thing, and always will be.

If it’s a news report, it doesn’t have an opinion of its own.

I know there’s a few old colleagues out there who’ll set me straight on these, and add a few of their own. Hopefully it'll also give my current colleagues an insight into my old brain and explain some of my eccentric decisions!

We caught a wave!

Go on, Jenny... give us a Wave

Hot on the heels of some lesser awards nonsense in America last night, we held our own annual awards today. Called the “Wave Awards” (we deal with a lot of waves - gamma, beta, alpha… and we’re near the sea) it’s seen as one of the highlights of the calendar by many.

That’s not comms hyperbole, either - in most meetings I’ve attended around the business in the past few weeks, the announcement of the winners has been a hot topic of conversation. It’s a reminder that appreciating people, and celebrating their achievements, is a genuinely important part of what any business does.

Even better than that (from my point of view at least) is that the team I’m part of won one of the awards. Under the banner of “cultural innovation” the comms function put forward the work we’d done throughout lockdown to ensure the 10,000-plus people in our workforce were kept informed of what the business was doing. We’d identified early doors that the traditional methods (intranet, newspaper, all-hands briefs) just weren’t going to cut it, post-Covid-19. So, like many comms providers across the planet, it meant a wholesale change to the way we delivered those communications was needed.

Buoyed by some remarkable advances in IT provision, some amazing collaboration with colleagues and more than a soupçon of genuine good will and faith, we ended 2020 providing communications in ways we’d assumed our organisation would never countenance.

And it was that success that was recognised today. I’d imagine there’s nothing particularly unique about this story - as I’ve already suggested, we reacted in much the same way as thousands of other teams. But it feels right to share some of those innovations and the thinking behind them.

gov.uk: As a government led organisation, we don’t have a website of our own, but we do have a section of gov.uk, parts of which we re-appropriated to allow staff without access to our network the ability to keep up with events. We had always had an “employee area” set aside for messages to the troops, but it had always sat unloved in the background. Bringing it front and centre meant we could continue to supply the information people needed as everyone tried to figure out the next steps.

Social media: We’d always used Facebook as “mainly for our own staff” but with only limited success. With no access to information, people came looking for it, and we were able to oblige.

Video: Our CEO wanted to get messages out to staff on a weekly basis, so filmed himself at home with his phone. These short messages were then uploaded by us onto our intranet as would normally be the case, but also to Facebook and YouTube, vastly increasing their reach. What we’d always said - that video would be far more successful if we could just get it onto people’s phones - came to pass. These videos also had a positive effect on the rest of the business, who seemed to suddenly all realise that they too had the means to create video sitting in their pockets, with sometimes amazing results.

Whatsapp: All of a sudden, people had to “get” WhatsApp or get left behind. Far more than Skype messaging, WhatsApp became the tool of choice for quick and simple interdepartmental discussion. For the first time since I started working in our Warrington offices, I felt fully connected to my colleagues in Cumbria. And not just because of WhatsApp…

MS Teams: We all know about this, of course - where would our Friday night family quizzes be without such technology? But because our IT department moved so quickly getting MS Teams set up to run effectively for the business, as a comms function we were able to explore its wider usage - leading to some fantastic opportunities for the business, which included…

Business Brief: Our replacement briefing for senior managers, on ice for months due to insufficient tech, suddenly became a real proposition. You can read more about it here.

Softened messaging: Who’d have thought we’d ever start our internal messaging asking how the reader felt? But we did - existing email groups came into their own, allowing us to help the business understand itself a bit better through targeted messages explaining some of the context behind decisions and making sure that staff were looking after each other.

And finally, some vindication - two of our most popular channels came into their own, and showed that yes, perhaps the internal comms team do know what they’re talking about. Both our intranet and our in-house newspaper had been revamped in recent years with top-down rethinks. The intranet was given a news orientated front end which allowed for the news agenda to be driven by the comms team, rather than whatever came in last - with a series of tabbed pages chunking information into relevant sections. The traditional newspaper was re-born as a digital-first publication with the remit of explaining the business through graphics and imagery. Both were able to work effectively during the darkest days of the pandemic, keeping staff informed and, in the case of the newspaper, not only informing but creating a lasting record of 2020.

As you might imagine, I’m very proud of the people I work with and the things we’ve achieved in the past year. I’m looking forward to progressing this work so it can take us into a post-Covid-19 world and keep that engaging content going. 

I like your manifesto, put it to the test-o

On your Marx...

Today our organisation held a Manifesto Stand-Up day. No, it wasn’t some kind of Marxist comedy festival.

We’re basically an enormous factory, and the idea of a stand-down to reflect on any issues is something most people feel comfortable with, and expect. So it wasn’t much of a push to hold something similar to mark the six months since we introduced a manifesto for the business.

As the idea of the new CEO and something that hundreds of people around the business had a hand in creating, our comms team cannot take any credit in the manifesto itself.

But what I do feel, as something of a cynical old hand at this type of thing, is that the business has very much got it right.

It’s not a hundred-page declaration of intent, full of processes and indecipherable diagrams. It’s one page. One line declaring our purpose. Nine boxes explaining the behaviours we should all be displaying. And a line reminding us of who we are.

That’s it, and it works.

Today, the business set aside 24 hours to meet and discuss the manifesto. Executive team members appeared on Teams events throughout the period to share their views on the manifesto and answer questions.

I attended a couple of these, including the big one at lunchtime featuring the CEO.

What struck me was that the lack of cynicism I feel is reflected across the business. People just seem to get it. All any business wants is for its workforce to be engaged in a common aim, and we appear to have achieved that.

From an internal comms point of view, I find our manifesto invaluable. It’s a quick set of simple key messages I can use to build any communications I’m producing. The purpose it sets out - “we are creating a clean and safe environment for future generations” - can be slotted into pretty much any statement or quote about our business.

The behaviours - such as “we are one team”, can likewise be used across our comms as handy little reminders of how we should be behaving.

Those behaviours also help regulate meetings, and remind people to check their intent when it comes to communicating. Why are we publishing that particular article about that particular event? Well, because it highlights how we’re “performing with passion, pride and pace”. 

And the colour coding is a boon for our publications - we’ve been dedicating a month to each manifesto behaviour, and have been able to subtly remind people of this by tweaking the look of our monthly newspaper.

In his manifesto session today, our CEO explained his intent and shared that if he had had any reservations, it was that our organisation might see the Manifesto as “too simple”. That clearly has not been the case.

He also said that we have been approached by other organisations keen to understand more about how we’ve achieved such a win. That has to be a good thing.

The “next step” for this type of thing is always to “embed it” and make it “business as usual”, which is usually code for “forget about it until the next initiative comes along”. It feels like we’re beyond that already, and our people have taken it upon themselves to ensure that doesn’t happen.

A slight return

Me heading in. Too much?

As if we needed to be told this, widespread home working has apparently prompted many businesses to re-evaluate their working needs.

Documenting the shift to remote work during the pandemic, the Office for National Statistics said the number of people who did some work at home in 2020 rose by 9.4 percentage points from a year earlier to 35.9% of the workforce – representing more than 11 million employees.

Bloomberg reports that companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa are doing away with properties to preserve capital, as commercial property sales in Europe fell by 27% last year.

Meanwhile Axa, one of the world’s largest asset managers, is betting big on office returns. The French firm plans to invest €799m in sustainable offices and flexible workspaces in France, Germany and the UK.

All of which will mean something to the business I work for, but at the moment it feels like all bets are off. There has been talk for years now of us moving into new premises somewhere in Warrington. Our current building is an enormous monument to 80s excess, an astonishing architectural monstrosity perched on the edge of the town.

Most people don’t even know it is there, as it is hidden, like most of its neighbours, behind thick foliage that doesn’t seem to thin much even in the toughest of winters.

But there it is, and there I was, this week… returning for the first time this year to a place I’d previously not spent more than a fortnight away from for the past seven years.

As a communications manager, I’ve found that working from home has not radically affected my day job - in many ways, it has actually improved things. I can attend the right meetings, wherever in the country (or the world) they may be happening. I can have daily chats with my team, who are based 150 miles up the motorway in West Cumbria. I have better access to all the tools I need to do my job properly - no longer are there restrictions on social media, or access to the kind of file sharing people like me need to watch and edit video.

But I’ve always known that at some point I’d need to get back into the office. We’re still working towards the government’s deadline of 21 June for some kind of wholesale return (the level of which remains to be sorted), but there remains the opportunity for individuals to come in if they need to.

Today was a classic example of the kind of thing that can only really be done in person - one of our executive team had been called on to take part in a video interview and I said I’d be happy to draft a basic script with some key messages, and then be the of-screen interviewer. Pretty standard internal comms stuff, the bread and butter of what we do. It feels important to get a handle on what our people are saying, help them be at their best and find out a little about what makes them tick (in other words, it’s the kind of thing I really enjoy doing).

So I saw it as a great opportunity to cart myself back into the workplace - if only for a couple of hours, this time. Here’s some learning, and a few thoughts…

Firstly, going back into the office after basically a year away is weird. I started the day pulling clothes out of the wardrobe I knew I hadn’t worn for over a year. It was tricky pulling my posh boots on after so long in trainers or sandals.

Then, I had to find my pass - and remember the pass code I need to enter the building with it.

There’s an enterprise risk assessment to familiarise yourself with - and an accompanying local one for us in Warrington. Vital if you don’t want to walk in through the wrong door.

Motorways seem faster these days, roads seem emptier.

And people still exist, beyond close family and neighbours.

But enough of the reasonably obvious stuff. What struck me most was the scale of the challenge we’ll have as an internal communications function, moving forward.

For the past year, we’ve been in full-on reactive mode - the pandemic was coming, the pandemic was here, everyone went home, volunteering exploded, we re-started some construction work, our offices reopened, we tentatively began to bring people back in, we shut down again, we accomplished some targets against all the odds… it has been a rollercoaster time. And we’ve documented it all. It has been mad, and busy, and complicated, and confusing. Our small team of eight has proved its worth again and again, keeping 10,000-plus people informed and engaged throughout these incredible times.

But it feels like those times are coming to an end, and now the hard work starts. Looking around at the cavernous empty offices today, with all the feelings I was having about being there and perhaps not exactly fully wanting to be there, I began to realise that I won’t be alone in thinking the following things.

Agile, blended working is definitely the way forward - it would be criminal to do a complete 180 and force everyone back in. Where people have shown they can work effectively away from the workplace, they should be allowed to continue that. But it’s going to be tough - managers are going to have to manage. Everyone at work is easy. Everyone at home is harder, but most people would probably agree that the “we’re all in this together” aspect has helped. But half your team in the office, and half at home, in different mixes every day? How’s that going to work? How are you going to react if a colleague tells you they’ve done all their face-to-face meetings and are off home at 2.30pm to carry on the day’s work on MS Teams? To say people are going to need clarity of messaging and an understandable vision from the top, and that managers are going to need some help, is an understatement.

Office use needs to change - our business has made great strides in this respect, but I noticed today that several of the “agile” desks had already ben staked out as “someone’s”, with coats on the chairs and detritus scattered around. Even if that’s just today’s stuff, a pared down, agile office won’t work once people start marking their territory like that.

The way we think about meetings needs to evolve. We went from “thou shalt travel to another building and sit in a room with 20 people for two hours” to using MS Teams as the default almost seamlessly, and this brought a huge amount of benefits in time and money saved. But creating a blended approach to meetings is another thing entirely. Today, for example, I knew I was going to be in the interview for at least two hours between 12 and 2, and for the rest of the time I hoped I could spend my time productively around the office, doing things that I could only achieve by being there. But hey-presto, before my very eyes up popped a Teams meeting in the hour before the interview session. And then, lo and behold, two more Teams meetings in the hours directly after it. I don’t want to sit in the office and do something I can do better at home. And if I have to, I want the office to be set up to achieve a seamless link between in-person and on-line. We don’t have that, yet. My only option is to find a quiet spot and use my phone to attend the Teams meeting. And if that meeting needs to be attended by a colleague who also happens to be in the office, we’ll be sitting near to each other, both on our phones. That doesn’t sound like a good use of time in the office, especially when we’re effectively taking someone else’s place. I’m not sure how comms can fix this, other than offering solutions and case studies from people who’ve made it work… but it’ll need to happen.

And finally… you know that the big “positive” for returning to work is that you’ll get that interaction you’ve been missing, those happy accidents that spark a conversation and create new ideas? Well, it’s true. I’d not been in the office for five minutes before I bumped into the projects director, and we sorted something. The video interview was great and I got far more information to help me continue my work than I would have done if I’d just emailed the script and asked them to get on with it. I was able to take a quick inventory of what posters were on the walls of the toilets, what was currently being screened on our TVs, and whether we had any pull-ups available featuring our manifesto (we do, hoorah). So I’d agree - yes, there are many benefits to getting back into the workplace, in a blended way.

But making it work? Blimey, that’s a tough one.

Designs on my wellbeing

Adding some colour to life... my illustrated diary

One of the big points of discussion during the pandemic - and something we’ve reported on regularly in our internal comms - is the need for a focus on individual wellbeing during such a time of change. 

Whether continuing to go into the workplace or working from home, it has been a year of uncertainty and concern for most.

So we’ve seen people turn to a number of different things to take their minds off the problem-at-large, and help them re-centre themselves in the world. That has ranged from volunteering during the early days of the pandemic to taking up new hobbies.

It all helps, and it really isn’t a case of people having too much time on their hands. As it says on the NHS Every Mind Matters website, having good mental health helps us relax more, achieve more and enjoy our lives more.

From a selfish, business-related point of view, this can only be a good thing for a workforce. We want an engaged and positive team delivering our mission - and we’ve spend countless hours and thousands of pounds on internal communications designed to ensure just they feel that way. 

I tend to disappear into creative endeavour in my spare time. I’m also a bugger for a New Years resolution. So on 1 January this year I decided I’d embark on an illustrated diary for 2021.

It’s not exactly a new thing for me - I did it in 2013, when instead of a pandemic I charted a year in the life of my then 6-year-old son. But I thought this time it would help me take a step away from work, and help me make sense of a mad time in all our lives.

And it has worked… as of writing I’ve just filled the first volume. One page a day, cartoon and brief diary entry, all painted in watercolour. It’s not Turner Prize winning artwork, but I’ve enjoyed it so far. The act of remembering what’s happened during the day, thinking of a way of illustrating it, and slapping on a bit of paint is very cathartic. It’s helped me maintain my wellbeing, through some troubling, some sad, and some uplifting times. What’s more, it should be a fascinating little time capsule for anyone who picks it up in the decades to come - I’m already looking back at the beginning of volume one and marvelling at the memories of the chaos of Trump’s final days in office, the sad death of Captain Tom, and the bizarre little vignettes of Wood family life that weave in between.

Obviously this isn’t going to be for everyone… but for me, it shows that whatever you do, doing something that takes you away from the madness, even for a few moments, is no bad thing.

Brief encounter

"Celia, have you HEARD about the new Business Brief?"

Today we had our latest Business Brief, the monthly cascade briefing for our organisation. This one was slightly different (for the business) as it was open to anyone to attend. It was also different (for me) because I hosted it for the first time.

The Business Brief was set up last year as a replacement for the previous cascade. I wrote the business case for the change, so it’s fair to say it’s all my own fault that this afternoon I found myself broadcasted to more than 1,100 nuclear workers.
The original cascade was called Team4action (the number in the title feels quaint these days, but it did form part of a wider, but long-forgotten, change programme centred around numbers).
Team4action had the remit to “get people to talk about change and how it affected them”, but over the years, that spec had been lost and it became a standard catch-all business briefing.
At the end of the 2019, Sellafield Internal Communications wrote a report on the company cascade brief, Team4Action, with a look to change the approach.
The report identified the following:

• No checking of how messages were being cascaded;
• No availability of extra context for those interested;
• Need for training to deliver briefing;
• The cascade process is valued but is only as good as the people delivering it;
• Team4action is seen as a “one size fits all” comms solution by many.

We then had Covid-19 and lockdown, which had a direct impact on plans for the future of any cascade briefing:

• The majority of our staff, including senior leaders, were suddenly working remotely;
• There was no opportunity for large gatherings (for the initial brief)
• New channels were introduced, with the potential to ease the load on the briefing by offering other outlets;
• New technology was introduced, allowing more flexibility in the delivery of content and potential for better understanding of how it is landing with the audience.

So we felt the time was right for a change. The monthly briefing was seen as an integral and welcomed part of the Sellafield Ltd calendar, despite the issues outlined above. Our aim was to tweak the approach to ensure that it remained fit-for-purpose, utilising new technology and channels tested “in anger” during the Covid-19 crisis and found to have worked. We proposed:

Monthly briefing
Briefing rebranded as “Sellafield Business Brief” and moved onto MS Teams. The Teams approach had proved successful over summer 2020. Feedback showed that those taking part felt more involved, more willing to interact with the presenters, and that they were comfortable with the technology.
This allowed us to invite a wider section of the leadership community – looking to ensure the messages are explained to the business by people who understand the key points and the context.
Each briefing would be limited to three key themes, identified and agreed with the Executive team beforehand.

The CEO briefing would be followed by the distribution of:
A briefing sheet, sent via email to a mailing list;
A video of the CEO delivering the briefing and answering questions, to be shared on our intranet for those who could not attend
Recognising that by widening the audience for the monthly briefing we have removed an opportunity for some high-level business messaging to be discussed with our Band 2 leadership community, we proposed an additional series of quarterly business leaders sessions, also run through Teams, with a separate agenda. This is the next stage of the process and is yet to be launched.
To make this happen, we promoted the change in approach across our internal channels and the first Business Brief went ahead in October 2020.
We knew we would have to help people understand how they could attend via MS Teams – but to be fair it soon became clear we didn’t need to do too much selling.
This is the approach we drafted out and explained to the executive team, which has stayed pretty much unchanged since its inception:

• The Internal Comms team will create a rolling plan of potential themes for briefing themes.
• Each month the three suggested themes will be shared with the Executive Team at least two weeks before the briefing event, for discussion. This will take place in a special half hour extension of that week’s Executive Support Team meeting.
• An outline script will then be provided to the CEO and any guest speakers (subject matter experts). This will form the basis of the Briefing Document to be distributed following the launch.
• The launch session will be monitored by the Internal Comms team and the draft briefing document / script updated as required following the event.
• The CEO (or person leading in their absence) will be recorded as they lead the briefing. This footage will then be edited and shared via the intranet for those unable to attend.
• The briefing document will be sent out to a mailing list within 24 hours of the briefing. Initially via Outlook, ultimately by a third-party solution available soon which will allow detailed understanding of recipient activity.
• There will be an ongoing process of feedback monitoring and usage measurement to help shape and refine the approach.

Which brings us to today. The Business Brief has proved to be a successful new channel. We want to introduce some extra software which will help us identify just how effectively the emailed briefing document is, but the briefing itself gets great feedback from those who attend. Usually around 700 of them – much higher than the take-up for the old Team4action, and with a much higher level of interaction between the executive team and our leadership community.
In its previous incarnation we would find that the only people daring to ask questions were those in the meeting room with the CEO – anyone attending via video conference from our other offices felt distanced and “out of the loop”. The Teams approach brings with it a level playing field which relaxes people and makes them feel part of the entire process.
So as an experiment the April brief was opened to anyone who wished to attend. This was easy to set up – we run it as an MS Teams Event, so it is just a matter of posting the link on our intranet and allowing them to share with colleagues. There could have been 10,000 people in attendance – but we knew we wouldn’t get those kind of numbers– it’s the Easter holidays, not everyone has access to WiFi, etc. I’m happy with over 10 per cent of the workforce.
What I didn’t expect when this decision was made was that my colleague who usually does such a smooth and polished job of introducing the session and asking the questions would have the cheek to be on LEAVE this week. But in the spirit of learning a new skill, I stepped up.

Here's a couple of learning points from me:

• Be prepared – I had a couple of questions in my back pocket “just in case”. I also had a speech prepared to introduce the session.
• Double-check how it’s going to work – there was only one moment of silence, when I thought I’d see my mug appear on the live screen for the first question, but it didn’t. I realised quickly I wasn’t going to appear on-screen while asking the questions and jumped in.
• The first questions are the easiest – the tricky part of the job is aggregating the written questions and then asking them. The first ones aren’t too bad, but then you start to see a build-up underneath them.
• You need to be able to multi-task – it’s about sorting the questions into groups, ignoring the ones that have already been answered, keeping track of the new ones coming in – all the time listening to the answer to the previous question to make sure you don’t ask something that;s already been answered.
• To help me do all this, I used my trusty OneNote. I was able to keep track of what I’d done and avoid any repetition.
• Keep track of time – I had a killer question held back to finish off the session, but we hit the hour and I had to stop it there.

Quite a long post, this – if you’ve got any questions about the Business Brief, please get in touch. I’ll add a bit more info later.

There can be only One(Note)

I am a serial note taker. Back in the early 90s at journalism school I learned shorthand, and passed the 100 words per minute test you needed to make your way as a reporter (even then we were surprised we weren’t allowed to use recording devices).

It has been a fantastic skill to have - I can take verbatim notes and follow the conversation, freeing up a fair amount of time that would otherwise be taken speaking to people, then asking them to repeat key points for me to write down.

So during lockdown I have waded through thousands of pages of A4 lined paper as I sat through meetings and discussions about site lockdown, cautious construction restart, further lockdowns and the huge amount of positive work the organisation managed to deliver despite the crisis.

But recently I have had a revelation, and it’s called OneNote.

OneNote has been sitting there, unloved at the bottom of my screen, for years. I never really wondered what it was for. Idle curiosity had me open it, then shut it again when it appeared to be nothing more than a basic version of Word.

But then last autumn I was involved with a team who were using OneNote effectively as a place to keep things, and my eyes were opened. I’ve since started using it as a tool to help me deliver internal comms - and I’d like to share a few of my discoveries here.

• You can create notes about a meeting - linked to your calendar. In each calendar entry there’s a OneNote button. Click on it and you can save a new page in your files which automatically contains all the detail from the meeting and allows you to add your own notes and context.
• You can type like you’d take notes. Just clicking on the page anywhere starts a new text box. It’s confusing at first but once you’ve got the hang of it, you immediately see the benefits. Someone said something half way through the meeting that links back to the statement at the beginning? You can link the two easily by just starting a new text box at the top. An idea comes to you about a question you’d like to ask? Start a new box away from the flow and jot it down.
• You can create a never-ending filing system. It takes a bit of thinking about to start, but all of a sudden you have a tabbed system of notes that makes things so much easier to find.
• You can cut out a whole part of the comms writing process. Because you’re typing your notes direct, into a system, all of a sudden you’ve cut out a big pull on your time - no more searching through notes, transcribing and re-writing.
• It automatically saves as you work. No more hundreds of word documents open at the bottom of the screen, waiting to be saved (this may just be me).
• You can use it to store emails in an organised way - hallelujah, no more searching back through the Inbox for that email from a week last Tuesday. Just click on the OneNote button in Outlook and the email gets immediately copied into a new note, under whatever tab you think best. What’s more, you can add notes to the note the email is contained within, giving context. And even better, it also copies the attachments along with the email itself. Which leads me to my last, greatest discovery…
• You can use it to free up space in your inbox. If, like me, your work inbox is limited to a paltry 200mb, you’ll find yourself constantly surfing a fine line between “your inbox is nearly full” and “your inbox is full, you may not be able to send or receive further messages”. I work in comms, and unfortunately that entails people sending me photos and PDFs. Constantly. Now, hey-presto. I can click that OneNote button and the email and all its attachments are copied elsewhere, meaning I can delete the original and free up space. So much better than the previous method of saving the attachments somewhere then deleting them off the email - never a great way to keep track of stuff.

The above may seem obvious, but together they have made a huge difference to my working week. And the opportunities don’t stop there. By sharing documents using OneNote I can see how we could stop a lot of pointless rework - for example, when proofing our internal newspaper, we currently have to place the PDF on a shared drive. By the time everyone’s taken a look we have four or five copies, each with its own amends, that then have to be collated onto one further copy. This shouldn’t have to happen… however, we need to figure out how to do it.

I hope the above has been useful to someone. And as a relative newcomer to OneNote, I’d be really interested to hear how others are using it to improve their working day.

Alas, smithing groans

 

Oi, Ernest - I've written something, can you just work your magic on it? 

There’s a word used used at my work I really can’t be doing with. Well, if I’m honest, there’s lots of words people use in my business that mess with my swede, most of them multi-syllable nonsense.
But the one I want to talk about today is “wordsmithing”. In my 28 year career as a journalist and internal communications dude, I’d honestly never heard of it before I came to my present place of work.
I understand that people aren’t using this word in a derogatory way. What they are saying when they ask me or one of my colleagues to “wordsmith” something is that they would like us to use our recognised skills to make their scribblings better. No offence meant.
But what I hear is that my actual skills are being ignored. Believe it or not, your communications team weren’t put in place to tidy up the messages you’ve already decided to put out. We are NOT the last tick in the box to “get a comm out”.
We should be the FIRST port of call, because we have the skills, the knowledge and the connections to take your germ of an idea and make it the best it can possibly be. Which may not be what you actually think you want, but we can ensure that your message gets read by the right people at the right time.
That means planning, and deciding what happens when. It means talking through the messages you want to send out and understanding who the audience is.
So by waving your already written comm in our general direction for us to “work our magic on it”, you are assuming an awful lot. You’re assuming you know what other comms are due to go out and when, and what priority they have. What’s more, you’re pretty much assuming your message is the most important. You’re thinking that you’ve got it nailed, and all it needs is a bit of basic admin and some fancy words to make it zing. You’re assuming you can do the job of a person who has been to college, learned their trade at the sharp end and had many years of perfecting what they do, learning what works when and how. You know, kind of like how you learned your trade. How would you like it if someone came to you and told you how to do your job?
I love my job... and part of that love comes from making the written word sing. I like nothing better than inserting a clever pun, or turning around a story so it becomes a turn-on to new ideas rather than a turn off. That does mean that sometimes "wordsmithing" is required. But I'd rather share that love of what I do with you before we even start, so I can make your content the best it can possibly be.