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Strategic Comms

Comparison is the thief of joy – don’t do it to yourself.

By Strategic Comms

I don’t know about you but it’s definitely been a busy start to the year already! Which, whilst exciting, is a reminder of how important it is to pace ourselves and be kind to our minds and our bodies.

Social feeds full of people sharing their achievements can, if we let it, quite quickly feel overwhelming and demoralising if we spend too long looking at everyone else.

Seeing other people shouting about achievements – can often make us feel like we should be doing more, pushing harder, pursing other things. It can make us feel inferior or envious that others appear to be doing more or having more success than us.

Appear is the key word here because it’s important to remember that we all have our own model of the world. What is important to us, is not to others and vice versa, and therefore our goals and measures of success are all very different. Similarly, we all see things, interpret things and internalise things in very different ways based on our individual lives and experience.

This goes to reinforce how comparing your achievements to others is a pointless activity that can lead to the creation of a negative inner dialogue that becomes demotivating. What you believe about other people (based on what you see, read and hear) becomes your reality. In some cases convincing yourself that everyone is doing more or doing better  – this story you are telling yourself, is not the truth – it’s your interpretation based on your model of the world!

The important bit is that you are following your path, so spend some time getting really clear on your goals and what it is that you are chasing. Not someone else’s. And remember that comparison is the thief of joy and is self-sabotaging, doing it will only serve to detract you from what you want to achieve. No more doomscrolling – it’s not helping.

If you can shut out the noise, if you need to delete social apps from your phone take a break for a few weeks. The feed will still be there but the algorithm will also have changed and you will see different content. Mute the prolific posters that you find evoke frustration or anxiety.

I always think spring is a good time to refocus and make a fresh start, make the decision to put your goals and happiness first and spend some time getting really clear on what success looks like for you in the coming weeks and months.

Helping organisations and leaders connect the dots, navigate change, and communicate with clarity and confidence.

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May 18, 2026

Getting Back to Basics

By Strategic Comms

Strategy, Structure and Governance – three key elements to help you become a more strategic communicator and build a more strategic comms function.  

What do I mean?

I’m talking about how well do you know the organisation you work for, what it’s trying to achieve and how it will get there. Making the time to do this is one of the biggest challenges facing a lot of the teams I’ve worked with but it is the game changer to becoming a more strategic function.

The most common challenges I’ve seen is an under resourced team, that has been under invested in over the years. Or a function that has grown organically in an unplanned way, possibly in response to a business critical need, and never had the time to recalibrate.

When you’re in the daily grind it’s so hard to take the much needed pause and step back for a moment. But if we want internal comms to be seen as, and used as, the strategic business function that it is then this is a pause worth making the case for.

So how can you get ahead?

Read the business strategy, and get a good understanding of what the business is trying to achieve and by when. Make sure your team has also read the strategy!

  • Where is the business heading? 
  • How will it get there? 
  • How is it measuring success? 

Focus on getting enough knowledge to answer these three key questions.

Then – and this is the most important but often complex bit of the puzzle – get a solid understanding of how the business is set up to deliver the strategy and where decisions are made.

  1. Get your hands on structure charts and reporting structures.
  2. Understand the governance.

Why is structure important? 

The business will have been structured in a way that will help it operate most effectively to deliver the strategy, or if it’s a new strategy may well be in the process of moving to a new structure. If you’re supporting on a change programme then understanding the ‘as is’ and the desired ‘to be’ and why is critical.

The structure dictates how the communication should flow and the different layers of the organisation.

Then get to grips with the governance. 

  • Where are decisions made? 
  • Who is making the decisions?
  • When and how are these decisions being shared?

If you can really understand the operational drumbeat and flow of decision making you will be setting yourself up for success.

It’s no secret that line managers are the key, and biggest challenge, in successful organisational comms. Investing the time in getting to grips with the strategy, structure and governance will help you make sure that managers have the information they need to support their teams to deliver their part in the strategy.

Armed with the above insight and confidence in the business you will have a really solid framework to plan your communication. It will enable you to provide really solid advice to your leadership team and understand where to invest your time and effort.

Helping organisations and leaders connect the dots, navigate change, and communicate with clarity and confidence.

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May 18, 2026

Let’s talk about change

By Strategic Comms

Let’s be honest talking about change is something organisations don’t generally do very well! We’ve all been on the receiving end of poor change communication and if you work in comms you’ve had that frustration of trying to influence leaders to be more open about change.

70% of change initiatives fail to deliver their intended outcomes. We are working in a time of unprecedented change, when leadership visibility, clear communication and connection are required more than ever. I’ve pulled together a few tips to help get your thinking focused.

As communications professionals we play a key role in supporting businesses and leaders through change. It’s one of the areas of my work that I enjoy the most, but it is also the most challenging.

So how can we help organisations deliver successful programmes of change?

  1. Understand the why before writing your narrative. 

Ask lots of questions to make sure you really understand the reason for change and what the change is. Then work with your leaders to make sure they are aligned and agreed on the why before writing your narrative.

This narrative sits at the heart of all communication, it will be the framework to ensure consistency, repetition of messages, and familiarity in the way change is talked about. The word is a little overused now (in my humble opinion) and it can give a sense of ‘the story’ which has connotations of being made up.

However, consistency is what you are aiming for. It takes someone to hear a message at least 7 times for it to land. If there is inconsistency in this it creates mistrust. The purpose of aligning leaders on key messaging is to build a shared understanding and trust with employees wherever they are based and whoever they are hearing the message from. It demonstrates alignment and agreement from the top.

If you don’t own the story people will make it up, and trying to correct mis-information is much harder than getting your ducks in a row at the start.

  1. Create one central source of truth and make sure it is easily accessible 

This is a hosting area for all the information relating to the change so that people can quickly and easily find it at their leisure. Two clicks is all it should take, information should be regularly reviewed, refreshed and checked for accuracy.

  1. Brief regularly

Even when there is nothing new to say, tell people, because silence fuels anxiety, and depending on your culture and levels of trust silence may be construed as things being done behind closed doors. You will be judged against the success of your last programme of change – it’s important to do your homework and understand how other programmes of change have been delivered – what worked well and what do you need to avoid.

  1. Be open and honest

Let your managers and team leaders know it’s OK to be honest if they don’t know the answer to a question. But make sure managers know how to raise this with the programme team or leaders to get an answer – again you don’t want voids of information. Managers are vital in change – they are trusted by their teams so its important at the outset that you build these relationships and you check in regularly with them.

  1. Use your influencers 

Every organisation has them. These are the people that everyone listens to, who have an opinion on everything that is happening. Tap into these people, build rapport and bring them on the journey. They will be able to help you get the message out. Influencers are trusted by their peers and if they have the right information can be an asset in your communication.

Change can be tricky – it’s complex, it’s emotive but in summary;

Tip 1: Understand the why, own the story and lock down the narrative, consistency is key here and builds trust and understanding.

Tip 2: Create a central source of truth, make sure it’s always up to date

Tip 3: Brief regularly – if there is no new information say so.

Tip 4: Be open and honest and let managers know it’s OK to say you don’t gave all the answers and if you don’t know don’t make it up.

Tip 5: Use your influencer to help get your message out.

Helping organisations and leaders connect the dots, navigate change, and communicate with clarity and confidence.

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May 18, 2026