How many times have we listened into a conversation or glanced over someone’s shoulder at what they’re reading and wanted to speak up? This happened to me recently . . . I was watching a mother who was helping her son with his maths homework. He was tackling an algebra equation.

I used to love algebra and thought I could do this (even if I was being nosy and reading the sums upside down).

The question was, ‘Complete the addition: What is the total for the equation 4x + 6 = ?, if x =4’. The mother looked at the equation, thought a while and decided to explain the answer to her son, identifying that you need to multiply the 4 by the x (4) and then add 6.

I was watching the little boy, around 10 years old, who obviously had no interest but already knew when to nod his head to say yes or no (a polite trait we acquire when we’re older).

I was tempted to intervene and advise that she was wrong and that it was a much simpler answer; it was just the case of substituting the x for a 4, thus the equation becomes 44 + 6 = 50. It was on the tip of my tongue to say “STOP! It’s wrong, you’re teaching him all wrong and no wonder the art of education is deteriorating”, but I didn’t. I continued my journey in silence.

Later, I discussed the equation with my friend, to see if it was only me who thought the mother was wrong. My friend called her daughter into the kitchen (why is the heart of gossiping always held in the kitchen?) who is revising for her GCSEs. She pulled out her revision guide, flicked to the algebra section and, lo and behold, a similar equation was given as an example: 2x + 3 = 7, with x = 2. Yes, that’s right, I was wrong!

Moral of the story – if you think you know the answer, check the facts first, just in case you are about to intervene!

By Emma Williamson

What’s in a number?

Why is it that 0845 numbers seem to take longer to connect when phoning from a mobile than off a landline?

We are in an era where landlines are scarcely used and mobile phones are glued to our ears, yet the astronomical charges of 0845 numbers from mobiles are increasing instead of decreasing.

I recently called one 0845 number – a government one, believe it or not, that has now created a supposedly cheaper local number for those who call from mobiles. It took 12 minutes and 30 seconds to connect the call, which left me wondering the benefit of what is still an unreasonably priced call charge.

I always imagine some telephone advisor looking at the screen when my number pops up and thinking, “Today I will make her wait at least 10 minutes before I connect her call” – it’s like a crusade against answering my calls.

0845 numbers are the devil of area codes and yet we are constantly plagued by them when we need to contact an important company. There’s one of my contacts who I can’t speak to in person – if I did have his number, I would ask him to scrap all his 0845 numbers and actually employ a living being who answered the phone and not the robot who gives me half a dozen options to choose from only to end up back at the original menu as I have pressed the wrong option or – worse – connected to a completely different department who think it’s highly amusing to put you back on hold until the right department has decided to accept your call after their natter and tea break. And relax…

If you are a patient person in day-to-day life, you won’t be after dialling an 0845 number. Moral of the day? Have a stress ball to hand when picking up the phone.

By Emma Williamson

Day after day, travelling on London Underground has me thinking that we are all forgetting the simple words of the English language.

Eye contact with the woman sitting opposite you is unimaginable; as for starting a conversation with a stranger – too absurd beyond belief.

Instead the iPads, mobiles and laptops barricade any communication with our fellow commuters and thus the void of travelling expands. Doctor Who meets the London Underground!

Various posters insist on ‘random acts of kindness’ yet if we cannot communicate, such as in this case, are actions really louder than words? If someone took off their coat, jumped on a box and shouted, ‘This is me’, what would you do? Would you avoid eye contact, shuffle quickly away with the crowd or stop, stare and with a big grin wave back and respond with the same exclamation?

Is conformity to our surrounding driving the world of silence underground, the wanting to fit in, becoming the mould of a mass? Is our desire for individuality, originality and communicating in masses only allowed within the circles of familiarity? Or have we simply lost our voice?

Expressionism and communication is at the heart of the modern world, so break the conformity of the wandering sheep and smile at your neighbour, say hello to that stranger and embrace that archaic use of communication – the English language as we know it! This will guarantee a smile to just another day of commuting!

By Emma Williamson

Could your employee magazine benefit from some fresh thinking?

Send in three recent editions of your magazine and our editorial and design team will review them – content, design, format and structure. We will put together a report, full of recommendations and ideas.
This is a free, no obligation offer.
Send your magazines to Katie Macaulay, AB, 24-26 Great Suffolk Street, London, SE1 0U

Stunning, environmental portraits of people at work are helping to transform Insight magazine. After being awarded Photographer of Year by the Institute of Internal Communication, AB’s in-house photographer David Cotter has been travelling the country taking impressive portraits of the nation’s small business owners.

Insight magazine is for tenants of Network Rail Property – men and women running small and medium-sizes enterprises, from florists to fishmongers.

Is the employee engagement survey dead?

Twice this year we have been invited into organisations hard on the heels of a MORI-style employee engagement survey. The results were in but something didn’t add up.

With each client, the survey had delivered an abundance of data – this had gone up, that had gone down. But for the Internal Communications team, two crucial questions remained unanswered: ‘Why?’ and ‘What do we do about it?’

The value of these all-staff annual engagement surveys is questionable – if you’ll excuse the pun. They are long on statistics and short on learning.

Let me explain. Ask 30,000 staff ‘Do you understand your company’s business strategy?’ and give them a ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘maybe’, ‘don’t know’ option. Say, 100% of your workforce ticks the ‘yes’ box? Should you rejoice? No, because what this survey is not telling you is that your workforce is interpreting that strategy in 30,000 different ways.

Ask them: ‘What does success look like?’ and you are no longer generating statistics, you are generating insight.

Not only do these surveys ask the wrong questions, they ask them in the wrong way. What matters is not only what people say, but how they say it. In our Acid Test Audit, we ask questions face-to-face, in confidence. We never say who said what. We encourage openness and honesty. It’s not just their answers. We are noting body language, behaviour, attitudes and underlying issues.

Our questions measure knowledge and alignment – the ‘acid test’ of great communication.

We start by interviewing the CEO. We might ask: ‘What are the goals of the organisation?’ or ‘What are the internal and external obstacles to success?’ When it comes to communications, we might ask ‘What does the term internal communications mean to you?’ or ‘How do you believe internal communications can affect the performance of an organisation?’ We might even say, ‘You now have a magic wand and communications is working perfectly, describe what’s happening?’

The CEO usually says he can only spare us 30 minutes. Then, he ends up talking for over an hour. During an Acid Test for a global bank, the CEO spent an hour and a half answering our questions. Then, not satisfied he had fully answered them, he asked us to return later in the day. In all, we had three hours of interview notes.  When was the last time anyone spent three-hours considering their responses to a tick-box survey?

After the CEO, we interview every member of his or her management team. We ask exactly the same questions. Then, we ask middle managers, line mangers and those on the frontline.

As knowledge gatherers, we are taking a privileged peek inside the minds of some very diverse people.

After about 30 interviews a pattern usually starts to emerge – even in workforces of 30,000 or more.

We find ‘communication gaps’ – where people are failing to listen and hear each other, and where misunderstanding is rife. We uncover weaknesses in internal communication and, more importantly, we set out a vision for communications. Not a vision that’s in some best practice manual – but the vision that’s inside the minds of those running and working for the company.

Acid Test is a powerful tool. From the beginning, we look for quick wins that will improve communications fast.

The result is an action plan – not a deck of slides. There’s no need to ask yet more questions or wonder want to do next.

A fair cop

When our journalist, Gary Moss, heard that Police Community Support Officers were sometimes referred to as ‘policing on the cheap’, he made it his business to dispel the myth.
Gary quickly found Jim McIvor, a British Transport Police Community Support Officer from Finsbury Park.

Jim is renowned in his area for the lengths he goes to engage his community. He takes a proactive approach to community policing. He holds self-defence classes for those feeling vulnerable and even visits local student accommodation, just to introduce himself and spread the word about crime safety.

Gary’s coverage of Jim in L magazine, our British Transport Police publication, is helping shift opinions of Community Support Officers inside the Force.

Top class cover

This award-winning front cover of subspace magazine caught the judges’ eye at the Institute of Internal Communication.

It shows brave Chris Moon, a former soldier who lost part of his right arm and leg in a landmine explosion, standing boldly on a bridge in his Barnardo’s running kit, ready to tackle an incredible fundraising feat.