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This year's CiB Conference was held in Brighton in May - see the stories below.
It featured top speakers, real-life experiences and case studies, interactive workshops and of course great networking.
Day 1 focused on change communication with thought leader T J Larkin and James Timpson, MD of a major retailer. Alan Cook, MD of the Post Office, also talked about his experience of change environments.
On Day 2 the focus was engagement - tackling the many elements that go into developing strategies. We heard from Penna and the Pension Service about the major transformation and engagement strategies that helped transform the department, and enjoyed interactive workshops.
If you want to find out more about previous CiB conferences use one of the links below.
In the past four years, The Pension Service has undergone one of the UK’s most radical transformation programmes. Alasdair McKenzie (left), director at Penna, and Charlie MacKinnon, director of transformation at The Pension Service, outlined how the department has acted with courage and confidence to create a clear view of the future for its people using effective and innovative communications.
The Storytellers
Alison Esse and Martin Clarkson of Storytellers showed how they are are helping large organisations around the world to improve their performance by engaging their people in strategy, vision, values and change through storytelling.
“The old methods of the 70s and 80s don’t work,” Martin said. “The recipe of newspapers, e-mails and weekly updates doesn’t engage people.
“What does is compelling human interest stories from people in the company - showing how they are living the brand values.”
“It’s our true north.” That’s how Sara Moorehead, director of communications and corporate affairs at Barclays Retail Bank, describes the organisation’s new comms approach. Following its merger with Woolwich and changes of leadership, with consequent changes in strategy, some employees were left sheltering below the parapet.
Click to see photographs taken at CiB’s annual dinner in Brighton on Thursday 22 May. Paul Brasington took over from Suzanne Peck as CiB chairman; Scotland won the regional prize, which was accepted by regional director Roy Carter; and Steve Nichols (CiB webmaster and ezine editor) and Steve Knight (editor of communicators) won the chairman’s award for their work on the association's communications channels.
Paul Brasington is the new chairman of CiB. He took over the reins from Suzanne Peck at the association's AGM in Brighton.
Paul is passionate about communication and feels he is well placed to stand as CiB chairman again – he held the position in 2003/4 and received the chance to become the first person to fill the post twice as a result of a recent rule change.
Memos are banned, you receive no e-mails, there are company holiday homes and you can borrow some money if you get into a tight spot financially. If this sounds like your dream job then hot-foot it to sign up for one of the six vacancies retail business Timpson currently has to fill.
But drongos (after a 1920s Australian racehorse which came last in all 37 races it was entered for) need not apply, as James Timpson, managing director of this 630 outlet, family-run “shoe repair to Angelsey pub” business made very clear in a punchy, no-holds-barred case study on the first day of conference.
Alan Cook, managing director of The Post Office, has been facing one of the toughest times in the organisation’s 360-year history. He has been managing a network of around 14,300 Post Offices against a backdrop of strikes and closing rural branches.
In this nine-minute Podcast Alan talks to CiB webmaster Steve Nichols about the problems he faces surrounding post office closures and how he has set about communicating with all stakeholders.
Click on the play button above or you can right click and download it here in MP3 format (3Mb) for your iPod or MP3 player.
The afternoon sessions at conference are all about hands-on activities. This year the task was to solve change communication issues by sharing ideas, plans and approaches and developing solutions.
Introduced by BBC TV presenter Louisa Preston, the scenario set was that delegates had been drafted into the communications team for ABC - a fictional company going through a merger.
TJ Larkin, change management guru and co-author of the McGraw-Hill bestseller “Communicating Change”, was the headline speaker at this year’s CiB Conference. In an engaging and entertaining presentation he spoke about the three things that companies fail to do to make their change communications work.
He said they:
Start their communications too late
They fail to use frontline managers as communicators, and
The two-day CiB Conference in Brighton is under way. Suzanne Peck, CiB chairman, welcomed delegates, saying that the theme of the conference this year is change, engagement and communication.
She added: “Change has two impulses - one is external and include things or events that happen over which we have no control. The other impulse is affected by the changes we can influence, such as employee engagement.
Alison Esse and Martin Clarkson of Storytellers showed how they are are helping large organisations around the world to improve their performance by engaging their people in strategy, vision, values and change through storytelling.
“It’s our true north.” That’s how Sara Moorehead, director of communications and corporate affairs at Barclays Retail Bank, describes the organisation’s new comms approach. Following its merger with Woolwich and changes of leadership, with consequent changes in strategy, some employees were left sheltering below the parapet. 
Paul Brasington is the new chairman of CiB. He took over the reins from Suzanne Peck at the association's AGM in Brighton.
Memos are banned, you receive no e-mails, there are company holiday homes and you can borrow some money if you get into a tight spot financially. If this sounds like your dream job then hot-foot it to sign up for one of the six vacancies retail business Timpson currently has to fill.
Alan Cook, managing director of The Post Office, has been facing one of the toughest times in the organisation’s 360-year history. He has been managing a network of around 14,300 Post Offices against a backdrop of strikes and closing rural branches.
ideas, plans and approaches and developing solutions.
TJ Larkin, change management guru and co-author of the McGraw-Hill bestseller “Communicating Change”, was the headline speaker at this year’s CiB Conference. In an engaging and entertaining presentation he spoke about the three things that companies fail to do to make their change communications work.
The two-day CiB Conference in Brighton is under way. Suzanne Peck, CiB chairman, welcomed delegates, saying that the theme of the conference this year is change, engagement and communication.