That's Not What I Meant

When Covid hit and workforces were separated and kept from usual routines, internal communications pros stepped up and in to manage the huge challenges around messaging, reassurance, and updates. In this episode, I talk to Advita Patel, Director of Comms Rebel, Co-founder of A Leader Like Me and CIPR UK Board Member, about why internal comms messaging goes wrong, what employees expect from employers and, of course, the impact of Covid on internal communications and internal communicators.

Part review, part forecast, this episode covers a lot of ground on the big and timely topic of internal comms. 

Follow Advita on Twitter

Everyone talks about data - how it's collected, shared, whether we want to give it up and in this episode I speak to Tom Forth, Head of Data at the ODI Leeds about the main reasons we distrust data, how the two main ethical arguments of data usage are in conflict and how the UK's closed off approach to data is holding us back. And the big question of whether we'd download a bin app create by Dominic Cummings. 

Download the full transcript

In this episode I talk to Sean Earley, Social Strategy Director at Teneo about how we're using emoji to be understood in a time where the watching the news cycle creates a rollercoaster of emotions and each day brings a new wave of things to be outraged, worried or joyous about.

We look at emoji as a global democratized language, how new emoji are selected and reveal the most used emoji in the world and what's skyrocketed during the Covid19 pandemic. And, bad news for emoji haters, it looks like they're here to stay. Listen to find out why emojis are here for the long haul and how brands can use emoji to champion causes.  

Download the full transcript here

Autism is still widely misunderstood. In this episode I speak to Callum Ronan of Callum Ronan Creative to hear his story about communicating with others as someone who has Autism and Aspergers - especially in the business world. This honest and insightful discussion has lessons we can all learn and I discover some similarities in how Callum and I cope with a noisy, busy world.

Download the transcript 

After the Government's latest Coronavirus update was announced on Sunday night - the PR community, myself included, moved to decry the messaging as vague, unhelpful and even dangerous. On this last-minute podcast, Dr Rebecca Whittington, chats to me about the language used throughout the crisis and we talk about how many different ways one message can be understood. 

How does the language we use to talk about entrepreneurship affect those studying the subject and how we view becoming an entrepreneur? Dr Sally Jones, Reader in Entrepreneurship and Gender Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University joins me to discuss her research on this and reveals some surprising details about the language of recruitment. 

Download the Episode Transcript