Retreat 201210th – 11th SeptemberThe Forbury

Outputs

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIALwww.flametreecommunication.co.uk/epic

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Contents

IntroductionSummary of the epic Retreat 2012 3epic feedback and testimonials 4

Speaker presentations summaryGraeme Leach, Chief Economist Institute of Directors 5Patty O’Hayer, VP Global Employee Engagement Unilever 7Conor Davey, Chief Executive Officer, Williams Lea Group 9Jim Connor, Head of Employee Comms & Engagement, Tfl 10David Bickerton, Director of Communications, BP 12Chantal Tregear, Director Taylor Bennett 13Jane Sparrow, Managing Director Northern Flight 14Nita Clarke, Director, Involvement & Participation Association 18

Appendicesepic 2013 new pricing structure proposal 20Contact information for speakers 21Recommended by our members/speakers at the epic Retreat 22Links and attachments 23

Retreat 2012SummaryIn September 2012, a group of leading in-house communications practitioners, members of the epic* forum, convened for a two-day Retreat at the luxury Forbury hotel in Reading. This year's theme was Re-engaging during challenging times, a topic that the epic* members had expressed an interest in as all areas of the economy continue to experience financial strain and workforces undergo considerable change.

It’s clear that IC leaders have a significant role to play in helping their business communicate recovery plans during challenging times. Having to do more with less provides an opportunity for IC practitioners to set the tone for their business and exercise their influence by capitalising on existing resources. Each activity affords a chance to identify where they can add value and provide real-time benefits to leadership (see Patty O’Hayer’s and Jim Connor’s presentations for examples).

In a hyper-connected world, approaching communications with a campaign mentality is also becoming more important – understanding the audience, finding the story and the tools to tell it, being consistent and credible and ensuring professional follow-up with an active community. While handling short-term demands, communications leaders also need to take the long term view on engagement, working with the prevailing culture of the business and moving beyond initiatives to engaging, equipping and developing their key influencing groups (particularly managers) over time.

The IC leaders’ role is evolving from a communications and engagement position to one focused more on driving business advocacy and growth. New skills are being sought in today’s communicator, in particular broader business experience, a strong self-awareness and a high level of coaching capability – all of which give the role the added gravitas discussed at previous meetings. *Executive Practitioners in Internal Communication

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Retreat 2012Feedback and testimonials

Most useful or enjoyable:• Networking strength, seniority and strategic level of attendees• Continuing to create the right environment/right membership for open and candid discussion• Quality of speakers and their insights and advice on specific areas (e.g. David Bickerton, BP reputation)• Having speakers stay on to join the subsequent discussion worked well this year and was stimulating• External perspectives from speakers outside the communications functions (e.g. Graeme Leach, IoD)• Knowing others are going through similar challenges and being able to share solutions/new ideas

Least useful or enjoyable:• Need a higher membership quota to balance the absence of those unable to attend (see new pricing structure)• Venue closer to London was good but didn’t match the open/relaxed environment of last year’s venue• Ensure a personal development element so we can return to the office and implement right away• Case studies and examples are useful: want more time to share best practice from our own companies

Comments and recommendations• Identifying areas where we can have influence/ set the agenda (e.g. Engagement Task Force)• Set a point in time and agree a tangible, time-bound vision for epic with accountability for delivery• Work to redefine the role of communications and engagement towards “business advocacy specialists”• Next time we meet discuss what action we are taking in the space of engagement to move the needle• Want to hear from other parts of organisations, especially HR, Strategy, IR – their perspective on IC

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Watch epic member testimonials: http://youtu.be/7idAB-0_GRk

Graeme LeachKey take-outs from discussion

Understand the nature of the current recession: All IoD data shows the economy has “flatlined” and this recession is very different to those that have gone before with the banks not in a position to finance a recovery

Recognise that the recovery is likely to be ‘L’ shaped: which represents the sharp downturn followed by a long period of flat, sluggish economic growth

Be discerning about the headlines: which can conflict with underlying economic measures. For example, the austerity programme is not as tough as has been widely communicated, with current spending up 5% on last year

Appreciate that recovery will take time: Is the ‘L’ the “lost decade “or the new normal? We have yet to see, but it will take time to unwind the debt situation and rebuild confidence. We could well emerge into a new environment

Support the solutions: A lack of a robust strategy is apparent and the IoD is pushing for ambitious, achievable policy changes to increase political conviction in long-term recovery (see over)

Chief EconomistInstitute of Directors (IoD)

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Graeme LeachKey take-outs from discussion

Build confidence: The tangibility factor in communicating the recovery is elusive as it’s difficult to develop a cohesive narrative against a backdrop of austerity images in the news. However, millions of enterprises are one part of the story as many continue to be prosperous through recession and are important drivers of job creation, economic growth and productivity

Demonstrate what is being done: The IoD’s Policy Paper The Route Back to Growth (attached above) identifies the top proposals for boosting the UK’s ability to respond to the global competitive challenge ahead

Find the stories: We are moving towards a new economy and the market is likely to evolve towards something different and more efficient. Long-term affluence continues to be driven by the exit/entrance of new firms. The IoD’s Britain in Business database is collating stories that defy current pessimism

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LINKS: Graeme in the news (22nd August 2012): UK economy – Action needed to boost confidence, says IoD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19341884 | IoD website: http://www.iod.com | IoD blog: http://blogs.iod.com | IoD on Twitter: http://twitter.com/The_IoD IoD on LinkedIn (Members Only): http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=139461&trk=hb_side_g

IoD - The Route Back to Growth

Read the IoD’s Policy Paper on the RouteBack to Growth

…continued

Patty O’HayerKey take-outs from discussion

Connect people to growth: Help them feel like part of the business. Their role is growth – show this to them 24 hours a day. Look at the moments in a day and map out how this could look, explicitly and more subtly, across all areas

Put your brand in the employees’ hands: Give employees a reason to use and advocate the brands they work for. Try an amnesty day when employees exchange a competitor brand product or service for one of their own

Define what advocacy is for the business: then build this into the induction process, connecting new hires with one another. Maintain momentum by working with the energy of the organisation, sharing stories and encouraging employees to self-mobilise around product and service launches

Build advocacy into “the way we do things”: Hold suppliers accountable for using your products, speak well of the company and adhere to your standards. Ensure behaviours are supporting your desired outcomes

Vice President Global EmployeeEngagement, Unilever

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Patty O’HayerKey take-outs from discussion

Paint the big picture for leaders: show the benefits and the scope for scaling ideas. Show what you can give and get in return

Maximise resources: for example, new hires can serve as test groups to provide real-time information on company products and services to the leadership teams. Build on existing projects, programmes and activities; make use of resources from other budgets; ask how can I add value here?

Remember the importance of campaigning: Use existing networks across the business to build tailored campaigns. Try making use of memorable triptychs e.g. “Try me, love me, share me…”

Don’t be precious: own your ideas long enough for them to be associated with your function then give them away. Feed other people’s successes

Start social: Over time, social engagement moves to business engagement

…continued

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LINKS: Patty’s LinkedIn profile: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/patricia-o-hayer/50/a1/4b9 | Patty O’Hayer on Twitter: http://twitter.com/pattyohayerPatty at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School (May 2012): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1ShhKbM2eo

Conor DaveyKey take-outs from discussion

Recognise the strengths and weaknesses of your business: As the business grows and changes, be clear on what your team excels at and what is best done by more skilled and experienced people

Communicate clearly and openly: across all media frequently – and in person wherever possible. Have a clear, over-arching goal (e.g. Williams Lea’s ‘£1bn business by 2010’). Be transparent in communications up/down the business

Embed the values of the business: keep it simple, and incentivise your people to live your values 24 hours a day. Be consultative and consistent

Recruit the best talent you can afford: Never rush a hire but always find people who can work collegiately

Be entrepreneurial: learn to think independently and differently. Question long-held views and common wisdom frequently

Enjoy what you do: and don’t do it otherwise

Chief Executive OfficerWilliams Lea Group Ltd.

©Flametree Communication Ltd. 2012 (9)LINKS: Williams Lea website: http://www.williamslea.com | Williams Lea Public Sector on Twitter: http://twitter.com/@govcommspartner

Jim ConnorKey take-outs from discussion Use inspirational events (in this case the London 2012 Olympic Games): to lay

the foundations for an integrated approach to employee comms/engagement Shift from an information-led to an engagement-led approach for employee

communications: to become a real strategic partner to the business prove that you can help the business exceed its own expectations around engagement

Get leaders to take accountability for engagement themselves: help them to see Internal Communication as a coaching force as well as a doing force

Forget platform events: Remove the formality and go out informally with real employees in their real environment. Listen and act on the support needed. Move from polished corporate editorial to real blogs where directors and employees write for themselves – authenticity is key to trust

Improve the engagement and soft skills of managers: by offering tailored training, particularly for the Top 100 “centurion” managers, and help them to switch their mindset from managing a space to managing people

Head of Employee Communications & Engagement, Transport for London

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Jim ConnorKey take-outs from discussion

Get staff operationally ready and geared up to deliver for customers: mobilise the workforce and help them connect with and support each other across the business (e.g. via closed online communities, mobile technology)

Make employee campaigns visible to customers: where this is appropriate, to stimulate interest and dialogue between them (e.g. the ‘One transport team bringing noise to the Games’ campaign across Tfl)

Ensure campaigns are interactive and tangible: Encourage employees to share and comment on their own stories and images around a campaign. Keep the buzz going on “business as usual” days

Remember there are no thunderbolt solutions: Just make a start. It’s about making employees feel different about themselves and their environment

Read the full Tfl London Olympic Games 2012 story: attached above

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LINKS: Jim’s LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jim-connor/10/94/254 | Transport for London website: http://www.tfl.gov.uk Tfl on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TfLofficial

Jim Connor - Tfl London Olympic Games 201

…continued

Read Jim’s full summary of Tfl’s employee engagement activity during the London 2012 Games

David BickertonKey take-outs from discussion Clarify decision rights early: Ensure sign-off processes are robust so

information can move around the organisation quickly in a crisis Take a campaign approach: Learn from the best campaigns and how you can

structure a professional response to a crisis along political campaign lines Consider the culture of the business: and work/communicate within the grain

of the dominant culture (e.g. in BP’s case, an engineering culture) Recognise that the media world has fundamentally changed: In a hyper-

connected world prepare accordingly with: appropriate web capability; sufficient server bandwidth available to cope with increased web traffic in a crisis; well-established real-time media monitoring and social media response systems; internal enquiry-handling processes; film production and editing crews; satellite broadcast capability if needed etc. Valuable response time is lost setting up teams, technology and procedures when a crisis hits

Director of Communications, BP

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David BickertonKey take-outs from discussion Be aware of the visual nature of a crisis: people

remember powerful images of big events. Prepare to respond in a transparent, equally-visual way

Provide communications freedom within a framework: and use policy as an enabling tool rather than a restraining tool

Use internal research as a predictive tool: Consider the science of behaviour in addition to business tracking as usual and use big data to look forward

Consider business as usual: when a crisis subsides but legal issues continue, stories will appear in the media at intervals and will require a response

Equip employees: with the means to be confident to talk about the business’s direction. Coach influential leaders to speak up for the organisation and identify key operational people who can communicate in a credible way early

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LINKS: David’s LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-bickerton/2/95/133 | BP website: http://www.bp.com BP on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BP_Press | BP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bp

See how BP is communicating with its customers on Deepwater Horizon:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BPplc

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Chantal TregearNew IC skills emerging

There has been a noted increase in the diversification of skills sought in today’s Internal Communications leader

An understanding of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability is emerging as a more prominent requirement in recent months

A high level of coaching capability is also favoured, coupled with a strong self-awareness – who you are, how you come across, how you respond to situations and the flexibility of your style of communication. Good coaching skills can help individuals to be stronger IC players and provide added gravitas

A broader array of skills and practical experience is also sought, and IC leaders should develop in as many areas as they can. Extending skills even across differing projects within the team, or with a secondment, helps to shape thoughtful communications leaders with a greater perspective

Director Taylor Bennettepic Associate

LINKS: Taylor Bennett website: http://www.taylorbennett.com | Chantal on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/chantal-tregear/3/ab0/103

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Jane SparrowWorkshop: The Culture Builders

Move beyond initiatives: In most cases, higher employee engagement and performance demands that leaders and managers do more than organisation-wide initiatives can achieve alone

Identify the manager-as-engager: Managers are the most audible, unavoidable and potentially influential communication feed to employees: and thus have the ability to drive and enhance change, or strangle it at birth

Build culture through the management group: How this group is engaged, equipped and developed is the most important consideration for organisations

Recognise the value of people management: The manager’s role in engagement starts with leaders and managers seeing it as a core part of the management job

The four lenses: Managers who want to increase engagement levels within their areas of influence need to recognise that four levels of focus, or lenses, are necessary: I (me); You (my colleague); Us (our team); All (the organisation)

Managing Director of behavioural change consultancy Northern Flight

Jane SparrowThe Culture Builders

…continued

The five Manager as Culture Builder Roles: To be a great engager and have the capacity to deliver through all four lenses, a manager must master five fundamental roles and recognise when each is needed:

Jane Sparrow epic slides

View Jane Sparrow’s presentation slides on The Culture Builders

Jane SparrowThe Culture Builders survey

To help you understand what your natural approach is when leading people during times of change, development and engagement activity complete the free Culture Builders Survey below.

There are no right answers, and no particular outcome that would make you more or less capable than another respondent.

All responses are kept confidential and only shared with you, and used to form an anonymous comparison group.

Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/theculturebuilders

…continued

A copy of Jane’s book ‘The Culture Builders’ is on its way to all epic Forum members with the next edition of epicNews

LINKS: Jane’s LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jane-sparrow/0/3b5/a62| Jane on Twitter: http://twitter.com/janiesparrThe Culture Builders website: http://www.theculturebuilders.com| The Culture Builders Blog: http://www.theculturebuilders.com/blog.htmlThe Culture Builders on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheCultureBuilders| Jane’s new book on Amazon: http://goo.gl/NpD9K

Nita ClarkeKey take-outs from discussion

Full presentation attached above Disengagement costs business: In 2008 the Department for Business

estimated that the total cost to the UK economy of disengagement could be as high as £60bn – a figure that has almost certainly increased

There is room for more discretionary effort: with 75% of jobs having a discretionary /knowledge element to them. A lack of trust in leadership and the growth of knowledge-based jobs has made this more important than ever

Active engagement requires a different mindset: it requires “sustainability through integrity” with “employee voice” the best mitigation of risk

The Engage for Success movement: is taking the long-term view v. the prevalent commercial short-termism around engagement. It takes time. The Task Force is urging shareholders to value employee engagement in companies and has compiled a list of CEOs who have lent their support to its aims

Director of the Involvement& Participation Association

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Nita Clarke epic slides

View Nita Clarke’s presentation slides on the Engage for Success movement

Nita ClarkeKey take-outs from discussion

The Engage for Success “go live” phase: takes place at the start of November with an event at the QEII centre in London and the release of a film to raise the profile of engagement. This will be followed on 26th November by the launch of a new, interactive website containing research, evidence and case studies collected by the Employee Engagement Task Force. The website is intended to help other practitioners make a case for engagement, as well as provide free tools, networking opportunities and ideas to help them deliver. The website will be accompanied by a series of free workshops right across the country

Darren is speaking to Nita Clarke to find out what epic can do to help bring the initiative alive (10/12th January 2013 Engage for Success event planned – epic members to be invited)

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LINKS: Nita’s LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nita-clarke/19/88b/427 | Nita on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nita_clarke Nita article 15th August 2012: http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=20512 | Engage for Success website and blog: http://www.engagingforsuccess.org | Engage for Success on Twitter: http://twitter.com/engage4success | IPA website: http://www.ipa-involve.comDavid MacLeod’s book ‘The Extra Mile: How to Engage Your People to Win’ on Amazon: http://goo.gl/eVt6f

Watch the latest Engage for Success update:http://goo.gl/l1mxL

New pricing structureepic 2012-13

Based on feedback from past and present members, we have been exploring how we can continue to offer the high quality professional development network that everyone seems to value in epic and at the same time provide more flexibility with the cost

Operating and supporting the network in a way that is commercially sustainable is also important and we think that we have developed a pricing structure (attached above) that does all of this and now offers a bit more!

You'll also see that we are proposing to introduce an epic Academy that will offer a development programme to build the next generation of IC leaders (currently in development).

We welcome your feedback and hope that this proposal offers more value and flexibility while giving you the best of what epic has to offer

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epic Flexible Pricing Structure 2013

Take a look at the new epic pricing structure that offers flexibility and value to new and existing members

Contact informationSpeakers

Speaker Telephone Email Darren Briggs 07867 900745 darren@flametreecommunication.co.uk

Chantal Tregear 020 7580 4300 ct@taylorbennett.com

Graeme Leach 020 7766 8778 graeme.leach@iod.com

Patty O’Hayer 07557 540384 patriciaohayer@gmail.com

Conor Davey 07899 811965 conor.davey@williamslea.com

Jim Connor 07837 044432 jimconnor@tfl.gov.uk

David Bickerton 020 7496 4076 david.bickerton@uk.bp.com

Jane Sparrow 07786 114831 jane@northern-flight.com

Nita Clarke 07767 622576 nita.clarke@ipa-involve.com

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Recommended at the epic RetreatReading UK economy: Action needed to boost confidence, says IoD

Recommended by epic speaker Graeme Leach. Link: http://goo.gl/4yTGJ The Culture Builders by Jane Sparrow

A complimentary copy of The Culture Builders is on its way to all epic members. Management in 10 Words by Terry Leahy

Recommended by epic speaker Nita Clarke. Link: http://goo.gl/kX6bM The Extra Mile by David MacLeod

Recommended by epic speaker Nita Clarke. Link: http://goo.gl/eVt6f

Browsing The Culture Builders Survey. Find your natural approach to leading people through

times of change. Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/theculturebuilders

Viewing Hans Wijers' leaving video as CEO of AkzoNobel. A great piece of CEO communication

with a few lessons to learn: http://youtu.be/wqseLp-vMGg Engage for Success update: with David MacLeod Sep 2012: http://goo.gl/l1mxL

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Links and attachmentsCopies and websites for handouts

Available slide decks are embedded in presentation slides for each speaker

Employees – the difference that makes the difference – Nita Clarke

Why Employee Engagement? 28 Research Studies – Forbes

How to beat the holiday blues and get back to business quickly – Jane Sparrow

Edelman Trust Barometer 2012 Global Deck

Sunday Telegraph Employee Engagement Report 2012

Global Social Media Check Up 2012 – Burson Marsteller

FOR NEW MEMBERS: Summary of last year’s epic Retreat also attached.

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