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The Best Internal Communications Advice from Lessons Learned in 2020

COVID-19 Latest Podcasts January 7, 2021 • Updated April 21, 2021 —by Sharon McIntosh 1739 0

What a crazy year! For those working in internal comms, it’s been nothing short of a rollercoaster, personally and professionally. Yet, we had some silver linings – and for Sharon and me, it was about tapping into experts to guide us through these trying times.

At the end of every EE Voice podcast, we always ask our guests for their one piece of advice to leave with listeners. Here, we gather them all in one place, in less than 15 minutes. Our amazing guests this year included:

Andy Gilman, on crisis comms during Covid
Mark Dollins (twice!), on employee comms during this crisis year– and how to get in front of the third wave
Stephanie Bickel of Speak by Design, on how to spice up virtual meetings
Laura Field ongoing gently with yourself into these trying times
Steven Crescenzo, on how to make the important interesting
Jon Stemmle, encouraging students to take a chance on internal comms
Louis de Schorlemer from Corporate Diplomat, on starting with the end in mind

Sharon McIntosh

Sharon McIntosh is a senior advisor for Consultants Collective as well as the president of And Then Communications. With more than two decades of communications experience, she has a passion for creating and executing new ideas to drive employee engagement at Fortune 500 companies. Now she’s turning her attention to helping other organizations great and small do the same. Her clients have included United Technologies, Otis Elevator, Toyota, Intercontinental Hotel Group, AbbVie, TEGNA media and AppSpace, among others. Most recently she served as PepsiCo’s vice president of Global Internal Communications, overseeing the company’s efforts to connect with its more than 274,000 employees worldwide. She and her team launched a number of innovative employee initiatives, including the company’s first social media training (SMART U), a social tool to share internal news externally and PepsiCo’s award-winning employee ambassador program. Before joining PepsiCo in 2004, Sharon spent seven years at Sears. Among her greatest contributions there, she launched a marketing strategy for all life events, ran user experience for the company’s e-commerce site and introduced the company’s first intranet. Prior to Sears, she worked at Waste Management, publishing more than 14 annual reports for various business units, managing shareholder meetings, drafting senior executive speeches and handling media relations.