Author: Jenni Field
Five things I’ve learnt about running a successful business
This is a special month for me and the Redefining Communications collective, as we celebrate five years since we launched! A lot has happened since ...
View Post
A model for internal communication strategy and planning
What model should I use for internal communication? It’s a question we get asked a lot – we all love a model or a ...
View Post
The latest trends in internal communication
It’s 2012 and I’m walking into a meeting in the Euston head office of the company I work for… There were about six of us ...
View Post
How a internal communication audit can help you be less chaotic
Internal communication audits can be hugely helpful in exploring how you change your internal communication channel mix. This is about looking at how people receive ...
View Post
Creative internal communication campaigns – why we need to have more fun!
I was teaching about change communication recently and the discussion unfolded about campaigns to engage employees in a brand change. It dawned on me that ...
View Post
How do we communicate and bring senior team leaders along on a journey of change?
Organisational change is something we frequently support clients with and we’re often asked about how best to communicate change effectively and bring people along on ...
View Post
Tried-and-tested frameworks for communicating organisational change
We talk a lot about organisational change with our clients. The Field Model™ is designed to help you go from chaos to calm and as ...
View Post
Checking in with your culture and why the Great Resignation isn’t all bad
The Great Resignation has put an even bigger emphasis on the importance of company culture in recruitment and retention. In this article published by Kogan Page ...
View Post
Inspiring Goodies – reframing leadership, changing habits and finding quiet
The last few months have been focused on reading and professional development for me. I knew the start of the year would be one centred ...
View Post
How to manage stakeholders
In a recent podcast episode, I talked about how to manage stakeholders. A stakeholder is someone who has an interest in the organisation. Stakeholders are ...
View Post
Ask me anything: solving communication, leadership and organisational chaos
As part of our Reality check research into the issues and chaos affecting their organisations and teams, we gave respondents the opportunity to ask us ...
View Post
Reality check – what’s really causing chaos in organisations?
We help clients work out the root cause behind issues that are impacting efficiency and employee engagement. This can often be big-ticket items like mergers ...
View Post
How a manifesto can help achieve alignment with your strategic narrative
A few years ago I was at an employee engagement conference listening to various internal communicators sharing their case studies. One of them was from ...
View Post
How RASCI can help you gain clarity and calm
Whenever I work with leaders going through The Field Model™ or helping communication teams get their strategy in place, I often use the RASCI framework. ...
View Post
How to avoid team friction – from poles apart to pulling together
“We have to allow ourselves to be prepared to be convinced by opposing arguments. We must revisit conclusions as we receive new and relevant information, ...
View Post
Inspiring Goodies – Chicago Fire, The Great Indoors and letting inspiration flow
I’ve realised that I find inspiration in almost everything. From Chicago Fire on Netflix to the way products are packaged as gifts for Christmas. It ...
View Post
Cracking the challenges of leading from a distance
We’re very pleased to announce a collaboration with Lee Sheldon at Mastering Multi-Units on his new Leading Remote Teams programme available for teams of up ...
View Post
What is organisational culture and is it important?
Following a podcast interview with Vicki Marinker – Don’t Shoot The Messenger – here I share my thoughts and suggestions on how to build a ...
View Post
How to master internal communication when you’re not a communications professional
Working in communication seems to have been a calling for me from a young age. I took communication, English and business studies for A Level ...
View Post
The Field Report launches on Amazon
We always like to send clients, associates and people who have supported us a gift at the end of every year. This year the Redefining ...
View Post
A time to reflect – a year of variety, insights and community
How has your year been? Productive with a touch of chaos? Or challenging with some key milestones reached? Perhaps a bit of a mixture! Every ...
View Post
Communication trends in 2022 – and how they’re changing more slowly than we’d like!
It’s that time of year when our social media feeds start to fill with blogs about forecasts, trends and themes to look out for in ...
View Post
Five myths about hybrid working
I recently co-hosted a webinar with best-selling author of Remote Work, Chris Dyer, to explore the pitfalls and assumptions around hybrid working – one of ...
View Post
The seven essential elements of organisational transformation
Every day leaders are constantly dealing with challenges, change and an inevitable degree of daily firefighting. Striving to focus on the longer-term goals to survive, ...
View Post
What’s the best way to diagnose issues in your organisation?
I think it’s fair to say that internal communications professionals are more likely to count themselves as words people rather than numbers people. However, accessing ...
View Post
Diversity and inclusion: why we need to invest in ourselves and take action to drive change
A few weeks ago I spent a day at a diversity and inclusion workshop. It was through my work with the CIPR and it was ...
View Post
Why employee engagement needs to be more than just campaigns and rewards
In 2020 I read The Art of Resilience by Ross Edgley. In the book, Ross shares the story of his swim round the UK. There ...
View Post
Why we need to understand symptoms versus root cause
If you’re a CEO or senior leader, you’ll understand this feeling… you know something’s wrong but you’re not quite sure why. It might be affecting ...
View Post
Ambiguity, resilience, and the Stockdale Paradox
“You need to get comfortable with ambiguity” was what my old boss told me. I really struggled with this, partly because the ambiguity was everywhere, ...
View Post
Culture shock – why we need to be more intentional when communicating organisational culture
I’ve been writing and speaking a lot recently about culture and the return to the office. It’s becoming the topic for everyone in business as ...
View Post
Champagne, showers, sunshine and celebration!
When my book, Influential Internal Communication, launched in April this year, we were guided by COVID-19 restrictions and I was unable to hold an in-person ...
View Post
Five books to inspire you this summer
I’m always reading or listening to something and so far this year there are five books that have really influenced my thinking. If you’re looking ...
View Post
Working from home reduces productivity by 20%
Last week I shared a podcast clip from The Diary of a CEO. It’s hosted by Stephen Bartlett and in this episode, he interviews retail ...
View Post
Inspiring Goodies – The Bold Type, rest and recuperation, and Rebel Ideas
The Bold Type – showcasing warm, inspirational and strong female leadership I have binge-watched The Bold Type on Netflix in the last few months. For ...
View Post
The pandemic revolution
It’s going to take us 25 years to reap the true benefits of flexible working… that’s if the industrial revolution is anything to go by. ...
View Post
Why we’ve signed up to support the Better Business Act
Redefining Communications has recently signed up to support the Better Business Act, which calls for every company in the UK to align the interest of ...
View Post
Inspiring Goodies: empowerment vs autonomy, is IC management consultancy and freedom in a framework
This was an interesting month for inspiration as I found myself focused on the results of my line manager research and my book launch events. ...
View Post
Empowered decision-making is not really decision-making at all
When it comes to the different approaches to management and culture, many leaders have moved on from command and control. This top-down approach has its ...
View Post
Line managers need investment in communication skills and relevant content from the centre
Throughout March and April, we carried out some research into the role of line managers in organisations. This is for line managers to tell us ...
View Post
How to beat Zoom fatigue and harness the power of audio
May is National Walking Month in the UK. When I was speaking at the Global Women in PR Inside Stories event recently, I talked about ...
View Post
Out in the Field – Gallagher Employee Experience and Communication
Back in 2019 Ben Reynolds, Managing Director of Gallagher’s Employee Experience and Communication division, engaged Jenni to implement The Field Model™ and explore the reality ...
View Post
How fear and culture will impact hybrid working
In February I wrote about hybrid working and asked if the term is a red herring for leaders. In the blog I said: “So rather ...
View Post
There is my truth, there is your truth, and there is fact
In this blog, which was originally featured in Influence, I talk about being mindful of interpretation. A few years ago, I was at lunch with ...
View Post
Inspiring Goodies: the people who inspire me, five seconds and leaders with purpose
What’s inspired me in the last month? Here are three things you can listen to (podcast episode and a book) and read (book and report)! ...
View Post
How to have a difficult conversation
At some point, we all need to have difficult conversations. Some people actively shy away from it, wanting to avoid confrontation, others don’t have any ...
View Post
Influential Internal Communication – book launch
This week my first book is being published. The idea of writing the book started in May 2019 and with encouragement from those around me ...
View Post
How to be human
From the start of the day I was hooked. It was an event that had speakers I was connected with on social channels, but hadn’t ...
View Post
The power of language
Last week I completed the MHFA England course and I’m now a certified mental health first aider. I took part in the course because I ...
View Post
Why you need to invest in your communication skills to stay focused and productive
It’s becoming increasingly hard to focus our attention. We live in a noisy world; one that makes us feel like we need to keep up ...
View Post
Line managers under the microscope
New research into the role of line managers! Line managers matter; they hold the key to many challenges inside organisations. They are one of the key ...
View Post
Psychological safety and trust are not the same thing
I have been listening to and reading The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson. It’s a book that was recommended to me by Dr Kevin Ruck, co-founder of the ...
View Post
Why competitive busyness is toxic for you and others around you
I talk a lot about productivity, setting boundaries and managing attention. In the last six months I have seen a huge increase in a sense ...
View Post
Inspiring Goodies: the series everyone was talking about, psychological safety and Clubhouse
Every month we’ll share three things that have inspired our thinking over the last month for you to have a look at, listen to or ...
View Post
Is the focus on hybrid working a red herring for leaders?
In this blog, (original version featured in Influence), I talk about the changes in the workplace and the overuse of the word hybrid. I was prompted ...
View Post
What is The Field Model™?
The Field Model™ came from a conversation about how I describe what I do. Over the years the need to be mindful, explore other perspectives ...
View Post
Why we rush to fix before we understand
In my blog, What is The Field Model™? I talk about the three elements of our model: Understand – Diagnose – Fix. In this blog, ...
View Post
Inspiring Goodies: ways we delude ourselves, trust and accountability
Last year Inspiring Goodies was a section in my monthly newsletter, Perspective, but for 2021 we are bringing them to our blog to share a ...
View Post
Why being more specific in 2021 is essential for organisations
At the end of last year, I asked my community across LinkedIn and Twitter what they thought the trends were going to be for business ...
View Post
Field Notes – a year behind the screen
What a year it’s been! As I write this I’m sitting in my office, surrounded by boxes and debating putting on gloves as it’s so ...
View Post
Can’t see the wood for the trees?
People often say we need to stop, slow down, take more time to think about what we’re doing and reflect on the bigger picture. Quite ...
View Post
The skills we need to take us into the next era of comms and engagement
The Bionic Business report from simplycommunicate provides insight into the way organisations need to change to adapt to a hybrid working environment in the wake ...
View Post
Aligning needs to employee engagement – how we can easily get it wrong with the best intentions
Many people working in communications, marketing and PR will be familiar with Marlow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It is often one of the main models taught ...
View Post
Spotting burnout: seven ways to solve your stress cycle
I’ve been doing a lot of research recently into mental resilience, reading about the increasing burnout, stress and loneliness we’re experiencing; the sense of being ...
View Post
Why routine and focus is a challenge right now
This week I finished listening to the audio version of Ross Edgley’s Art of Resilience. He talks a lot about circadian rhythm in the book ...
View Post
Employee Apps – where do we start?
In a world where most of us have smartphones (76% of people in “advanced economies”), be that a company device or personal, we are better ...
View Post
Hybrid working – what people are really thinking
The phrase “Hybrid working” isn’t new but it’s being used more and more. Most of us will understand it to mean a blend of working ...
View Post
Podcast going live!
Starting a podcast has been a topic that has been bubbling around for me over the last year. A few people have suggested doing one ...
View Post
Workplace technology – friend or foe?
Are organisations using technology ethically to help keep us safe and well, or is it a covert way to keep tabs on us now we’re ...
View Post
What questions are we still asking?
Our blog celebrated its 10th birthday this week and we’ve been going back through the archives to see what has/hasn’t changed. We’ve picked the top ...
View Post
How to remove bias in the attracting stage
We attended the CIPD Future of Work conference last month and it sparked a number of ideas, the most timely being around the importance of ...
View Post
How to pivot to drive growth
The word pivot became the word of my social media feeds in the first 4 weeks of lockdown. It’s a word I have seen many ...
View Post
The role of the communicator in influence and leadership
There are six pieces of advice that I always give when it comes to leadership and influence. During the MemCom Conference June 2020, I chatted ...
View Post
The science of fear
I’ve spent the last few months reading The Science of Fear by Dan Gardner. It is a book I have recommended to many, quoted several ...
View Post
How to recapture your work rhythm during and after a crisis
This week I took part in a webinar with Dynamic Signal to talk about how we need to consider the rhythm of work after the crisis. We ...
View Post
When home-working isn’t always the future you think it is
Since we all shifted to working from home I have been wondering; what will cities and offices look like in the future and what will ...
View Post
To survey or not to survey?
Last week I took part in the Generation Digital ‘Connected Companies’ webinar to discuss communication in a crisis. One of the attendees asked a question ...
View Post
How do ‘Connected Companies’ communicate in a crisis?
This morning I joined Hannah Sardar from Workplace by Facebook for a webinar hosted by the team (Graham Mackay and Jack Paine) at Generation Digital. ...
View Post
Comms, Change and Neuroscience – what’s the link?
Last week we attended the first Talk/50 event on Communications and Neuroscience. Hosted by Trudy Lewis of Lewis Communicate we heard from author Hilary Scarlett ...
View Post
State of the Sector 2020: What will it take to overcome our barriers?
Today I attended the annual state of the sector event hosted by Gatehouse, a Gallagher Company. This is always a ‘must attend’ event in my ...
View Post
Edelman’s Trust Barometer 2020: is ethics on your radar?
Edelman’s Trust Barometer has been running for 20 years. With over 34,000 respondents across 28 markets, it’s a trusted source and snapshot into trust in ...
View Post
The challenge of ambiguity and autonomy
This year I’m writing a book to help organisations understand how better communication can make things less chaotic. As I work with clients, and research, ...
View Post
Becoming an author
This year I have signed a publishing contract with Kogan Page to write a book about how to take your organisation from chaos to calm. ...
View Post
Big words, little meaning – what do we mean by measurement?
I have presented on some big topics over the last few months – measurement being one of them. In the last two sessions I showed ...
View Post
Mental health – the topic we love to talk about but hate to deal with
Mental well-being is a topic that more and more people are talking about as our society continues to evolve at pace with pressures from all ...
View Post
Be strategic with the tactical, and do an Adobe course if it’s where your passion lies
This week a question was asked to the IC Crowd about skills required for jobs in internal communications. The specifics were around recruiters telling someone ...
View Post
Leaders are not transformers
I have read many books about leadership, teams and motivation. Alongside these there are many books about change and the impact it has on an ...
View Post
How can I help?
Last month I started watching New Amsterdam on Amazon Prime. For those unfamiliar it’s about a guy taking over a hospital in the USA and ...
View Post
The purpose and the how
Over the years the importance of purpose, both individually and for an organisation, has risen on the agenda. There are books and TED talks that ...
View Post
Is authenticity dead?
For years we have heard about the importance of authenticity in leadership. I have worked in organisations where I have been told I’m too authentic ...
View Post
Don’t invade the canteen!
Communicating to remote or deskless workers has been one of the biggest challenges for organisations for years. Professional communicators have talked about this barrier, but ...
View Post
How do you achieve great communication in a multi-site organisation?
Last year Lee Sheldon, founder of Mastering Multi-Units (MMU) invited me onto his podcast to talk about my experience in supporting organisations communicate with a ...
View Post
Time for business leaders to step into the void
Trust at work – something we can take for granted and something that needs to be the core focus for organisations according to the latest ...
View Post
The missing skills of managers
Since launching the business in the summer of 2017, I have been lucky enough to discuss the importance of communication with a variety of individuals. ...
View Post
What’s the rush?
I have a passion for understanding organisations. Getting underneath the strategy, financial goals and organisational charts to really understand how it works is probably the ...
View Post
The importance of communication in your organisation
Earlier this month I hosted a workshop with Neil Tomalin to discuss the importance of communication inside organisations. As a roundtable discussion we wanted to ...
View Post
Why the new labour policy won’t help the employee voice
This week the Labour party announced plans to bring the employee voice into the Boardroom. Under Labour’s plans, all companies with a workforce of 250 ...
View Post
Getting Chartered – why I did it and what I will takeaway
On 10 September I finally got my Chartered Practitioner status. I set myself a goal at the start of 2018 to do it but I ...
View Post
The art of science and engagement in internal communication
We know that internal communicators are struggling to influence at the top, finding digital adoption hard across organisations and working with limited budgets. Some of ...
View Post
From informing to engaging: the role of IC in driving engaging and authentic leadership communications
This morning CIPR Inside and Luminous hosted an Ask the Guru event all about the shift from informing to engaging audiences inside organisations. As the ...
View Post
