Moving Employee Communications To The Top of the List

There's a new blog out on Employee Communications, a subject near and dear to my heart. It's called For Your Approval, and it's written by Ron Shewchuk, who's the author of a new book from the IABC called Writing and Editing the Internal Publication: Delivering Employee Communications with Impact, Integrity and Style.

His post today is a thought-provoking piece called The Myth of the Strategic Communicator. He raises some good points in this first of what will be several posts on this topic.

He takes aim at the notion that if communicators are going to be relevant in business, they have to gain a seat at the executive table. But in his experience, that's not a path to success, especially for communicators.

Well, I’m here today to tell you that I’ve been a temporary dinner guest at that strategic table more than a few times in my long and sordid career. And I’m ready to share a little secret: most of the time the guests are insane and the food is undercooked, overcooked, rotten or poisoned. Very few decisions actually ever get made. Long-term direction is often nothing more than the path of least resistance, or whatever your cranky investors are insisting you do next. And battle tactics are devised in a very deep, cushy bunker in which the primary goal is not victory, but self-preservation.

He's got lots of other good stuff, like why a psychopath would fit into an executive suite and how communicators share a lot with social workers. It's provacative and worth reading.

Another new blog
Another interesting update for business communications blogs is the launch of the IABC Communications Commons. The blog is actually a series of blogs (3 at the moment) which will feature well-known communicators talking about what matters to them.

Shel Holtz, who has a long history of championing new media for communicators and is the co-host (with Neville Hobson) of the For Immediate Release podcast, was one of the driving forces behind this new venture, which is sponsored by the IABC. Surprisingly, though, I couldn't find any mention of it on the IABC website yet. Perhaps it's too new to point to.

The Communications Commons features three sub-areas right now -- Branding, Employee Communications and Measurement. You can sign up for RSS feeds for each of them, as well as the general feed.

It's an indication that communicators are getting serious about using the blogosphere as a way to spread knowledge. If you're in communications and you want to stay in touch with how our world is changing, I encourage you to check out these new resources.

Technorati Tag: Corporate Communications,Leadership, Employee Communications