This is what I do mum

For the past 18 years, my parents have been totally unable to explain to anyone what I do. I've variously been a corporate communications manager, a head of internal communications and, for the past eight and a half years, a corporate communications consultant.

Now much of that time has been spent on internal change programmes, and partly through client conidentiality, and partly because material pertinent to one company is immensesly boring to anyone else, it has been hard to bring them into my world and explain that I'm not a straight-forward journalist or editor, website creator or anything they'd consider a normal job.

However, over the last two years, in an effort to bring some regularity to my income - and to play back to my core strength in writing - I have been taking on more regular magazine work. This is certainly easier when having to balance my workload with the demands of a university course at the same time. And, actually, after the rollercoasters of about five years of solid change programmes, planning a magazine, interviewing people, writing it up, getting stuff signed off and seeing the production process through (though I'm actually less involved in that than I used to be) is a really rather satisfying process. It even fits in with days like today, when one child has been throwing up in the sink, the rabbit's got another vet trip and Jac is off on a course in the wilds of Yorkshire, remote from phone and email.

While the internal comms magazines still tend to stay internal, I've been writing b2b and even b2c publications for a charity and a number of corporate clients. Two have come out recently and you can see Solve - for a law firm here and Connections for a major recruitment business here.

I'm really pleased with both of these publications, and both have earned praise both from the clients and, most importantly, from their clients and potential clients.

But of course there's no time to rest on any laurels, with the next issue of Solve already underway, and more Connections just around the corner.

There's definitely something very pleasing in producing a tangible result from my communication efforts, even though these externally-focused magazines are just the tip of the Leapfrog iceberg......but at least I can show them to my mum!

Do a few things well

I've had no new work in for the last two days. Now, normally that would be a fairly usual state of affairs, but work has been non-stop since June, and it's actually nice to have time to lift my eyes from the screen now and again without the expectation of another phone call, meeting or even a vital email just around the corner.

Project juggling has been fun but tiring over the past few months, and has reinforced my underlying communication philosophy: whatever comms challenge you're faced with, the best response is to do a few things well.

In recent weeks, I've had requests around projects for new newsletters, blogs, websites, assemblies and even a picnic lunch. Most have been very well-meaning attempts to move an agenda forward, but most haven't been thought through. The emphasis has been on the event rather than on what it's trying to achieve.

So, in each case, I've gone back to the client with pretty similar advice:

• Think audience
• Keep it simple
• Keep it focused
• Use the comms tools that people already use; and
• If you have to bring in a new tool, make sure it's one that your audience is happy to use.
• The middle of a project is no time for grandstanding, and the most important communication isn't necessarily a knee-jerk response to those who shout loudest.
• The communicator shouldn't be seen as the face of the communication - that has to come from the people who will bring whatever policy, change or advance to the business as their everyday role. As soon as we communicators are perceived as the 'voice', the message is already one step removed from the reality of the audience.
• Whatever you do, make it easy to comply with the process - and ensure it delivers the right action for you. We don't communicate just to be heard.
• Finally, don't do too much. Assess the outcome you want to achieve - and do a few things well to ensure you achieve it.

Funnily enough, the less can definitely be more message seems to have got through...perhaps that's why the phone hasn't rung today?

Several steps away from the board; working for HR or Corporate Comms....but the budgets are getting bigger

CiB are running a survey to gauge where in house communicators sit in terms of seniority, budgetary control and to look at the kind of work they're involved in. The survey's also looking at the relationship between CEOs and IC.

I've had a look at the early results, and while it's too early to draw too many conclusions, the function still seems largely split between Corp Comms and HR control; no-one so far is operating at board level, and there are a fair few loan IC-ers out there.

What's encouraging is that there seems to be more budget for IC than a few years ago and, most encouragingly, more budget as a proportional spend when compared with external comms.

The survey's set to run for a wee while yet, so if you haven't had a chance to complete it, why not give it a five minute whirl now?

Getting the balance right

I came home buzzing last night following a two hour discussion at uni around who is driving globalisaton - and whether globalisation exists at all. What was the role of the state? Are they in thrall to multi national corporations? Is the north endemically bad for the south? Is it all the fault of US consumers? My group spans Asia, Africa, Europe and North America and the debate was lively. I was even sufficiently charged up to volunteer to open next week's seminar on the impact of the Bretton Woods Conference. Seeing as last week I'd never even heard of Bretton Woods, there's clearly something clicking in about the new MA work. I really enjoy it: it's what I want to do.

So it was hard this morning returning to the mundanity of work. Now none of my projects is mundane in itself, but there's a certain familiarity with corporate comms after 20 years in the business. The same issues arise and while the challenges are always a little different, there's a lot of repetition in what I do.

At the moment I'm being urged to stay involved in one project that I know I can't commit sufficient time to - and I've already knocked back an offer of some interesting work that time simply won't allow me to take on. One of my magazines is picking up speed - and that's always fun as it comes to life, while three other projects are all on the stove somewhere, and the trick is to keep them all cooking by keeping the clients active and the projects moving to a conclusion.

That's easier said than done and it's too easy then to fall into the trap of taking on too much new stuff to fill the perceived gaps. These days I'd rather keep pushing to ensure those already on the go reach their natural conclusion, and work to bring on one or two more a little further down the line. There's been too much famine or feast in this kitchen over the past few years. Now, with a chunk of time to hold for study for the MA, it's essential that there's always enough bubbling - and nothing boiling over.

Ok, well I think I've stretched that analogy well beyond its natural life....