Afleveringen
-
For decades, organisations have obsessed over employee engagement. But what if we've been measuring the wrong thing? What if engagement isn't the key to organisational performance after all?
In this episode, Katie sits down with happiness researcher, statistician and author Nic Marks to explore why happiness is the foundation of performance.
Nic has spent more than 30 years studying what makes people and societies flourish. His TED Talk on the Happy Planet Index has been viewed more than two million times. His new book, Happiness is a Serious Business, challenges one of the most widely accepted ideas in management. Instead of focusing on how much discretionary effort employees are willing to give, Nic argues that leaders should start by asking a much simpler question: are people happy?
Katie and Nic explore the limitations of employee engagement, why happiness is a better predictor of performance than many leaders realise and how organisations can measure what really matters.
Along the way, they discuss why boredom may be more damaging than stress, why feelings are data, how relationships shape our experience of work and Nic's deceptively simple formula for creating better teams: Measure. Meet. Repeat. -
Where’s internal communication heading? Colin Archer has a pretty good idea.
In this episode of the Internal Comms Podcast, host Katie talks to the Spirax Group’s head of communications about an initiative Katie describes as ‘one of the boldest, bravest, most innovative I’ve seen.’
The Communicating Organisation is an approach to internal communications that replaces traditional top-down messaging with a network of trusted, peer-nominated employee Connectors who are equipped with the skills they need to share information and feed insight back into the organisation. It is designed to make communication more authentic, responsive and rooted in real employee experience.
The idea came to Colin while he was standing in a ditch. Katie and Colin discuss this unexpected origin story, plus the initiative’s impact, how it’s measured and where it’s heading. They also discuss internal comms role as a capability builder, linking the internal comms strategy to business strategy and how to make the time you spend at work time well spent.
Read more about the Communicating Organisation.
Listen, learn, then join the conversation – #TheICPodcast -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
-
All-star IC double act Kevin Ruck and Martin Flegg return to the Internal Comms Podcast to provide a to-the-minute update on where they think internal communication is today. And it’s not looking good for leaders.
‘Trust just isn’t there anymore,’ Martin tells Katie in an episode packed with insight. The authors of the newly published fifth edition of their book Exploring Internal Communication: Towards Dialogue in the Workplace share their thoughts on trust, the employer-employee relationship and the myth that line managers are worse communicators than senior leaders.
The episode also explores how employees are becoming more willing to speak up, the role digital channels play in stifling creativity, organisations deploying leader avatars, the rise of ‘casualisation’ and how to make content work.
Listen in, share your thoughts, then join the conversation using #TheICPodcast.
-
The podcast’s most frequent guest is back to share more of her invaluable insight, knowledge and IC know-how.
Rachel Miller, founder of All Things AI, change expert and author, is synonymous with the internal communication profession.
And she has a new book out: Successful Change Communication: How to Inform, Involve and Inspire Your Employees. It’s a practical handbook for any organisation navigating change, which, in 2026, is more relevant than ever.
Host Katie and Rachel discuss the catharsis of writing a book about change, the emotional impact of change programmes, the most common mistakes organisations make, Rachel’s four-part Cloverleaf model for assessing communication, AI in the workplace and the importance of marking the end of change.
Share your thoughts – use #TheICPodcast
-
In this episode, host Katie Macaulay sits down with one person and three job titles. Alex Zeitz is senior director of global operations, experience and belonging at Virgin Voyages. So, one job title really. But while many organisations would separate these responsibilities out, the award-winning cruise business deliberately brought them together.
Katie speaks to Alex to find out why.
Alex’s first time on a cruise ship was as a dancer. Since then, he’s gained 20 years’ experience across travel, hospitality and entertainment and shares what he’s learned. Katie and Alex explore how exceptional customer experience always starts with people, why great leaders admit they don’t have all the answers and how Virgin Voyages hires for skills, mindset and perspective, and looks for talent from outside the industry.
Drop anchor, dive in and share your thoughts – use #TheICPodcast -
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) is one of the world’s best-known and most extraordinary not-for-profit organisations.
One of its core principles is témoignage – to bear witness, to share. Communication, therefore, sits at the very heart of its mission and as Head of Internal Communications, Eva Kongs leads efforts to communicate with staff responding to some of the world’s most devastating crises.
From an internal communications perspective, this is a challenge like few others. 130 different nationalities. A truly frontline workforce setting up field hospitals, mobile clinics and improving sanitation in disaster zones. And an extraordinary range of roles – from medical professionals to drivers, accountants to anthropologists, fundraisers to architects.
In this special episode, Katie Macaulay and Eva (a long-time Internal Comms Podcast fan) discuss transcreation, how print at Médecins Sans Frontières has made a clever comeback, how experience can be more important than position and having a clear purpose.
Don’t miss it.
Tune in and share your thoughts – use #TheICPodcast -
If you’re tired of the ‘when will internal communication make it to the top table?’ debate, the first episode of Season 15 is for you.
Emma Bridger, a psychologist turned engagement specialist, has spent more than two decades helping organisations create more human workplaces. Lee Smith co-founded Gatehouse and launched the State of the Sector survey, now the largest global research study of internal communication.
They’ve written a new book, People-First Internal Communication: Improving Engagement and Retention in the Workforce, which moves beyond the long-running conversation about the influence of internal communicators and into an exciting new people-led era. They join host Katie Macaulay on the Internal Comms Podcast to discuss their big idea: thinking of employees not as an audience, but as actors.
They also explore why internal communication can sometimes feel stuck on repeat, how design thinking can transform the way we approach communication planning, AI, chaos and why the moments that matter most in the employee journey can be surprisingly small.
Tune in and share your thoughts – use #TheICPodcast -
The holidays are coming. So, what better time of year to welcome Shanna Wendt, Vice President of Communications at Coca-Cola Euro Pacific Partners, to the Internal Comms Podcast.
Coca-Cola is one of the world’s most famous brands. The inner workings of the organisation are however less well-known. In this episode, Katie Macaulay gets to peak behind the curtain and explore a world of IC that mixes the internal and external and speaks to an audience of 41,000 people.
Katie and Shanna discuss the shift towards operational communication, using anthropological methods to better understand employee needs and the importance of line managers as both channels and capable communicators. They also explore the value of walking the factory floor and the role of internal communication in building trust. Plus, Shanna’s belief that “communications starts and ends with your employee.”
Listen in. Share your thoughts – use #TheICPodcast -
An internal communication profession in an impenetrable bubble is no use to anyone. It helps, from time to time, to reach out, listen, learn – fill yourself up with a story from outside the corporate carousel.
It’s in that tradition that Katie Macaulay invited poet, playwright, author, former university chancellor, official poet of the London Olympics, honorary fellow of Oxford and Cambridge colleges, winner of the 2024 Hay festival medal for poetry and three-time Sunday Times bestseller Lemn Sissay to the podcast.
Together they sat down to discuss everything from the British care system in which Lemn grew up to Microsoft PowerPoint. They also explore the value of taking the word ‘busy’ out of your lexicon so you’re forced to say something more exciting, the one crucial element of any story, and following a writing scheduling that means you start each day ‘facing the fact that somebody might see what you’re doing as no good.’
Extraordinary, insightful and – to use a word Lemn doesn’t like to use too much –inspiring.
Share your thoughts on this and any episode of the Internal Comms Podcast using #ICPodcast
Content warning: This episode includes discussion of suicide. Listener discretion is advised. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected] -
‘The qualities that matter most are not technical skills, but inner resources’ is the central thesis of comms coach David Norris’ work. Good news if you don’t want to read the IC tech manual. But then again… how do you raise that inner game?
You can start by listening to this revealing and captivating conversation between David and Katie Macaulay, recorded for episode number 127 of the Internal Comms Podcast.
After more than two decades leading communication teams in the UK and across Asia, David is now an executive coach. Many of his clients are fellow communicators, which has given him a privileged peek into the challenges we face day to day.
In this episode Katie and long-time podcast fan David explore where confidence really comes from, taking a more experimental approach to work, ‘the dig’ and ‘the gift’, a 90-second technique to find inner calm, powerful advice for anyone who feels undervalued at work and why knowing authority figures can be wrong is crucial.
Listen in and start raising your inner game. Share your thoughts – use #TheICPodcast -
In this episode, Katie welcomes back the Internal Comms Podcast’s MVP, founder and CEO of Dewpoint Communications Victoria Dew.
Back in 2022, Victoria featured on episode 61 of the podcast – our most popular yet, with 21,000 listens and counting. She returns three years later with the same incredible insights into our industry, an infectious enthusiasm for all things IC and a clear-minded view of our, at times, convoluted profession.
She also comes clutching her fascinating new report and, in this episode, Victoria and Katie discuss Connecting the frontline: Current trends, challenges, and strategic opportunities in workforce communication at length. It’s a report that addresses the successes and failures of organisations communicating with the 80% of workers who aren’t tied to a desk. And, as Victoria explains, it’s a ‘love letter to comms pros’.
They explore ‘cracking the frontline code’, the misconception that frontline workers aren’t particularly engaged, the AI-influenced changes coming down the line and a business-focused way of thinking about your comms function.
Tune in, enjoy and join the conversation – #TheICPodcast -
Ryanair flies 200 million passengers to 37 countries in 600 aircraft, a huge operation with a pop-cultural reputation for cheap cheap flights and frank, tongue-in-cheek communication.
With 27,000 employees in a range of roles – from IT to operations, engineers to cabin crew – the internal communication challenge is similarly huge. So, what is the comms and culture really like inside Ryanair? Internal Communications Manager James O’Connor visited the on-screen sofa with Katie Macaulay to explain.
Katie and James discuss Ryanair as ‘an exercise in efficiency’, a concept many IC teams would benefit from adopting. Plus: the ups and downs of measurement, two-way IC platforms, great timing vs. great lighting, leaving your ego at the door, having fun with content, embracing the negative feedback, the 10-metre Joker in the reception of Ryanair HQ and how to persuade a leader that things don’t have to be perfect.
Take your seat, put your tray table in the upright position, tune in and join the conversation – #TheICPodcast -
Episode #124 of the Internal Comms Podcast is a joint interview with returning guest Steve Crescenzo and his business partner and wife Cindy. Together, with host Katie Macaulay, they put the world – and words – of corporate communications to rights.
It’s frank. It’s funny. And it’s full of fantastic, practical advice to help your content cut through.
Together, they tackle the big IC challenges, from measurement to pushing reluctant leaders beyond ‘Well, these people will listen to me because of my job title.’
Plus: the value of ‘why’, the most popular question in a company-wide town hall, the smart, no-nonsense advice for creating content people want to read and how long an online article should be.
But first, they banish some bad writing habits, starting with your very first sentence…
If you’re bored of clichés or joyless jargon, this one is for you. Tune in and shape your sentence in the comments – use #TheICPodcast -
In this episode, host Katie Macaulay learns how to get social media right.
Tough ask? Not when you’ve got Roger Christie on hand to help. For the past 15 years the founder of reputation advisory firm Propel has helped senior executives gain the confidence and insight they need to earn trust in a world where trust has become a precious commodity.
In this highly quotable episode ( ‘There should not be a difference between who you are and how you turn up online… that perception gap is the greatest risk for leaders’, ‘ Your value online isn't just in the words that you say, it’s how you make people feel,’ etc…) Katie and Roger talk about minimising the risks of social media, internal communicators’ roles as capability builders inside organisations, trust signals, listening, and why the world doesn’t need any more tone-deaf content.
Tune in and join the conversation – #TheICPodcast -
Season 14 of the Internal Comms Podcast kicks off with a conversation about happiness.
Host Katie Macaulay welcomes Professor Catherine Sanderson to discuss what really makes us happy. The internal comms hook? As internal communicators, we’re often asked to promote wellbeing initiatives at work; the link between happiness and productivity is clear.
Together Katie and Catherine – a professor of psychology at Amherst College, celebrated speaker and bestselling author – discuss how happiness is not a trait but a choice, not a gift but a practice.
They also explore what happens when leaders model the right and wrong behaviours and why good people stay silent in the face of wrongdoing, the core theme of Catherine’s book, Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels. If you’re running a speak up campaign – or planning one (AB can help!) – this one is for you.
As this episode goes live, we’re entering the final quarter of the year. So it is perhaps the best time to listen to someone who devotes their working life and substantial intellect to help people ‘lead happier, healthier, better lives.’
Join the conversation – #TheICPodcast -
In this episode of The Internal Comms Podcast, Katie Macaulay is joined by Jo Hudson, Group Director of Internal Communication at Bupa.
Jo has spent the past 16 years at Bupa, one of the world’s largest healthcare organisations. She’s worked across internal and external comms, PR, media relations, brand and engagement. Now, she’s leading IC in a complex, global business, with 100,000 colleagues speaking multiple languages.
So how do you keep people connected, aligned and inspired?
Jo shares what she’s learned about building trust, creating clarity and cutting through the noise to give people space to connect. She talks about what really matters during the rollout of new and disruptive tech (Bupa rolled out Workvivo to their 100,000 employees in less than a year), why leaders need to show up and how storytelling helps people make sense of strategy.
And yes – there’s an elephant. Not in the room, but on the move. Part metaphor, part mascot – all comms magic. Intrigued? Tune in and share your thoughts. Use #TheICPodcast to join the conversation. -
In this episode of The Internal Comms Podcast, host Katie Macaulay sits down with alignment strategist and leadership coach Zora Artis to explore a crucial question: how can internal comms teams unite people around what matters most?
It’s no easy task, but Zora brings three decades of in-the-trenches experience. As CEO of Artis Advisory, co-founder of the Alignment People and a partner at Mirror Mirror Alignment, her work focuses on getting leaders and teams unstuck and helping organisations untangle competing priorities, find common ground and move forward with confidence.
As Zora’s research shows, only 13% of organisations achieve real alignment and she explains why diagnosing the real problem matters more than simply turning up the volume on messaging. Misalignment often hides in plain sight, masked by polite nods, surface-level agreement and subtle misunderstandings, she says. Meaningful, facilitated dialogue – not broadcast communication – is often the missing piece.
She also introduces her ‘3C+’ model and cohesion cycle: practical frameworks to help teams stay agile, find purpose and work as one. Along the way, Zora shares lessons from elite sport, psychology and her own leadership journey, where curiosity, courage and a little discomfort all play a role.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Use the hashtag #TheICPodcast to join the conversation, and thank you for listening. -
If the platforms you use at work were built by Microsoft, this episode is essential listening.
Katie is joined by Alex Graves, Chief Visionary Officer at Silicon Reef — the people-first Microsoft experts — for a fast-paced, plain-speaking conversation on making technology work for people.
Alex shares practical strategies for rolling out new digital channels on a shoestring — including what corners you can cut, and the one you absolutely must not: discovery. He explains why Viva Engage is a philosophy, not just a platform, and how it can break down silos, surface expertise and build genuine communities.
Expect sharp insight on improving the often-fractured relationship between internal comms and IT, how to avoid information sprawl, and why early advocates, not all-staff rollouts, are the key to success.
Alex also reveals underused Microsoft features — from AI agents that act as personal researchers to the future potential of AI-generated daily podcasts summarising internal news based on individual interests.
Whether you're migrating from Workplace, refreshing your channel mix, or exploring Viva for the first time, this episode is packed with practical advice and fresh thinking.
Share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. Thank you for listening. -
If you have ever found yourself circling back, touching base, breaking down silos or leveraging strategic synergies — then these guests are speaking your language.
Charles Firth and James Schloeffel are the Australian comedy duo behind Wankernomics. Their brilliantly sharp satire holds a mirror up to the strange, slippery and often nonsensical language we only use at work. What started as a comedic side project has become a global phenomenon, with their reels and live shows resonating around the world.
In this gloriously unfiltered conversation, we discuss vertical slices, Human-Centred Design and the curious art of “North Starring” — even in the Southern Hemisphere. We examine how certain phrases allow us to deflect responsibility, sound impressive without committing to anything, and quietly opt out of saying what we really mean.
But this is about more than buzzwords. At its heart, this is a conversation about belonging — about how language helps us fit in, how it masks insecurity, and why it’s so hard to speak plainly in a world that rewards waffle.
Share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. Thank you for listening. -
What does it take to make one of the most scrutinised leaders in the world feel relatable? And how do we build internal comms that truly include everyone — especially the quieter voices?
In this episode, Katie Macaulay is joined by personal brand expert, storytelling strategist and award-winning filmmaker Richard Etienne. Richard shares the remarkable story of being summoned to 10 Downing Street and handed a single-line brief: make the Prime Minister more personable. As Theresa May’s official videographer, he used empathy, authenticity and storytelling to reveal the human behind the headlines.
But this episode goes beyond politics.
Richard explores how to build a bold career in comms, why speed and trust matter more than ever, and how storytelling remains a vital leadership tool. He also shares the mission behind The Introvert Space, his community interest group and his mission to ensure even the quietest voices are heard in the workplace.
Expect honest reflections, practical insights — and a timely reminder that powerful communication starts with listening.
Share your thoughts on this or any other episode of The Internal Comms Podcast using the hashtag #TheICPodcast. Thank you for listening. - Laat meer zien
