"A well-rounded communication professional needs insights into quite a broad spread of subject areas," comments Internal Communication Black Belt trainers, Sue Dewhurst and Liam FitzPatrick, in their latest regular column for Strategic Communication Management.

"For example, colleagues in audit teams have some interesting approaches that we could do well to consider. One client was treated to scrutiny by her organization's external auditors and was made to think long and hard
about her attitude to risk.

"In particular, she was asked questions about the processes by which her team managed their channels and how they ensured that content was accurate and that the systems would be available at times of crisis.

"The auditor's final report also made some valuable recommendations about governance and her stakeholder management – advice that has been very beneficial."

Sue and Liam urge practitioners to learn more about how other functions and business areas operate and suggest the following three steps to cross-functional enlightenment:

1. Think about the knowledge you need
What knowledge, apart from pure communication know-how, do you need to be effective in your job? If you don't know the answer, colleagues from other
teams will be happy to suggest the areas you need to understand.

2. Seek out the knowledge
Ask colleagues in the relevant functions how you can acquire this knowledge.
They may be delighted to brief you themselves, suggest some practical
reading or even tell you about training provided by their own professional
associations for non-specialists. Along the way you should pick up some
insight into how they think and what concerns them.

3. Develop the relationship
Ask if you can return the complement – perhaps by offering a seminar on the
work that you and your team do. Alternatively offer to brief their
management team at a forthcoming regular meeting on your current projects
and priorities. Their reaction can be very useful.

Comparing notes with every function in your organization is bound to bear
similar fruit somewhere along the line – it’s worth investing the time to
get to know how they think and to see if their mission in life can help
support your own.

The full article will appear in the August/September issue of Strategic Communication Management.

See you next time!

 P.S. Find out more about the Strategic Communication Management Summits taking place in your region soon.

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