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!

 

The King's Harvest

By Chetan Raj Shrestha

I have read Chetan before but not in novels. Random thoughts are always easier to pen down than to tell stories and in his debut novel (2 novellas really), Chetan has outdone himself. I have read a lot of writers (I mean really good story tellers from Hardy to Dostoevsky, Chekov to Annemarie Selinko, Arundhati Roy to Steinbeck), but still haven’t read anyone who writes one lucid English word after another, beautifully intertwined with the nuances of the place (Sikkim in this case) and strings them together to tell unforgettable stories of small everyday redemption and small everyday people.

A slight comparison to Amitav Ghosh would perhaps give an idea as to the language. However, Chetan’s novelettes are very unique and can stand their own.

Open and Shut Case is about how different situations (and sometimes in other people’s lives) delivers us. It’s written very well, set in the beautiful West Sikkim, giving readers a peek into the lives and loves of really simple people.

The King’s Harvest (not to be mistaken for a story about the rock band) is one of the most original stories I have read. Although I did feel the journey itself could have been more arduous to add more feeling (hmmm). But at the same time, it’s a great record of the place that is Sikkim. Really, knowledge that such place as described exists and the simplicity which is increasingly becoming harder and harder to copy touches your soul and every time you pick up the book, you enter into a different world – a world inhabited by Tontem who is so simple, if he were in Mathematics or Chemistry, he wouldn’t have a formula!

While I would have hoped for a longer novel (like Shalimar the clown/ My name is Red) because Chetan is capable of those, am sure – these 2 are also very engaging tales and for people of Sikkim, probably a tribute to one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Sikkimese or no, it’s a must read.

Footnote: Please DO NOT confuse Chetan Raj Shrestha with Chetan Bhagat – that would be quite insulting to Shrestha!

Another one: Love the cover! 

What to expect .. when you are expecting

By Heidi Merkoff

Although I have given up on self-help books long long ago, once in a while I do buy them to see how they have improved (yes, I have started generalizing them too!).

I bought one 9 months back when I found out I was with a child, fearing the same kind of barrage of advice from every corner my friend had to suffer when she was with a child. Really you get advice from the lift operators to maids, to ones who aren't married, to men and sometimes children... everyone means well. But then you end up getting really confused whether to have papaya because it is rich in Vit A or not to as it results in fatality, or should you apply it on your face to avoid choalasma or just avoid it like a plague. Even the internet is full of it!

Being a reader, I chose to buy a book for anytime reference and a one point of reference.

What to expect is that one book which is written with a very positive spirit and makes you look forward to the journey of becoming a mother. It gives you a week by week update on what it should be like on a particular week - this helps you in avoiding surprises... which when you are really growing, you don't want.
It answers most frequently asked questions and also serves as a practical guide to diet and exercise, looking good during pregnancy.

What I really found useful was the fact that it covers almost all complications/ if you are having twins/ post natal care/ and a chapter for fathers and how they are feeling and how we can help them.

It's a must read for every preggie woman.

While I highly recommend it, it forgets to mention one thing, which surprising happened to me .. the phenomenon called 'silent labour'! Yes, I had no labour pain!

Grab a copy for yourself if you are expecting/ your friend who is expecting or for your husband who will also find this book really useful. It is one self-help book, I read completely!

Five Quarters of the Orange

By Joanne Harris

If you have had Chocolat and Blackberry Wine, then you won’t be able to resist Five Quarters of the Orange.

There are many reasons to read this book, listing down 3:
1- It’s written by Joanne Harris – in her usual laid back, French style, food and wine and stories kind of way.
2- The story unfolds really well.. with the help of an old recipe book
3- There is never a boring moment – and its always quite refreshing to read about life in a village

The growing up while growing old, the drug addiction and the allergy to orange, the recipe for wine Framboise, the trapping of the pike, the politics of business, the stealing of ideas, the selling of ideals, meeting Mirabelle Dartigen and the getting by – it’s all there.

Read it even if you haven’t read Chocolat and Blackberry Wine, two of my favourite books by Joanne Harris.

The summary I like best is here http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/794/five-quarters-of-the-orange

The Museum Of Innocence

By Orhan Pamuk

It’s not that I don’t believe in true love. I do, but not the kind that lasts forever. Am sure most of us have loved someone truely, for a day/ month even a few years. But I am the sort that believes that when you cannot maintain the same mood throughout the day, how can you love someone forever? And why, it’s proven that we cannot maintain the same mood throughout the day, ‘normal’ in the human being remaining constant i.e.

Therefore, while the book is very realistic, it’s easy to say that it is, in fact, fiction. Because it is about true love that lasts forever.

However, Orhan Pamuk is a favourite to many for a reason. His writing is so beautiful in its depth and details that it’s hard to put the book down. Even when it gets frustrating at times and you start to wonder where the story is headed. The book is paced well most of the time and the details are sometimes overwhelming. As is in most of his books, Istanbul is the hero. This time it’s the Istanbul of neo-modern times where smoking Malboro among the men and women are considered upmarket, where the parties are pristine, where the women folk are aware of Parisian fashion and yet in their minds virginity is still considered a virtue. We Indians can relate to the Istanbul of that time.

Then of course a crash course on the museums of the world is a definite take away. The style of writing also where Orhan Pamuk himself is part of the story is something I have not read before and is quite a nice touch.

You will love the characters in the book (if not forever, at least for a while), especially Fusun, Sibel, Kemal, and driver Efendi, the story telling and finally the story itself.

Read it, the book is for keepsake, afterall, it is the museum of innocence.

For other views log on to http://themuseumofinnocence.com/