The Internal Comms Podcast

This week on The Internal Comms Podcast, host Katie Macaulay is joined by co-founder of Local Wisdom, tech expert and comms leader Pinaki Kathiari. With his rare passion for both the sciences and the arts, Pinaki has built a company that advises organisations large and small on how to launch and scale their comms platforms.

Internal comms technology has often been late to the party. But as Pinaki shares with Katie, we’re in a very exciting, pivotal time for comms tech. In this episode, they discuss the questions we should be asking of IT leaders, how technology has evolved in the IC space and what makes an effective channel suite. Also, listen out for Pinaki’s IC team maturity model and an insightful exchange about why it feels wrong to be human at work.

As always, share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. And thanks for listening.

We all deserve the opportunity to thrive at work. We deserve equal opportunity. We deserve to feel valued and included. That’s what diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is all about and as polarising as it may have become, it’s here to stay.

In this episode of The Internal Comms Podcast, DEI educator, author and comms leader Kim Clark joins Katie Macaulay to discuss how internal communicators and business leaders can play their part in creating more equitable, fair businesses. Her book, The Conscious Communicator: The Fine Art of Not Saying Stupid Shit, offers a refreshing view of DEI in the workplace.

From approaching change with leaders who may not be so receptive to the idea of DEI, to tackling unconscious bias by ‘calling in’ with our colleagues, there are many ways we as communicators can help build the organisations of tomorrow.

As always, share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. And thanks for listening.

In this episode, Katie Macaulay is joined by author and influential blogger, Seth Godin.

Seth was top of Katie’s guest wish list when The Internal Comms Podcast launched five years ago. As the author of 22 international bestsellers and as one the world’s most respected marketers, Seth has changed the way millions of people think about marketing, creativity and work. Now we lift the lid on Seth’s approach to internal communication.

This is a wide-ranging, fascinating conversation. Katie and Seth discuss the importance of understanding organisations and communications at a systemic level. They explore how much agency we really have – and how much we really want or need. And they touch on the notion of ‘false proxies’ and why we should be throwing them out.

Join Katie and Seth as they navigate the noise and get to the heart of what makes truly impactful – and effective – internal communication.

As always, share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. And thanks for listening.

In this episode of The Internal Comms Podcast, host Katie Macaulay welcomes international internal comms consultant and strategist Monique Zytnik to the hot seat. Monique is the author of Internal Communication in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. She has two decades of experience shaping strategies and crafting personalised, more meaningful communication experiences.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Katie and Monique talk modern-day communication strategies, and where they fall short. We discover how Monique’s early career in physiotherapy shaped her into the communicator she is today and how it has helped her tap into the hearts and minds of colleagues across the world.

We also dive into her layered, immersive and non-linear approach to internal comms and explore the importance of effort and authenticity in leadership.

As always, share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. And thanks for listening.

In this episode of The Internal Comms Podcast, host Katie Macaulay welcomes Matt Tidwell to the hot seat. Matt is a consultant, communicator and educator, and has led comms agencies, built brands, advised CEOs and nurtured the next comms greats at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. As you can imagine, he has a wealth of fantastic life experience to share.

We begin this episode by unpacking the influence Matt’s mother had on his route into comms. Matt shares the importance of empathy, curiosity and strategic thinking in internal comms and insight into the gaps in modern communicators’ skillsets. He also makes a strong case for upskilling in areas you might not expect. All this, and much, much more.

As always, share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. And thanks for listening.

We’re back for Season 12 of The Internal Comms Podcast, and in this first episode, host Katie Macaulay is joined by Senior Director of Corporate Communication at Iron Mountain, Neil Jenkins. Neil has led internal comms at British Telecom, Coca Cola, Vodafone and Siemens, and has more than a few tales to tell when it comes to engaging that hard-to-reach, disparate audience.

This episode goes ‘under the Mountain’ to discover how Neil engages 26,000 colleagues – or ‘Mountaineers’, as they are called – across 60 countries. Katie and Neil discuss the challenges of building an internal comms function from the ground up, dealing with restructuring and setting guardrails when resources are limited, how to galvanise leaders behind your cause and much, much more.

As always, share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. And thanks for listening.

McKinsey & Company is one of the world’s most renowned strategic management consultancies. With a mission of striving for “change that changes everything”, its global team of change and strategy consultants has delivered some of the most complex and challenging change programmes in the world. Join Katie Macaulay as she goes under the hood and find out what makes IC tick at McKinsey.

This episode’s guests – Andi Almond, Eric Sherman and David Honigmann – are part of the firm’s dedicated communications practice. The trio have cross-generational knowledge and experience, each bringing their unique yet complimentary approaches to the many challenges facing today’s organisations.

Tune in for a look behind the scenes at how McKinsey’s communications experts approach IC challenges, how to empower leaders to become true strategic transformation partners, why 70% of transformation projects still fail and how to make sure your project lands in the successful 30%. All this, and so much more.

As always, share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. And thanks for listening.

On a platform where the candid and the curious are king, how do you make sure what’s inside reflects what’s on the outside? Meet Sean Langston, Jr., Head of Internal Communication at Reddit, to find out.

Sean turned to internal communication following a formative experience at college, in which he realised that there was real value in helping organisations become “mess-proof” from the inside. As he explains in this episode of The Internal Comms Podcast, it’s his ethos of radical transparency, and a ‘say the thing now’ attitude, which has helped Reddit stand the test of time as the communities’ community – inside and out.

Sean is a staunch advocate for the empowerment of people leaders. You'll hear his strategy for equipping them for success first-hand. Also in this episode, he offers a fascinating perspective on the future of internal communication, lets us in on the secrets of guiding Reddit through its IPO, and maintains that as an internal communicator, if you’re moving slow, you’re too late. It’s thought-provoking and inspiring in equal measure.

As always, share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. And thanks for listening.

Ever been curious about how some of the biggest brands in the world tackle their internal communication challenges? Well look (or listen) no further. Kerri Warner, this week’s guest on The Internal Comms Podcast, held the reins at both Spotify and MasterCard.

Kerri has a huge range of IC experience spanning the consulting, agency and corporate world. Starting out in social science and psychology, she offers a unique view on how building trust and connection are really the building blocks of any change programme, and offers some really insightful advice on applying her principles in your work.

Listen out for Kerri’s ‘Five S’ strategy for internal comms that carried Spotify through a vast transformation, plus how to embed that all-important employee advocacy programme that will help drive your culture forward.

As always, share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. And thanks for listening.

As internal communicators, empowering leaders to clearly communicate business strategy, important updates and company values is a valued skill. How can we inspire colleagues and leaders alike to make the complex simple?

This week’s guest and founder of Present Your Science, Melissa Marshall, has built a career educating scientists, engineers and technical professionals about how to present their insight. “The work matters,” she says, but as is discussed in the episode, so often we hear people say they’re simply no good at public speaking.

Melissa says that there’s a toolbox that will help even the most anxious public speaker improve their presentation skills. And she has walked the talk – her own TED Talk, Talk Nerdy To Me, has been watched nearly three million times.

So, if you’ve ever felt the trepidation of an upcoming talk, or struggled with distilling the complex into the clear, this is a conversation for you.

As always, share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. And thanks for listening.