Internal Communications - Insights, practices and models

By Aniisu K. Verghese

Lack of time and my love-hate relationship with non-fiction delayed my reading this book. However, I feel any non-fiction book should be read at a time when it is most relevant to you. So for the third time I picked up this book on Internal Communications. I judge a book by it’s cover and I frankly didn’t fancy this one. But I bought it for one reason alone, because Aniisu Verghese wrote it. Why? Because in a Communications Event where everyone was talking, Aniisu, sat in one corner observing and absorbing everything that was going on. And such people always gain more knowledge because it’s proven that knowledge never enters through an open mouth! His book had to be read, it could be a potential bible for communicators.

When I did read the book, I finished cover-to-cover in a 3 hour flight. Really, it’s that readable. The book is beyond 3 C’s, 5W’s and 1 H of communications. With my own decade long experience in internal communications, I have never found a book so relevant to the present Bangalore scenario. There are millions of books on marketing and branding, and we always had to try hard to make associations in order to apply theories and  knowledge mentioned in those books for internal communications. So I can safely say that there is no other book on Internal Communication as comprehensive as this one.

The models, framework, ideas given are user-friendly and sustainable, which means they can still be applied even when there are newer channels of communications that keeps cropping up. The examples and case studies shared are practical and prevalent. Just like any good communication activity, every chapter has an intro and a summary showcasing Aniisu’s proven skills in communications.

Written by a true expert, this book is a must read for everyone who believes great communications make for a great leader, a great company. For people who seek a career in internal communications, this will be the  book to refer, read, biblize.

Aniisu also writes insightful articles in his blog http://intraskope.wordpress.com/ 

Rushed

By Bryan Harmon

Nowadays I don’t read anything and everything, like I used to in the days when there was no internet. I used to borrow from the school library and the community library, read prefaces, copyright details, read a magazine article as soon as I sit in a car, pick up from table tops and read in lobbies, friend’s homes, notices on the back doors of hotel rooms and whatever I could lay my hands and eyes on. Internet sort of changed my reading habit, that and coming and staying in a city. Now I am more informed and I like contemporary classics more than classic classics. What greatness I found in Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, I cannot fathom 20 years after reading it.

With internet you can read reviews of books never heard of and pick them up. It opened a universe, a milky way – a never ending, life-long attachment to all things lovely to read. Then came e-books. First it was reading free-books on my mobile, just to see if it’s possible to read books online/ on a tab. And then finally I got my own Kindle Paper White (thanks to special someone). Free books galore and at the click of a button!

I could choose from the titles and I chose a simple book, again just to check if it’s possible to read an e-book in a book-reader – minus the smell of new book, turning pages and dog-earring. I guess the fact that I chose this book made it all possible. ‘Rushed’ was my first fully read book on Kindle and I love them both. Started a new reading journey..

I like Rushed because it’s a breeze to read. It’s very descriptive and vivid. You can almost see what’s really happening – it’s a science/ weird-happenings fiction – so if the narrative is not fluent then you can really miss the plot. Well not with Bryan Harmon’s language skills. It’s like if ‘Inception’ was a book, it better be a vivid read right? In this book, Eric, an o-so-ordinary school teacher wakes up from a dream and all he wants to do is get up and go somewhere. After 3 consecutive days he follows his dream to get into an adventure so bizzare, you can’t just put the book down.

And it’s not just the story but Harmon writes English like I have never read before – as fluent as some of us speak our mother tongue, only better. An example: Eric sees a hen in the room and he knows that it’s different and Harmon describes the movement of the hen thus: It didn’t hold its head up as it walked, surveying the room in lively jerks. Instead it looked as if it were hanging its head in a curiously forlorn manner – get the picture?

It’s a must read.

Lean In

By Sheryl Sandberg

Self-help books are increasingly becoming more readable, maybe because the chosen topics are quite specific and targeted. Well Lucky us! I remember earlier books on branding only spoke of products and advertisements and PR, now branding books are on specific, relevant topics like products, services, internal, external, employer branding, self-branding and morrre. I don’t read much of them-non-fiction, but as always if I find something that fits my life circumstances, and feel it helps or a close friend recommends I take a chance. Just like ‘What to expect when you are expecting’, I chose ‘Lean In’ after taking a short break from work to spend time with my little one.

Lean In is extremely relatable to most people who work for corporates. There are great advices in the book to follow, especially the chapter called ‘Lean in’ and ‘Don’t leave until you leave’ (there is a video available on TED as well on this which I had watched when I was pregnant). This book is all about how we can prepare the world to increase the number of women leaders and make a real difference to the world at large due to the diversity this mix of leaders lend. While the foreword is given by our very own, world famous woman leader Naina Lal Kidwai – we have a different scenario in India.

Women scream equality but refuse to marry a guy who doesn’t work. In India millions of unemployed women get married, but unemployed men are a curse to the family, to the society, to himself – they are disgraced from our society – even though (at closer look) he might be a good material for a stay-at-home father, a sensitive husband, a great cook but no all we want to know is ‘where does he work and how much does he earn?’ The sensitization alone in India will take more than a 100 years, and the process of course started at least 50 years back. This argument can go on and on, what with the employed men treating the house-wives like they are born to serve them!

So returning to the book, read it if you are a women who thinks that a career  has become too overwhelming, that family life is taking over your life or if you are on the verge of becoming a leader but intimidated by the very thought. Read it if you are a man who believes that diversity in leadership can really make a difference.

Sheryl sometimes sounds a bit like she is trying to justify her act by showing researches that shows she is doing the right thing, but hell it’s useful for us to know. From my own experience, my mom was always working, never cooked but I never felt inadequate in any way!