Leveraging Communication for Innovation

most ceos obsess over strategy, product, and capital—yet ignore the one lever that makes every move stick: strategic communication. i’ve seen brilliant founders pour millions into innovation only to stall because employees, investors, and even customers couldn’t articulate the mission. when communication is treated as a tactical afterthought, momentum leaks out of the system. here’s the simple math i walk leaders through: clarity cuts the noise ↳ if your team can’t repeat your top three priorities on demand, the message hasn’t landed. connection builds capacity ↳ information flows freely when silos are bridged, turning scattered talent into a single powerhouse. momentum fuels drive ↳ stories that make people feel part of something bigger spark energy you can’t buy with perks. alignment reduces friction ↳ psychological safety plus clear decision frameworks keep teams moving in the same direction. invest in the “transmission,” not just the engine. strategic comms turns vision into traction.

Stop beating a dead intranet. If you’re leading employee communications, your job is NOT to shout carefully vetted messages from the ivory tower. Megaphones are for marching bands, not modern workplaces. The age of decreeing messages from the higher-ups with the expectation of silent compliance is over. We're in the era of dialogue, baby. The role of internal comms leaders is to create spaces where conversation flourishes—less shouting into the void and more stimulating discussion and debate. But organizations are still preaching from the corporate pulpit, expecting rapt attention from the masses. We're hoarding communication channels at the top while the rest of the organization starves for a voice. So why aren't companies democratizing communication? 1. Fear of relinquishing power: There's this stodgy notion that open communication equals chaos. In other words, fear rules the land, with lords worried about losing control if the serfs start having a say. 2. The illusion of open-door policies: Slapping an "open-door" label on a fundamentally closed communication system doesn't magically make it inclusive. 3. Hierarchical hangovers: The corporate ladder is still a thing, and it's casting long shadows over who gets to speak and who gets to listen. 4. Lack of tools (or will) to change: Either organizations are stuck with tools from the digital Stone Age, or there's resistance to adopting new platforms that foster open dialogue. But they should reconsider because… ⚡ Great ideas can come from anywhere, not just the C-suite. Open communication channels are where innovation thrives. ⚡ Employees who feel heard are employees who stick around.  ⚡A vibrant, open communication culture is the best kind of strategy an organization can hope to have. ⚡ When communication flows freely, trust follows. And in today's world, trust is the currency of choice. So, how can you get started democratizing your internal comms? 1. Adopt the right tools: Invest in platforms that are designed for the modern workplace, where dialogue, not monologue, is the default setting. Hint: your emailed internal newsletter and your creaky intranet site aren’t it. 2. Flatten the communication hierarchy: Encourage leaders to mingle in the digital town square, sharing, commenting and—most importantly—listening. 3. Train, don't just tell: Equip everyone with the skills to communicate effectively in an open environment. 4. Celebrate the voices: Recognize and reward those who contribute to the conversation. Make it known that every voice matters—and mean it.  #internalcommunications #employeecommunications #ThatAshleyAmber

We are not a patient culture. The human attention span has shrunk to that of a goldfish, while an insatiable online news cycle demands constant updates with little room for nuance. What does that mean for innovation, which requires ample time for experimentation and failure? Some of the most impactful systemic changes took decades, even centuries. But in the current environment, companies face increased pressure from VCs to deliver ROI, and the media is quick to write off a setback as the demise of an entire category. (What would today’s reporters have said about Thomas Edison, who made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts before inventing the lightbulb?) I’ve written a lot about how cynicism can stifle innovation. Impatience is another hurdle. It is also another example of why strategic communications is invaluable. There are a few ways smart comms and marketing strategies can offset impatience: 💡 Rally audiences around the vision: impactful storytelling can help stakeholders buy into the long term vision and hold on for the ride. 💡 Set reasonable expectations: a steady cadence of proof points and progress can feed a news cycle hungry for updates while setting expectations around what is possible (and when). 💡 Acknowledge setbacks: there is no innovation without failure. A strong comms strategy can turn setbacks into storytelling opportunities to help stakeholders understand the importance of trial and error. 💡 Earn the right to patience: Companies are not entitled to anyone’s patience as they progress through the process of research, partnerships, setbacks and milestones. They must earn it by amplifying consistent evidence, securing external validation and sharing authentic timelines. How are you and your teams navigating the impatience hurdle? What storytelling strategies am I forgetting here? #innovation #communications #PR #failure

A recent Bloomberg job skills report highlights a fascinating trend in the UK: communication and interpersonal skills are the top-ranked competencies in demand for driving innovation. This revelation resonates deeply with me, as it mirrors the aspirations of many clients I guide towards enhancing these very skills in their professional landscapes. Why does this matter? In our diverse workplaces, communication seasoned with Cultural Intelligence (CQ) isn’t just beneficial; it’s essential. It’s about appreciating the myriad flavors each one of us brings to the table and creating a symphony of collaboration. Here’s a starter kit to becoming a communication connoisseur: 📍Explore Your Cultural Palette: Begin by understanding your own communication style. Are you bold in your expressions, or do you prefer subtlety? Knowing yourself is the first step towards valuing diversity. 📍Cultivate Curiosity: Learn about the cultural backgrounds of your colleagues. Every new understanding is like adding a unique spice to your repertoire. 📍Perfect Active Listening: Truly listen, with empathy and patience. It’s about catching every nuance in the conversation. 📍Adapt Your Communication Style: Be agile in your communication, adjusting your approach to suit the audience and setting. 📍Cultivate Inclusivity: Create an environment where all voices are heard and respected, celebrating the rich diversity around us. 📍Welcome Feedback: Use feedback as a golden opportunity to refine your communication skills. 📍Engage in Continuous Learning: Embrace every interaction as a learning opportunity, constantly practicing, reflecting, and adjusting. Integrating CQ into your daily communications transforms mere exchanges into opportunities for building bridges and enhancing collaborative spaces. It’s like preparing a meal together - every ingredient, every flavor is vital. I’m curious - what unique ingredient would you add to this mix? Let’s discuss below! 👇🏼 📸: Celebrating communication as a superpower, with a nod to DALL•E’s creativity. 🔗 For deeper insights, feel free to visit my website. 🔗

Unveiling Innovation Insights: Key Lessons from Ben Baker While World Creativity and Innovation Week may have ended, the conversation around innovation never stops. Today, I'm thrilled to share highlights from 🇨🇦 Ben Baker🎙️’s insightful segment on The The Maverick Paradox Panel on Innovation. Ben Baker, with over 25 years of experience in guiding clients through effective communication and change, offered invaluable perspectives on driving innovation within organisations. Key Takeaways: Understanding Organisational Identity: Ben emphasised the importance of companies understanding their unique identity, beliefs, and goals. By aligning teams with these core principles, organisations can foster a culture that embraces change and innovation. Balancing Simplicity and Complexity in Storytelling: Ben stressed the significance of clear and understandable storytelling. While innovation is essential, communicating complex ideas in a simple and relatable manner is crucial for ensuring that messages resonate with the audience. Innovation in Branding: Using Coca-Cola as an example, Ben discussed the balance between tradition and innovation in branding. He highlighted the importance of evolving messaging and market strategies while staying true to the brand's heritage and values. Ben's insights remind us that effective internal communication and storytelling are fundamental drivers of innovation within organisations. As we continue to navigate the ever-changing business landscape, let's keep the conversation around innovation alive and thriving! You can watch Ben’s segment here: #innovation #creativity #communication

Imaging two founders: One is able to effortlessly inspire their teams, while the other struggles to get their point across and causes chaos. The first one has a clear advantage. But if you relate more to the second, there is hope! You can always learn how to master effective communication. Here’s a fresh take on how you can harness the power of communication to drive business growth: 1️⃣ Active Listening for Connection We’ve all been in a meeting where everyone’s speaking, but no one’s really listening. It’s a recipe for misunderstanding and missed opportunities. Active listening is more than just hearing words; it’s about fully engaging with the speaker and understanding their message. This creates a strong foundation for trust and collaboration. 💡Think of active listening as a form of respect. When people feel truly heard, they’re more likely to open up, share innovative ideas, and commit to your vision. 2️⃣ Clear Messaging that Cuts Through the Noise As a leader, clarity is your best friend. Clear, concise messaging ensures that your vision, goals, and expectations are understood by everyone. This is crucial not only for internal communication but also for engaging with clients and stakeholders. 💡Envision your message as a sharp arrow. It should be direct, precise, and hit the target without any detours. This level of clarity can drastically reduce misunderstandings and align your team’s efforts towards common goals. 3️⃣ Fuel the The Engine of Growth with Feedback  Feedback is often seen as a critique, but it’s actually a powerful tool for growth and improvement. Creating an environment where feedback is encouraged and acted upon can drive your team to new heights. It’s about building a culture of continuous learning and development. View feedback as a mirror. It reflects both strengths and areas for improvement, providing a clear path for personal and professional growth. Embrace it as a vital component of your leadership toolkit. 💡Every year, I start my birthday month by asking my colleagues, employees and friends for specific feedback. I let them share their perspective on my strengths, weaknesses and areas to improve on, and then act on it to make sure I make an effort to be my best self every year. Try this exercise once a year and watch your performance soar! Want to build a strong team and foster a growth-oriented culture? Join us for the "Scale Smart: Blueprint for Biz Success" workshop on 6 July at 11:30 AM IST. Learn the secrets to hiring the right talent, maintaining effective leadership, and boosting team morale. Plus, attendees will get an exclusive opportunity to book a 20-minute free call to discuss their growth strategy with our expert, Megha Misra! Register now: https://lnkd.in/gFTBETFV #EffectiveCommunication #Leadership #ScaleSmartWorkshop #Scaling #Founders

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 Creating a culture innovation and change is a simple formula, but is not simple to cultivate. It requires leadership. 1. All innovation and change is brought about by teamwork and collaboration. 2. And teams and collaboration are brought about by communication. 3. Communication requires psychological safety and trust between managers and colleagues. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩. Communication is usually top-down rather than bottom-up, sideways, and top-down. 4. To create communication between people in all directions, the culture and leaders must promote empathic listening skills. Empathic listening goes beyond hearing the other person and feeling what they mean--sensing what they are trying to convey--rather than judging and rejecting. 5. To get beyond and transcend judgment, we must become vulnerable. Being vulnerable means surrendering our ego and being open to others' ideas. Becoming vulnerable requires Emotional Intelligence, specifically self-awareness. The ability to understand who we are and what we tend to do based on our beliefs. It is recognizing our weaknesses and blind spots caused by our biases and our need to look good to others and have all the answers where there are none. When we all can self-reflect as individuals and see we are the cause of our environment and what we are getting, we begin to see the possibilities of what can be. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞? 10 RULE BREAKING NORMS: 1. Look at what you defend. 2. Watch for where you stop and hesitate. 3. Look for when you feel insecure and want to say something to "look good." 4. Watch for when you judge something or someone as good or bad and right and wrong. 5. Listen without judgment. Observe without labeling. 6. Instead of persuading, be persuaded. 7. Allow communication to flow rather than try to control. 8. Use brainstorming and an outside facilitators for change and innovation 9. Create an idea lab. Consider all possibilities. 10. Blow up old protective rules of managing others, such as having all the answers and controlling, and allowing people to "own" their results. In my consulting with clients, they institute these "10 Rule Breaking Norms" to bring about change and innovation. It's remarkable to see how quickly people "buy into" the new ways of interacting to develop breakthrough ideas and solutions. Your partner in success, Joe Murphy ♻️ Cool to forward to your network ________________ THE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY 𝑪𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑳𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒔 Over 600 worldwide sessions | Over 45,000 attendees | 4.9/5 Sat Score _________________ 📽 New videos daily, Mon-Fri at 5 PM ET, on success and leadership 🔔 Join over 40,000 over-achievers today #LeadersatAllLevels #Xfactor #TheLeadershipAcademy Infographic: Nature of work

As Worldwide Head of EPIC at Amazon, I've talked to many senior leaders about how to build more innovative and high-performing teams. One question I've heard repeatedly: "How do I get my team to speak up more?” Regardless of level or title or years of experience, it’s not easy for people to speak up in meetings. Part of that is basic neurobiology—speaking up poses a risk (and possible threat), so people would rather not do it. Of course, culture and personal experience also affect their propensity to speak up as well. Thus, leaders need to create an environment that counteracts our engrained avoidance response. Hint: telling everyone “this is a safe space so feel free to speak up” is NOT an effective way to get people to talk. Unfortunately, just because you say it’s “safe” doesn’t mean it is. I mean, how would they even know?! Leaders need to demonstrate that it is, in fact, "safe" through their behavior and positive response when people do speak up (especially when they are disagreeing with them, the leader). If you want people to change their behavior, you need to make those desired behaviors expected, supported, and rewarded. The first is easy, the latter two take more effort. This article provides some great ideas to accomplish this: 1. State your intention: "I really want to hear your thoughts and ideas," "I need your help to think this through," "What am I missing here?" 2. Standardize the questions: "What are the pros and cons" (specific) is better than "what do you think" (ambiguous). 3. Understand how people would like communicate: written vs. verbal, 1:1 vs. in a group 4. Support and amplify underrepresented voices: "I've asked Sally to share some important insights with us." 5. Give credit where credit is due: celebrate the team and also celebrate important individual contributions. It's "and" not "or." Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/g8YAQhUp What is a technique you've seen or used that has helped your team speak up more? Share it in the comments! #epicleadership #speakup #innovation #highperformingteam #psychologicalsafety #inclusion

Innovation Refined | Vol. 8 The Role Everyone Relies On—But Rarely Names Every week, I find myself in conversation with people shaping our healthcare and life sciences innovation landscape—startups, health systems, investors, payors, government leaders, and industry partners. And every week, I see the same pattern: Smart, committed people talking past each other. 🔹Startups are focused on proving their product works—clinically and commercially. 🔹Health systems are under pressure to do more with less. 🔹Investors are looking for strong teams, clear traction, and a path to return. 🔹Payors want to reduce costs and improve outcomes—at scale. 🔹Government leaders are balancing bold policy goals with real-world complexity. Everyone is trying to move things forward. But they are not always hearing each other clearly. And that is where the role of the translator comes in. Not the loudest voice in the room. Not the one most comfortable in the spotlight. The person who can sit between worlds and say, “Here is what they mean. Here is what they need. Here is how we move forward together.” Translation is not just a communication tool. It is what makes collaboration possible. It is what turns friction into momentum. This kind of translation often happens quietly. But it is essential. It is how we move from misalignment to momentum. From good ideas to shared progress. Who is doing this kind of work in your world? The people connecting dots, bridging gaps, and helping others move forward? Let’s make sure they are part of the conversation. #InnovationRefined #HealthTech #StartupEcosystem #LeadershipInContext #RealConversations #CrossSectorCollaboration #NoInnovationTheater #TranslatorsMatter #HealthcareInnovation #ValueBasedCare

Is your organization stuck in a silo mentality?  Here's how to break free and drive success. Many organizations struggle with compartmentalization, where departments function as isolated units. This creates a sense of "silos," separate entities within a single company. Functional divides (finance, marketing, production, etc.) can lead to limited perspectives, with each department prioritizing its own function over a holistic view of the organization. This silo mentality is a major roadblock to innovation. Imagine a compelling new idea originating in one department. The initial spark can easily be extinguished as it navigates the approval process, encountering production concerns, costing hurdles, and finance scrutiny. Frustrated and disillusioned, the originator might abandon the initiative altogether, representing a significant loss for the organization. Breaking down silos requires a concerted effort, and leadership plays a crucial role. Leaders must champion change, moving beyond "protecting what is" and embracing the possibilities of "what could be." A compelling case for innovation can be a powerful tool, sparking excitement and encouraging cross-functional collaboration. A shared strategic plan for innovation is a critical second step. This plan creates a sense of necessity, inspiring employees across departments to work together towards a common goal. The very nature of such a plan inherently dictates a collaborative approach. The siloed approach stifles creativity and hinders progress. To foster innovation, a "one-team, one-delivery" concept is essential.  Dismantling departmental walls encourages open communication, allowing brilliant ideas to flow freely throughout the organization. By working together, diverse perspectives can be considered, leading to more robust and successful initiatives. By fostering a culture of collaboration and embracing a shared vision, organizations can break down the barriers of silos and unlock the true potential of their collective creativity. This journey towards a more unified and innovative future requires leadership commitment, a clear strategic plan, and a shift in mindset from departmental dominance to collaborative success. #culture #organizationculture #team #growth #LeadwithRajeev #leadership