Now that teams are able to get back together, you may want to use your next team away day to spark creative ideas and solutions. Here are five steps you can take to get the most out of the time together…
Read MoreI have got a cold. It’s not Covid (apparently), so no big deal. But it has made me realise that I don’t have much in the reserve tank at the moment. I don’t think I’m the only one. The last two years have been a lot. So how do we maintain individual and team resilience in all of this? There are no easy answers, but here are my thoughts and some approaches that we have found to be helpful.
Read MoreAmong the many themes we’ve focused on through our group sessions over the years, one of our most productive has been helping teams to think from the ‘outside in’ rather than the ‘inside out’. If you’re considering more work with your team in this area, here are three of our favourite creative techniques.
Read MoreWe’re hearing from more people asking us to run face-to-face team sessions. So we thought it might be timely to share what we’ve learned about what works when you bring teams together, as well as some of our most vivid moments from working with teams IRL.
Read MoreKeep crossing your fingers because, at time of writing, lockdown restrictions are being lifted. We’re not out of the woods but as we emerge, blinking and slightly dishevelled, in the post-pandemic dawn’s new light, can I just say well done to all the comms and marketing teams out there? That was quite a ride.
Read MoreWe were recently asked by CharityComms to update their insight and guidance for members around comms team structure and building a healthy, productive team culture.
The following blogs, based on qualitative interviews with 16 charity comms leaders, looks at some of the key challenges around team structure and culture:
A big thank you to the comms leaders and advisers that have contributed to this work and to CharityComms for trusting us with this. We are grateful to all of them for their generosity and openness in sharing their experience.
Read MoreThe world has moved on since CharityComms last looked at comms team structures in 2015, and original plans to update the research were affected by the pandemic. But knowing how relevant this is for many of you right now we have worked with our partners at RandallFox to take soundings from members with recent experience of restructuring to share.
Read MoreWay back in the year 2019, I would have told you that face-to-face communication was the one sure-fire way to build trust within your team and to foster creativity.
Then the pandemic broke, Zoom saw a thirtyfold increase in usage, and we all began our rapid learning curve in remote working. The reality is many comms teams have had no in-person group meetings in eight months, and so it feels like the right time to ask: ‘just how wrong was I?’.
Read MoreA push towards stronger audience focus increasingly feels like an unstoppable force in the sector.
In our recent soundings with charity comms team leaders, several cited a stronger audience focus as the driver for a team re-structure. Others shared insights around how to achieve this through team culture and different ways of working.
Read MoreThe teams that we work in can have a profound impact on how we feel by the end of our working day. So how do we create the right team environment for individuals to thrive? We reflect on our own experience supporting communications teams, as well as research on team culture, and highlight these four key areas.
Read MoreShow me a person that loves having their work reviewed and I’ll show you someone with a massive ego and the hide of a rhino. And yet, time and again, we’ve seen reviews of a communication/marketing function produce big leaps forward for a team.
Whether it’s to support a new strategic approach, adapt to new technologies, refocus after budget cuts or simply to ensure you are on track, a good review of a comms function can bind a team together and even raise the profile and appreciation of comms in an organisation.
Read MoreWhat do the best comms teams have in common? Five qualities that separate the great from the good.
“Italian food is all about the ingredients, and it’s not fussy and it’s not fancy.”Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck
Our work brings us into contact with communications teams of all sizes across government, charities, the NHS and universities. But what makes for a great comms function? Like the finest Italian dishes, the best teams we meet stand out for some very simple ingredients.
Read MoreIn our work advising charities on their communications, we often look to examples of campaigns that have made an impact. Very occasionally we see a campaign that reminds us how charity communicators can definitively change the lives of thousands of people.
Read MoreWhen online methodologies burst onto the qualitative research scene over five years ago there were predictions of the death of the focus group. The reality has been less dramatic. Nothing beats having a proper chat with our research participants, but online methods are allowing us to access their thoughts and behavior in more convenient and, often, revelatory ways.
Read MoreElvis got it wrong. He asked for: ‘A little less conversation; a little more action’. Yet anyone who has run a communications campaign that has changed professional practice will know that ‘conversation’ and ‘action’ are inextricably linked. You often need one to achieve the other.
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