- Blog post, Communication, Communications professional, internal communications, Leadership, Team performance
From Boomers to Gen Z: Rethinking employee communications
Internal communication has never been harder. For the first time in history, we have up to five generations working side-by-side. At the same time, hybrid work, digital collaboration tools, AI and information overload are fundamentally changing how employees consume information…
- Australian Government, Blog post, Communication, Communications professional, Leadership, Professional development
Building capacity isn’t always about more people
For years, communications teams solved capability problems the same way: hire someone new. New channel? Recruit a specialist.Someone resigns? Replace the role.New project? Add more capacity. But in the current government environment, that approach is becoming harder to justify and,…
- Australian Government, Blog post, Communication, Communication Strategy, Communications professional
Stop giving away our power
We have seen a recent trend across government communication functions, and honestly, it gives me rage. Somewhere along the way, amid shrinking budgets, reduced capability and growing workloads, communications became the team that hands out communication strategy templates. The most…
Keeping up is a professional responsibility
Hands up if you have a communications or marketing degree. 🙋 And hands up if you’ve not done any further study since entering the profession, beyond the mandatory organisational e-training. 🙋 Hands up if you go to a conference every…
Developing the next generation of communicators
One of the quieter questions behind the excitement about AI in communications is this: What happens to early-career professionals when many of the fundamentals they need to learn are now automated? For decades, communications followed an informal apprenticeship model. Early…
- Australian Government, Blog post, Communication, Communications professional, internal communications, Professional development
Rethinking internal communications for a hybrid world
Distributed workplaces are no longer a temporary adjustment. For many organisations, hybrid work is now the default. People work from home, across multiple offices, and on different schedules. Initially, we thought it was a temporary change, but now it has…
The different perceptions of professional communications
One of Elm’s core service offerings is an operational review. We work with communications teams to identify what’s getting in the way of them doing their best work and what would help them perform more strategically, consistently and sustainably. To…
- Australian Government, Communication, Communications professional, Leadership, Professional development
Why do we say yes when we want to say no?
– “Can you just put together a factsheet quickly?” *Internal voice: No. Factsheets are a terrible idea. They’re hard to search, often inaccessible, and no one wants to download anything these days.* “Sure.” ————————————– “We just need a quick 5–10…
Seven lessons in seven years
In 2018, I left the public service. I needed a change—a new challenge, a different rhythm, new scenery. “Start a small business,” they said. “It’ll be easy. You’ll have so much flexibility.” In seven years, running Elm has been anything…
How can we hold our work lightly?
When working in communications, we often put a little piece of ourselves into our work. Your blood, sweat and a few tears into a communication strategy, hours spent on carefully crafted messages, or that presentation that you worked on until…
