The Internal Comms Podcast

The holidays are coming. So, what better time of year to welcome Shanna Wendt, Vice President of Communications at Coca-Cola Euro Pacific Partners, to the Internal Comms Podcast.

Coca-Cola is one of the world’s most famous brands. The inner workings of the organisation are however less well-known. In this episode, Katie Macaulay gets to peak behind the curtain and explore a world of IC that mixes the internal and external and speaks to an audience of 41,000 people.

Katie and Shanna discuss the shift towards operational communication, using anthropological methods to better understand employee needs and the importance of line managers as both channels and capable communicators. They also explore the value of walking the factory floor and the role of internal communication in building trust. Plus, Shanna’s belief that “communications starts and ends with your employee.”

Listen in. Share your thoughts – use #TheICPodcast

An internal communication profession in an impenetrable bubble is no use to anyone. It helps, from time to time, to reach out, listen, learn – fill yourself up with a story from outside the corporate carousel.

It’s in that tradition that Katie Macaulay invited poet, playwright, author, former university chancellor, official poet of the London Olympics, honorary fellow of Oxford and Cambridge colleges, winner of the 2024 Hay festival medal for poetry and three-time Sunday Times bestseller Lemn Sissay to the podcast.

Together they sat down to discuss everything from the British care system in which Lemn grew up to Microsoft PowerPoint. They also explore the value of taking the word ‘busy’ out of your lexicon so you’re forced to say something more exciting, the one crucial element of any story, and following a writing scheduling that means you start each day ‘facing the fact that somebody might see what you’re doing as no good.’

Extraordinary, insightful and – to use a word Lemn doesn’t like to use too much –inspiring.

Share your thoughts on this and any episode of the Internal Comms Podcast using #ICPodcast

Content warning: This episode includes discussion of suicide. Listener discretion is advised. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]

‘The qualities that matter most are not technical skills, but inner resources’ is the central thesis of comms coach David Norris’ work. Good news if you don’t want to read the IC tech manual. But then again… how do you raise that inner game?

You can start by listening to this revealing and captivating conversation between David and Katie Macaulay, recorded for episode number 127 of the Internal Comms Podcast.

After more than two decades leading communication teams in the UK and across Asia, David is now an executive coach. Many of his clients are fellow communicators, which has given him a privileged peek into the challenges we face day to day.

In this episode Katie and long-time podcast fan David explore where confidence really comes from, taking a more experimental approach to work, ‘the dig’ and ‘the gift’, a 90-second technique to find inner calm, powerful advice for anyone who feels undervalued at work and why knowing authority figures can be wrong is crucial.

Listen in and start raising your inner game. Share your thoughts – use #TheICPodcast

In this episode, Katie welcomes back the Internal Comms Podcast’s MVP, founder and CEO of Dewpoint Communications Victoria Dew.

Back in 2022, Victoria featured on episode 61 of the podcast – our most popular yet, with 21,000 listens and counting. She returns three years later with the same incredible insights into our industry, an infectious enthusiasm for all things IC and a clear-minded view of our, at times, convoluted profession.

She also comes clutching her fascinating new report and, in this episode, Victoria and Katie discuss Connecting the frontline: Current trends, challenges, and strategic opportunities in workforce communication at length. It’s a report that addresses the successes and failures of organisations communicating with the 80% of workers who aren’t tied to a desk. And, as Victoria explains, it’s a ‘love letter to comms pros’.

They explore ‘cracking the frontline code’, the misconception that frontline workers aren’t particularly engaged, the AI-influenced changes coming down the line and a business-focused way of thinking about your comms function.

Tune in, enjoy and join the conversation – #TheICPodcast

Ryanair flies 200 million passengers to 37 countries in 600 aircraft, a huge operation with a pop-cultural reputation for cheap cheap flights and frank, tongue-in-cheek communication.

With 27,000 employees in a range of roles – from IT to operations, engineers to cabin crew – the internal communication challenge is similarly huge. So, what is the comms and culture really like inside Ryanair? Internal Communications Manager James O’Connor visited the on-screen sofa with Katie Macaulay to explain.

Katie and James discuss Ryanair as ‘an exercise in efficiency’, a concept many IC teams would benefit from adopting. Plus: the ups and downs of measurement, two-way IC platforms, great timing vs. great lighting, leaving your ego at the door, having fun with content, embracing the negative feedback, the 10-metre Joker in the reception of Ryanair HQ and how to persuade a leader that things don’t have to be perfect.

Take your seat, put your tray table in the upright position, tune in and join the conversation – #TheICPodcast

Episode #124 of the Internal Comms Podcast is a joint interview with returning guest Steve Crescenzo and his business partner and wife Cindy. Together, with host Katie Macaulay, they put the world – and words – of corporate communications to rights.

It’s frank. It’s funny. And it’s full of fantastic, practical advice to help your content cut through.

Together, they tackle the big IC challenges, from measurement to pushing reluctant leaders beyond ‘Well, these people will listen to me because of my job title.’

Plus: the value of ‘why’, the most popular question in a company-wide town hall, the smart, no-nonsense advice for creating content people want to read and how long an online article should be.

But first, they banish some bad writing habits, starting with your very first sentence…

If you’re bored of clichés or joyless jargon, this one is for you. Tune in and shape your sentence in the comments – use #TheICPodcast

In this episode, host Katie Macaulay learns how to get social media right.

Tough ask? Not when you’ve got Roger Christie on hand to help. For the past 15 years the founder of reputation advisory firm Propel has helped senior executives gain the confidence and insight they need to earn trust in a world where trust has become a precious commodity.

In this highly quotable episode ( ‘There should not be a difference between who you are and how you turn up online… that perception gap is the greatest risk for leaders’, ‘ Your value online isn't just in the words that you say, it’s how you make people feel,’ etc…) Katie and Roger talk about minimising the risks of social media, internal communicators’ roles as capability builders inside organisations, trust signals, listening, and why the world doesn’t need any more tone-deaf content.

Tune in and join the conversation – #TheICPodcast

Season 14 of the Internal Comms Podcast kicks off with a conversation about happiness.

Host Katie Macaulay welcomes Professor Catherine Sanderson to discuss what really makes us happy. The internal comms hook? As internal communicators, we’re often asked to promote wellbeing initiatives at work; the link between happiness and productivity is clear.

Together Katie and Catherine – a professor of psychology at Amherst College, celebrated speaker and bestselling author – discuss how happiness is not a trait but a choice, not a gift but a practice.

They also explore what happens when leaders model the right and wrong behaviours and why good people stay silent in the face of wrongdoing, the core theme of Catherine’s book, Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels. If you’re running a speak up campaign – or planning one (AB can help!) – this one is for you.

As this episode goes live, we’re entering the final quarter of the year. So it is perhaps the best time to listen to someone who devotes their working life and substantial intellect to help people ‘lead happier, healthier, better lives.’

Join the conversation – #TheICPodcast

In this episode of The Internal Comms Podcast, Katie Macaulay is joined by Jo Hudson, Group Director of Internal Communication at Bupa.

Jo has spent the past 16 years at Bupa, one of the world’s largest healthcare organisations. She’s worked across internal and external comms, PR, media relations, brand and engagement. Now, she’s leading IC in a complex, global business, with 100,000 colleagues speaking multiple languages.

So how do you keep people connected, aligned and inspired?

Jo shares what she’s learned about building trust, creating clarity and cutting through the noise to give people space to connect. She talks about what really matters during the rollout of new and disruptive tech (Bupa rolled out Workvivo to their 100,000 employees in less than a year), why leaders need to show up and how storytelling helps people make sense of strategy.

And yes – there’s an elephant. Not in the room, but on the move. Part metaphor, part mascot – all comms magic. Intrigued? Tune in and share your thoughts. Use #TheICPodcast to join the conversation.

In this episode of The Internal Comms Podcast, host Katie Macaulay sits down with alignment strategist and leadership coach Zora Artis to explore a crucial question: how can internal comms teams unite people around what matters most?

It’s no easy task, but Zora brings three decades of in-the-trenches experience. As CEO of Artis Advisory, co-founder of the Alignment People and a partner at Mirror Mirror Alignment, her work focuses on getting leaders and teams unstuck and helping organisations untangle competing priorities, find common ground and move forward with confidence.

As Zora’s research shows, only 13% of organisations achieve real alignment and she explains why diagnosing the real problem matters more than simply turning up the volume on messaging. Misalignment often hides in plain sight, masked by polite nods, surface-level agreement and subtle misunderstandings, she says. Meaningful, facilitated dialogue – not broadcast communication – is often the missing piece.

She also introduces her ‘3C+’ model and cohesion cycle: practical frameworks to help teams stay agile, find purpose and work as one. Along the way, Zora shares lessons from elite sport, psychology and her own leadership journey, where curiosity, courage and a little discomfort all play a role.

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Use the hashtag #TheICPodcast to join the conversation, and thank you for listening.