🥂 A Year in Review: Here's to 2022
Highlights from Interviews, Best Practices and Book Reports + Share Your Suggestions for 2023
This was the year of kindness, caring, questions, gratitude, emojis and magic! It was also the year of war, failures, advice and change.
What Switchboard stories resonated with you in 2022? I’d love to hear from you — what have you learned, enjoyed or appreciated? Reply to the newsletter, add a comment or answer this short survey by Jan. 6th.
❄️ Would you consider sharing The Switchboard by forwarding it to a friend or posting a takeaway on LinkedIn? It’s my holiday wish to help more people with these interviews, best practices and lessons learned. As I wrap up the year, I’m grateful to the leaders who shared their career journeys and knowledge with this community. Thank you for being a reader and championing the importance of the ways we communicate at work and beyond. Below is a look back at highlights from 2022.
Best Practices
🖋️ Learn to Write for An Executive
Writing in someone else’s voice takes time, persistence and practice. Here are best practices from leaders:
📅 Editorial Wishes & Calendar Dreams
It's the destination for all of your content and images, but how does your editorial calendar get planned, reviewed and scheduled?
❓Best Advice for Managers
Managers are major partners for internal communications — they champion messages, share employee sentiment and build culture.
🎼 Communicating Change like an Orchestra Conductor
When it comes to change communications, we hope for harmony as the orchestra conductor of the work symphony. Here’s how to keep everyone in tune:
🚀 Why the Ways We Work Together Matter
With proper processes in place, teams can align, share and succeed together. Here’s how to approach this art and science:
🎺 Launching an Internal Communications Function from Scratch
This conversation with Jesse Comart walks you through getting started:
📝 Begin with the common channel
⚽ Learn the importance of collaboration across teams
🤹 Balance reactive and proactive internal communications
🙏🏽 Why We Should Say Thank You All Year Long
Learnings
☂️ If Mary Poppins was your Chief Culture Officer
“In every job that must be done. There is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job's a game. And every task you undertake. Becomes a piece of cake.”
⛅ What Sesame Street Teaches us about Communications and Careers
I hope this step back to “sweepin’ the clouds away” can help all of us remember what matters and bring a bit of a “sunny day” to work.
💕 Be Kind
🎡 9 Ideas for Fostering Inclusive Hybrid Team Retreats
Learn to host a meaningful gathering for virtual and in-person participants.
💛 Creating Your Caring List
With crises, it’s not business as usual with our to-do lists. Here are 5 ways to spark and maintain outreach during difficult times and beyond.
🍔 What The Museum of Failure Can Teach Us
There are approximately 150 flops in this very unique museum. Here are meaningful lessons from three of those stories as we strive to normalize talking about failure:
⛵ The Vasa Warship | Lesson: Don’t rush
🍔 McDonald’s Arch Deluxe | Lesson: Know your audience
🚲 The Itera Plastic Bicycle | Lesson: Run Safety tests
🎩 What Magicians can teach us about Internal Communications
This year, I had the honor of getting to know
of . He has taught me so much. Here are a few ways his magic can help you:⭐ The philosophy of “show, don’t tell”
🪄 What All Hands can learn from the principles of magic
🐇 Skills from magic to help internal communications
📸 What Creators Can Teach us About Communicating at Work
🍝 Be Your Authentic Self | Pasta Grannies
📈 Elevate Content Experts | Miss Excel
🎠 Foster Communities Not Audiences| Positively Present
🐶 Be Kind and Have Fun | Reagan Doodle
🥧 Embrace Creativity | Pie Lady Books
Book Reports
✨The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned by Disney’s Robert Iger
Strive to maintain a sense of wonder with a dose of humility. This is Iger’s leadership and life philosophy:
📖 Do/Story: How to tell your story by Bobette Buster
This book is filled with powerful lessons that help anyone tell a better story.
😂 Humor, Seriously by Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas
We need more laughter at work. Here’s the data and research to show why we need to embrace being funny professionally.
⚙️ Techniques to Try
📚 The Power of Ritual by Casper Ter Kuile
Rituals can teach us about how we communicate, collaborate and connect at work.
Campaigns
🙏🏼 Kindness at Work Honor Roll
This summer, I went in search of kindness, finding 21 stories that remind us that a little kindness goes a long way. Thank you to the nominators, Kindness Council and Ambassadors.
☎️ The Switchboard Operators
You had the opportunity to ask questions of featured leaders with The Switchboard Operators. Thank you to these leaders for answering your top-of-mind questions.
🪖 Honoring Switchboard Soldiers
This Veterans Day, I began a three-part series to honor The Hello Girls —Switchboard Soldiers of World War I with an interview featuring Elizabeth Cobbs. She brought the story of these women to the world’s attention. I invited the community to join me in writing to Senators and Congressional Leaders to recognize them.
Next, I focused on the Chief Switchboard Officer, Grace Banker and the children’s book author Claudia Friddell. The series concluded with Carolyn Timbie, Grace Banker’s granddaughter. While not a Switchboard Soldier, former Operator, Carol Bartle, gave me communications advice from her tenure answering the telephone.
Interview Highlights
Everyone I interview shared thoughtful responses so it was challenging to narrow down quotes for this section. Below are a few of the many responses that really resonated with me this year.
What sparked your professional path?
“As an employee, being able to learn about all that is happening at the company enables you to be a brand ambassador. The more we can create those kitchen table moments for employees for after work when they are asked at dinner — “how was your day?” — and they can share a highlight from work, the greater the impact we can make. Moments like this help people stay engaged and connected to the work they are doing.” –Leslie Letts
What is a project that you are proud of accomplishing?
“I worked on the team at Goldman Sachs that developed and launched 10,000 Women, the bank’s five-year $100M initiative to provide 10,000 underserved women in emerging markets with a business and management education. It was a pioneering effort in corporate philanthropy and social responsibility.
The program grew out of GS research that held that gender equality was an economic imperative. We partnered with major business schools across the globe to design and execute a multi-month business and management certificate program. The effort was accompanied by a robust metrics and evaluation program to analyze the impacts of the initiative. Women who went through the program grew their revenues and added jobs, creating opportunities for other women in their communities.
I worked not only to implement and oversee the program in several regions, but also to tell the stories of the extraordinary female entrepreneurs that were starting and building businesses, often while up against enormous systemic and personal challenges.” -Tracy Van Grack
“One of the reasons I chose to work at Scholastic is because of the iconic children’s brands it publishes, chief among them my all-time favorite: The Baby-sitters Club. I was thrilled to be on the communications team during the re-launch of the brand to a new generation of readers, and to be able to share my personal love of the series with Scholastic’s 14 million social media followers and 10,000 employees in a variety of ways over the years. And, working at Scholastic during the height of the Young Adult book craze, including when we launched The Hunger Games trilogy, married my professional and personal interests together in ways I couldn’t have dreamed of!” –Morgan Baden
How do you continue learning about your field?
“Because of my background in film, I learn from watching people talk and react in real-life settings. I approach learning as a screenwriter. It’s not about what people are saying, but the intention and energy behind it.
When you're writing a scene, the words don’t matter. The characters have their motivation. They know what they’re supposed to accomplish in the scene. The words could be anything because all of the acting is coming from non-verbal communications. The same is true of communications.” -Emily Singer Mandel
“Five years ago, I was introduced to a philosophy that’s been transformational for me — creating a Challenger Network. When I saw this post by Erica Alioto on LinkedIn about how she's created that network, I immediately loved the term!
We all have a network that pumps us up. It feels good and cheers you up, but is it really going to help you? This challenger network takes a subset of your network to truly challenge you — they're not just friends that always say nice things, but they will push you.
For me, it consists of agency owners, content specialists, video creators and designers. They ask me questions like — have you thought about trying it this way? When it comes to really zigging when others zag and really learning and growing, I lean on them heavily. I learn by talking to people in the industry, by pushing myself to think differently and by trying new ideas.” -Ken Shuman
“I've been writing ever since I could write — it’s because I didn’t have many friends growing up and I turned to writing to express myself.
Today, I write every night for 20 minutes. Most of the time, it’s for me to share something that I’ve been through. But, some pieces that I write end up in Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, AdWeek and other publications because I’ve practiced my craft. I make time for the things that are important — writing is my priority. It’s part art and part discipline.” -Mita Mallick
What advice do you have on launching an internal communications function?
“Don’t try to do this all yourself! It’s important to get the C-suite and HR on board early because they're the benefactors of your work. They are your internal business buy-ins. Make sure that HR understands the value of your work to you to build the company culture, increase employee retention or communicate through difficult change management.
The faster that you can identify a business purpose and get those business leaders to work with you on it by dedicating time and resources, the better off you'll be. Don’t do this isolation or create the goals yourself, you won’t be as effective.” -Jesse Comart
What is one of your favorite resources of incredible employee resources you’ve perfected over the years?
“My favorite is definitely the scrapbook of things I’m proud of! This is exactly what it sounds like; a collection of things I’m proud of. It’s a running list and hodgepodge of formats (screenshots, emails, pings, feedback, etc.) with no real organizational structure.
Mostly because it’s such a joy to look back at. Often, I’ll end the day or the week thinking, what did I even do!? This can lead me to be a little hard on myself or try to build in more structure to optimize my time or work harder. But when I open this file, I mostly get filled with the feeling of “you’re doing alright, Brie. Keep going.” And that’s a nice feeling (especially when you’re a team of 1).” -Brie Wolfson
Summary
Here’s a review of all the articles and interviews published this year. Consult the Index for the past two years of posts.
🍜11 Food-Focused Ideas for Fueling Internal Communications and Culture
🖋️ Learn to Write for an Executive: 8 Best Practices
🎩 What Magicians can teach us about Internal Communications with
☂️ If Mary Poppins was your Chief Culture Officer
⛵ Set Sail on a Summer of Learning: Podcast, Books, and more
⛅ What Sesame Street Teaches us about Internal Communications and Careers
📅 Celebrate World Emoji Day: 🪄Magic Wand or 🔮 Crystal Ball
🍔 What The Museum of Failure Can Teach Internal Communicators
🎨 Positively Present's Inspiring Illustrations: Q&A with Artist and Author Dani DiPirro
🚀 Why the Ways We Work Together Matter: 10 Steps to Align, Share and Succeed as a Team
🔮 The Future of Communications: Predictions for 2023 and beyond
📐Top 10 Skills for Communicators in 2022
Book Reports
✨ The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger
😂 Why Being Funny Should be a Requirement for Internal Communications
📖 Take a Storytelling Approach to Internal Communications
📚 The Power of Ritual: Finding Meaning and Connection with 6 Modern Traditions
Interviews
Chief Communications Officers
📋 Roberta (Bertie) Thomson: Chief Communications and Creative Officer, Notion
🌮 Jerilan Greene: Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer, Yum! Brands, Inc. and Chairman and CEO, Yum! Foundation
👗 Tiffin Jernstedt: Senior Vice President, Chief Communications Officer at Neiman Marcus Group
🌐 Joe Cohen: Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, AXIS
🌱 Tracy Van Grack: Chief Communications Officer at Revolution
Chief of Staff
🚀 Adrian Lai: Chief of Staff and Head of Operations at Wonderschool
DEI
🎙️ Mita Mallick: Head of Inclusion, Equity and Impact at Carta | Co-Founder, Brown Table Talk podcast
Communications, Brand and Marketing
📝 Cath Anderson: Head of Communications, Cityblock Health
🛒 Cynthia Horiguchi: Senior Director of Communications at Instacart
🍞 Ken Shuman: Founder of InterConnected Strategies and Interim VP of Communications at Misfits Market
🎥 Emily Busse: Director of Communications at Loom
✏️ Christopher Pearsall: Vice President, Brand & Communications at DonorsChoose
🛬 Julie Inouye: Communications and Marketing Executive and Advisor
Executive Communications
📘 Morgan Baden: Head of Executive Communications at Acumen | Author 📚
🎞️ Emily Singer Mandel: Senior Director, Global Communications and Public Affairs at Google
Executive Coaching
⭐ Mansi Goel: Executive Coach at Mansi Goel Coaching & Facilitation
📣 Christine Tao: Co-founder and CEO at Sounding Board
Remote and Future of Work
🦪 Rhys Black: Head of Workplace Design at Oyster
💻 Helen Kupp: Senior Director and co-founder of Future Forum at Slack | co-author of "How The Future Works"
🏰 Q Hamirani: Global Head of Live and Work Anywhere, Airbnb
Internal Communications
🛒 Leslie Letts: Global Director, Internal Communications & Community Engagement for Worldwide Operations at Amazon
🪁 Jesse Bianco-Lane: Head of Internal Communications at Webflow
🚪Allison King: Senior Director of Internal Communications & Editor in Chief at California Closets
🎨 Laney Erokan: Director, Internal Communications & Employer Branding at Patreon
🧪 Chase Warner: Director of Internal Communications at Real Chemistry
🏦 Luiz Whitney: Head of Internal Communications & Employer Brand at Pagaya
📁 Megan Stack: Head of Global Content and Culture, Internal Communications at Dropbox
🥫 Laura Colantuono: Head of Internal Communications, International at The Kraft Heinz Company
🏙️ Janelle S. Kpeli: Director of Internal Communications at Cityblock Health
🏦 Phillip Hales: Senior Director, Internal Communications at Stash
🧱 Nathan Fisher: Director of Internal Communications at Databricks
📺 Michelle Lyons Dandridge: Senior Director, Enterprise Communications and Colleague Engagement at Pfizer
🏠 Carolyn Clark: Head of Internal Communications and Employer Brand, Opendoor
✅ Jacob Bank: CEO and Founder, Relay
Employee Engagement, Culture and Branding
💡Lars Schmidt: Founder of Amplify, Author and Podcaster
💫 Surbhi Ugra: Head of Employee Experience Excellence at Unilever
🗺️ Holly Nicola: Head of Internal Communications and Employee Engagement at Mapbox
💫 Jared Taylor: Vice President, Employee Experience at Edelman
🧃Brie Wolfson: Recipe Development at The Kool-Aid Factory and Author of Founder Fodder
💡Danielle Boris: Founder & CEO at Sandbox
What Switchboard stories resonated with you in 2022? I’d love to hear from you — what have you learned or appreciated? Reply to the newsletter, add a comment or answer this short survey by Jan. 6th.
If you’re a subscriber, would you consider sharing The Switchboard by forwarding it to a friend or posting a takeaway on LinkedIn? I wish you happy holidays and a Happy New Year! Thank you for your support this year. -Julia
Congratulations on a great year, Julia! ✨
Wow! What a year you’ve had! Congratulations on an impressive body of work and for your shared wisdom! Wishing you a very happy, healthy 2023, Julia!