Take six different communications challenges across six very different sectors in six different locations—from Abu Dhabi in the Middle East to Virginia in the US—and what have they got in common? 

A single platform that solves multi-layered challenges with sophisticated and scalable Digital Signage software.

Poppulo Harmony is a complete omnichannel communication platform that enables organizations to connect with customers, employees, guests, and students on another level through an integrated suite of channels, from email and mobile to digital signage, Intranets, and enterprise social networks.

But here, we’re going to concentrate on Poppulo Harmony’s digital signage capabilities and the challenges it solves across hospitality, aviation, finance, retail, transportation, and convention centers.

MGM Resorts International includes over 42,000 hotel rooms, 350 food and beverage venues, 450 retail outlets, three million square feet of convention space, 1.5 million square feet of casino floor, plus multiple showrooms and arenas.

Las Vegas is synonymous with constant and competing eye-catching spectacle, so with many things vying for each guest’s attention, MGM Resorts International turned to Poppulo’s Digital Signage software to break through the clutter and deliver engaging information to their target audiences.

With over 2,000 screens displaying a variety of interactive, dynamic, and static content, MGM is using digital signage to engage their resort and casino guests and drive revenue throughout their enterprise.

With various integral data systems supporting MGM Resorts International’s enterprise, the company needed to integrate feeds from property management systems, point of sale systems, catering, social media platforms, and large repositories of media content.

Once integrated, the executive wanted to leverage that information on screens to increase revenue and save money across every property in their portfolio. They also sought a better way to communicate with employees at each site. 

While MGM Resorts International had no interest in standardizing the look of their signage, they did want to ensure that the functionality of their screens was uniform across each location. 

Finally, they wanted unencumbered flexibility to scale their network as the business grew, and they needed reporting capabilities that could prove a return on investment.

MGM integrated all data feeds through Poppulo Harmony’s digital signage software, ensuring that relevant, real-time information appears on the right screens at the right times — to over 2,000 screens in total.

Additionally, branding elements can be customized by venue, but all of the interactive displays share the same functionality, ensuring a consistent guest experience regardless of property.

The MGM Resorts International team can easily target specific properties—or even specific screens—with dynamic content, promotions, or advertisements. This flexibility allows the team to adjust their messaging to drive results on the micro and macro levels. 

The organization also has over 200 screens dedicated to employee engagement, providing easier and more effective communication to a workforce of over 74,000 people.

Boston’s Logan Airport (BOS) is one of the busiest in the United States, with a physical footprint of over 2,300 acres that includes four terminals and six runways. 

In an operation of this size, communication is key to smooth-running efficiency. In that regard, a primary challenge for the airport was the vast amount of audio and visual clutter throughout its sprawling facility, including various systems and displays from different vendors.

While the myriad of disparate signage in the airport relayed important information to customers, the mediums of communication varied greatly: static signage and wayfinding, static and digital advertising, live TV, audio, and visual paging.

Logan Airport’s owner-operator, Massport, set out to improve the passenger experience through highly sophisticated, integrated digital signage. 

They thoroughly vetted their options in a lab environment to ensure that whatever solution they chose would meet their requirements for integration robustness, enterprise scalability, powerful wayfinding, monitoring, ease of use, and design. They chose Poppulo.

Today, Poppulo Harmony’s digital signage solution helps BOS travelers locate specific gates, concourses, baggage carousels, restaurants, and more—providing an easy and efficient passenger experience while increasing their satisfaction.

The Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) is one of the largest convention facilities in the Middle East and is considered the premier event location in the UAE.

With 133,000 square meters of event space, the venue flawlessly blends first-class amenities, technology, dedicated customer service, and grandeur together, making ADNEC the obvious choice for events of all sizes.

When the Exhibition Centre opened, all its digital signs were managed by a competing platform, and the lack of functionality prompted the center to search for an alternative digital signage software provider.

The Exhibition Centre switched toPoppulo for improved flexibility, scalability, functionality, and an intuitive user interface—and in doing so, was able to consolidate the management of its wayfinding, informational, and meeting room applications under one easy-to-use software platform.

The transition was completed within 24 hours with no disruption to services, and all content was migrated seamlessly. Additionally, Poppulo installed its software on the Exhibition Centre’s existing hardware, saving the venue money as well as expediting the transition process.

Ferguson is widely recognized as the top-rated wholesale supplier of commercial and residential plumbing supplies in the United States, with over 27,000 employees in 1,400 locations, including 10 distribution centers.

With a large diversity of business lines as well as geographic locations and distribution points, Ferguson needed a streamlined, enterprise-wide communications network, which its legacy digital signage platform was not delivering. It had an uptime stagnation of around 75% and made deploying localized content extremely difficult.

With 1,000 digital signage endpoints across the nation delivering tailored content to specific audiences and business lines, the company needed to simplify the content contribution and management process and leverage best practices for enterprise scalability.

Ferguson also needed a platform with advanced scheduling functionality, capable of accommodating employee-focused content or customer-focused content on the same screens, depending on the time of day.

It also sought a platform that would enable the sale of ad space to its vendor partners, delivering the ability to ensure Ferguson’s customers have access to valuable and timely information while simultaneously creating a new revenue stream to offset the costs of the network.

To immediately solve its network uptime challenges, Ferguson selected Poppulo to replace its legacy digital signage platform—and because Poppulo is compatible with multiple player platforms, Ferguson also replaced all its existing content players with more cost-effective solutions.

Ferguson leveraged Poppulo Harmony Signage Cloud to enable location-specific content contribution while still maintaining control of global messaging.

The company ensures each location can update its screens with a list of scheduled appointments, special events, and more, without sacrificing the ability to maintain a consistent customer experience.

Western Union has innovated the way its customers have connected across borders for over 168 years and is expert at bridging the gap between faraway places, enabling money transfers between people via their website, app, or in person at hundreds of thousands of Agent locations.

Western Union identified digital signage as a critical business communication channel. Its original investment in digital signage proved that point-of-purchase signage impacted transactions, but its legacy system was incapable of scaling. 

The company needed a way to scale its retail digital signage program quickly, while simultaneously streamlining the management of its screens.

Additionally, it required the means to dynamically deliver important, localized information to each sign to provide its customers access to information about foreign exchange rates, fees, and more.

Instead of displaying generic content, Western Union needed a way to provide local content at a large scale, plus find a software platform capable of integrating with its existing screens.

After searching for the right digital signage software platform to scale their vision, Western Union selected Poppulo. In conjunction with WU’s hardware provider, Kiosk Information Systems, Poppulo created a solution that delivers big results with minimal management.

Western Union was able to rapidly scale its digital signage network while simultaneously delivering a mix of global and localized content to thousands of stores across the United States and Canada. 

The company saw a significant business impact, saved $1m in hardware, and scaled its new solution to 2,000 Agent locations in one year

Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), Portland, Oregon

DTNA is one of the largest commercial vehicle manufacturers in the world, and its 268,000-square-foot headquarters in Portland, Oregon, is a testament to the company’s spirit of innovation. 

When its stunning new HQ opened in 2016, Daimler wanted to ensure it represented the company’s commitment to the community as well as its 100,000+ employees, but the building also needed to serve as a means of attracting top talent.

In short, every aspect of the finished project had to be impressive in every way. DTNA required a single digital signage or visual communications platform capable of delivering two unique experiences: one for visitors and the other for employees. 

Daimler wanted to make a statement as soon as people entered the building, a big job considering the lobby was designed also to showcase large commercial vehicles.

Additionally, the building was designed to compete with desirable tech firms in the area, so giving employees access to information that improved how they worked in and navigated through the large building was paramount to the company’s goal of attracting and retaining the most qualified employees.

Daimler chose Poppulo Harmony’s digital signage software for employee and visitor-facing visual communications applications that optimize both experiences.

In the lobby, visitors are greeted with a 59-screen video wall that spans 110 feet and wraps around the corner, ending at a large conference room. This unique video wall showcases a timeline of product innovations, company history, branding information, and more. 

Daimler can also easily customize the messaging based on which visitors and business groups are onsite. Adjacent to the elevators, visitors are met with a large, seamless video wall that acts as a window into the world, displaying an aggregated mix of social media, video, and branding content from all of the company’s brands.

On each of the upper floors, employees have access to interactive kiosks that provide wayfinding to offices, conference rooms, and more. They also rotate through daily employee communications, display the cafeteria menu, and provide access to local weather and traffic conditions.

The cafeteria also features a large screen that displays easily updatable menu options. When the cafeteria is closed, the screen dynamically shifts to show corporate branding and traffic information.

The digital signage experience at Daimler's HQ, powered by Poppulo, was so successful that subsidiaries of the Daimler Group used it as an example to follow for new and retrofitted buildings.

6 Comms Challenges in 6 Sectors in 6 Locations. Solved by 1 Solution: Digital Signage 

Drawing on the experience and wisdom of highly respected communication experts is a valuable source of inspiration for fellow employee comms professionals.  

That is why we decided to ask eight distinguished IC experts a simple but significant question:

What was the best employee comms advice you ever gave a CEO or senior executive in your career, and why?

As you might expect, the diverse responses and perspectives from our panel of communication experts provide interesting insights and food for thought. 

I was harkening back to a version of that famous Jack Nicholson line in “A Few Good Men."

The question comes in varied ways, but the most egregious is: "How do we ‘spin’ this?” You don’t, I always say. 

Employees can handle the truth. And there’s no reason to be anything but straightforward in what we communicate. Employees want to know what we know, when we know it.

They might not like what we’re communicating, but that’s not our goal. Our goal is for them to understand it and how what we’re communicating will help advance the business.

Anything less does the very smart people we’ve hired a huge disservice, including you." 

How to Help Your Leadership Team Become Better Communicators

"I worked for a company that owned a cancer treatment equipment manufacturer. 

A hospital had improperly disposed of a unit, and people scavenging in a dump broke the unit apart and were exposed to deadly amounts of radiation. 

I told the CEO we needed to take ownership of the issue and act quickly, even though other senior leaders wanted to pass along the blame.

I advocated for open and honest communication internally and externally, which is an effort that I led.

We were able to rally a team of radiation experts internally to get on the ground and quickly take action. 

Unfortunately, eight people died in the incident, but our willingness to take responsibility prevented many more deaths." 

linkedin.com/in/christopher-nathanael-flores/

Don't try to sugarcoat it or spin it. They will know. 

They understand that companies, like people, go through hard times and sometimes have to make difficult decisions.

But if you are not upfront with them, how can they trust you in the future? 

There will be more instances like this in the future and, what you do today, will create the foundation for how they react to you and to the news when it happens." 

"I once led internal communications at a professional services firm and when a new CEO joined us, his natural inclination was to begin his listening tour by meeting with other senior staff.

I advised him to start in the middle instead—the newly qualified accountants who had been with us for three to five years, had been heavily invested in, and were now a significant flight risk. 

In fact, a lot of our internal communications strategy was focused on extending this segment’s tenure in order to recoup training costs and maximize revenue. They had also built social capital and were uniquely positioned to influence both junior and senior colleagues.


By focusing on this particular employee group the CEO was able to accelerate his ability to build trust and rapport throughout the organization while also advancing our ongoing talent management priorities." 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/audacityworldwide/

"Wow. I have so many stories after doing this for 34+ years. But one that stands out is this one company I worked for where we were launching a new employee mobile app. I had buy-in from our president and several other executives but our CEO was still reluctant to use it. 

I interpreted that as a lack of support for the initiative but, as it turns out, it was really about the CEO's lack of confidence about how to actually use the platform. 

Every time I'd have a quick how-to session with him, he'd get very frustrated very quickly. As a result, we weren't making much progress, even with his other execs lending a hand to help out. Finally, during one of my one-on-one sessions with him where he was just as exasperated, I asked him how he communicated with his daughter, who had just moved across the country to attend college. 

He said they texted a couple of times a day and did FaceTime calls several times a week. That's when a light bulb went off in my head. "Hey, what if we gave her access to this app and set up a private channel for the two of you so she could help you learn how to use it in a way that only you two know about?" 

So I set things up, the two of them got started, and within two weeks, he had it down pat! I realized that senior leaders (and not-so-senior leaders) are just normal people, like everyone else in the company. And they are just as intimidated by change and, certainly, new technology as anyone else. 

And more than that, because of their roles, they are quite afraid to look like they don't know what they're doing or to make a mistake in front of the whole company. I totally get that now in a way I didn't before this situation! 

My advice to him about this situation was to practice with his daughter, who has a unique relationship that none of us at the office could ever have. He trusted her advice, counsel, and patience while he learned something new, without the pressure of doing it among his corporate peers. 

He went on to be our biggest liker, commenter, and sharer of content, which had the positive effect on our culture you think it would. 

All because I gave him the advice —and permission—to quietly learn on his own with someone he trusts and who cared for him. 

As it turned out, that's good advice for all of us.

"Storytelling has been the most powerful tool for engaging audiences since the dawn of time! So my advice to leaders is to incorporate storytelling into their communications as much as possible. 

Rather than simply relaying information or directives, I encourage them to weave in personal anecdotes and experiences, both from their personal lives and interactions with employees. 

After all, sharing examples they’ve witnessed of front-line workers demonstrating the company’s core values is far more powerful than simply stating them. 

It also humanizes the leader and drives deeper connections with employees. Storytelling creates emotional bonds, ultimately strengthening employee engagement and connection to the company’s overall purpose." 

President, And Then Communications & Coaching

"Every large company I’ve worked with has proudly displayed its values on its walls and websites. But how do the leaders live up to them?

I recently coached an executive who was overwhelmed by the constant demands of her team. She felt responsible for solving every problem, preventing any possible failure. 

I asked her how her behavior aligned with one of the company’s core values: empowerment. She realized that she was not giving her team enough autonomy and trust. 

She transitioned from problem-solver to team coach—asking her team how they would like to tackle the challenge and accepted risks and failures as opportunities for growth.

Values are not just words on a wall. As internal comms leads, we have the responsibility to ensure that these values are reflected in all our actions—and to remind executives that they are setting an example for their employees."

Director of Internal Communications and Engagement at Poppulo

"Meet them where they eat." From informal coffee chats to floor walks, the best advice I've given to senior execs that's made the most impact on culture is to get among the people as often as possible.

Use that time to chat about what people are woking on, what's keeping them up at night, what they think about the latest company initiative/results, what ideas they have, and more.

I use the PAL acronym to help myself and leaders prepare:


 Know who you're meeting and what the key talking points are for that location/team/job role.

: A lot of colleagues don't get heaps of face time with the senior leadership team, so be sure to speak but prepare to listen more. "

Leading IC Experts Reveal Their Best Employee Comms Advice for CEOs & Senior Executives

DENVER and CORK, Ireland, Sept. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Poppulo

 a leading communications experience software company, unveiled an expanded AI offering to provide intelligent assistance for communicators and content creators. Embedded into Poppulo's Harmony platform, Poppulo AI streamlines communication workflows, elevates audience engagement, and boosts productivity across all communications channels by harnessing intelligent insights and automation.

Poppulo AI sets a new standard for intelligent content creation, expert recommendations, and data-driven insights. By utilizing employee behavioral data, Poppulo AI enables communicators to identify content themes and gain insights into audience engagement. These insights improve content creation, creating an intelligent publishing engine that automates workflow elements and boosts productivity and engagement.

"Our next-gen AI platform continues to push the boundary in delivering highly impactful communications experiences."

"We're excited to unveil our next-gen AI platform that continues to push the boundary in delivering highly impactful communications experiences," said David Levin, CEO, Poppulo. "Time and resource constraints are top challenges for communications and marketing teams, and we designed Poppulo AI to drive new levels of productivity with an enterprise-grade solution that harmonizes employee communications and customer experience without compromising creativity, design, and authenticity. And we're just getting started."

 harnesses generative AI for quick copy polishing and captivating headline generation. This feature fine-tunes content, aligns tone with brand guidelines, and automatically crafts engaging titles and mobile notifications, all backed by responsible AI principles and Microsoft Azure for enterprise-level security and privacy.

 streamlines content creation by recommending the best-performing template formats, autogenerating media assets, and dynamically optimizing and formatting text across communication channels.

 employs natural language processing (NLP) to identify messaging themes in internal communications, providing insights into widespread topics and variations in employee engagement by theme.

 easily enable employees to read communications in their language of choice for better understanding and impact while bringing time savings and productivity gains for communicators needing to reach audiences in multiple languages. without requiring organizations to spend time and money on manual translations.

Poppulo's approach to security and privacy provides a strategic advantage to its enterprise customer base who can now empower their employees to use AI in a fully governed context.

"One reason enterprise organizations choose to partner with Poppulo is our proven approach to delivering on their security and governance needs. We built Poppulo AI to deliver to the enterprise the most secure, responsible, and governance-backed AI technology to enhance overall communication," said Abhi Anantharaman, CTO, Poppulo.

To discover more about Poppulo's advancements in AI, please visit 

Poppulo is the leading communications and workplace experience software company. The Poppulo Harmony platform helps enterprise organizations achieve more by effortlessly connecting their employees, customers, and workplaces through omnichannel employee communications, digital signage, and workplace management. Poppulo's 4,500+ customer base is representative of the world's most successful companies, including 47 of the Fortune 100. For more information, visit 

Poppulo AI introduces a new era for resource-challenged communications teams with intelligence, automation, and fully governed generative AI capabilities designed to boost productivity and audience engagement.

Poppulo Introduces Poppulo AI, the Industry's Only Enterprise-Grade AI Suite to Transform Communications Experiences

Steering through the tumultuous waters of mergers and acquisitions requires more than just financial acumen and strategic prowess.

It demands a thoughtful orchestration of leadership communications that are built on a solid foundation of clarity, honesty, and empathy. 

While the CEO may not be able to reveal all details of the merger or acquisition—due to legal, political, or strategic sensitivities— leadership communications play a critical role in shaping the perceptions, understanding, and trust of employees.

Here’s how you can help your employees navigate the challenges and changes, helping reduce their worries and fears, with your leadership communications:

: M&A communications are likely the most critical, scrutinized, risky, and impactful communications you’ll ever get involved with in your professional career. 

To mitigate any risks, leaks, unprofessionalism, or inappropriateness, keep your team of key stakeholders close—and your strategic advisors closer. 

Effective M&A leadership comms are orchestrated as a team where everyone from the C-Suite to Legal, Finance, HR, IT, Corporate Comms, Change Consultants, Union Reps, and more, all take responsibility for shaping the plans and delivery of communications to employees in alignment with external and stakeholder communications.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Leadership comms must never be done in isolation from the other communication cascades and channels. 

Involve key allies (see above) to define target audiences and channels, align on key messaging and timings for sharing information before, during, and after the merger or acquisition. This is one plan that will need to shapeshift as the M&A unfolds, so treat it like you would a crisis communication plan and live and breathe it. 

Your plan must outline roles, responsibilities, and a clear approval process for any communications from the outset.

the inside world when it comes to any communications, especially M&A comms. Messaging needs to be consistent across all communication channels, from official announcements to internal memos or town halls and external press releases, as inconsistencies lead to confusion and erode trust.

3. Set the tone for clear and transparent messaging:

 Nobody can smell spin better than an employee—it erodes employee trust faster than a springtime flood. So craft clear and honest messages from the outset that explain the reasons for the merger or acquisition, the expected benefits, potential challenges, and the overall vision for the merging organizations. 

Employees will trust and respect leadership more if the comms are honest, even if they don’t like the message.

M&As are unsettling periods for everyone involved, even if it means the future promises to be brighter as forces join. Change can be met with resistance, especially if employees are unsure about how it will affect them. 

time to acknowledge the emotions, challenges, and concerns faced by employees who may be anxious about their roles or the future of the company. Balancing this with an emphasis on the shared benefits and opportunities the merger or acquisition can bring, can foster a more receptive attitude from employees.

5. Facilitate regular two-way communication: 

Keeping employees and stakeholders informed at regular intervals is key during an M&A. 

Communication voids are catalysts for causing rumor mills to spin and undermine the integrity of leadership communications. Ensuring regular updates are provided, even if there is nothing to say or that can be shared, keeps official communications the trusted go-to source of information. 

Encourage feedback and questions from employees and stakeholders throughout with opportunities for open dialogue through Q&A sessions, feedback forums, town halls, and direct communication channels with leadership. 

This ensures employees and stakeholders feel valued and listened to, and informs messaging and communications to ensure they continually meet employees where they’re at.

6. Ensure leaders are visible and accessible:

 During periods of change, employees look to leadership for guidance. It’s critical to support and enable leaders to be actively visible and connected with employees throughout the M&A process and any integration or change period thereafter. 

Leaders can play a vital role in quashing speculation and uncertainty, keeping up morale, guiding their teams on priorities and purpose to keep up productivity, and helping to maintain a culture of inclusivity, respect, and trust.

However, they need support to do this with empathy and conviction. Arming leaders with guidance, communication toolkits, briefing sessions and opportunities to gain the support they need to role model good leadership throughout the M&A transition and integration period is probably the best investment you can make in the whole communication process.

6 Best Practice Tips for Leadership Communications During an M&A

Andrea Greenhous, President at Vision2Voice Communications, has kindly answered all the questions that came in during her presentation on Leading Through Communication: Why & How Leaders Must Get Comms Right. 

Q. How can I assist a leader in communicating when their style is short and open to negative interpretation?

A. That's a tough one! I suspect if they are a person of few words, they might be an introvert. If that is the case, an interview style is a good choice for a speaking format. If they don't see the value in communicating then demonstrating (through data and stories) that employees want to hear from the leader and what specifically they want to hear, would also be helpful. In both cases, providing the leader with some suggested topics to tackle, you will likely get a bit more from them especially if the topic hits on something they really care about.

Q. What’s the most effective way of collecting employee feedback after a comms campaign?

A. The feedback should of course be tied to your goals. Surveys, polls and pulse checks are always great for measuring results. A good example is the work we are doing right now where we are planning a town hall on the topic of trust. Questions after the event are aimed at measuring things like, do you have a better understanding of what it takes to build more trust in our organization. I am also a fan of focus groups. They can help you understand the stories behind the data.

Q. I'm creating a comms strategy to connect teams within the organization and to help UX research be more valued in the decision making process. Any suggestions on a comms strategy that may be different from what you discussed?

A. By UX, I'm going to assume that you are doing something related to an Intranet or an internal comms platform. If that is the case, we like to do user personas based on focus groups where we ask questions specific to what information and content employees want. To tie it back to the leadership topic, we also ask questions specific to what they want to hear from leaders.

Q. How do you prevent people from living and dying by metrics, like the number of views, clicks and comments that intranet articles get, versus seeing the larger picture?

A. I consider metrics to be clues about behaviour and their interest (or lack thereof) in content. I believe that communications is a means to and end and that your goals shouldn't be the number of people who read your article. It should be how many people read your article and changed their behaviour, gained new knowledge or felt a different way as a result. And for that, you need to collect qualitative data as well through things like focus groups.

Q. To get more buy in on helping leaders in a larger size company understand the role of strategic communications when most are inclined to jump straight to tactics, would you advice doing internal stakeholder meetings between leaders and internal comms to help them see the value we can bring? I think sometimes people just plow forward without thinking through all the things.

A. Don't you hate when that happens! I think a strategy is all about goals and choices. My favourite quote about strategy is from Alice in Wonderland:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where–” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“–so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.” 

I've done a few things to solve this problem—just develop a strategy anyway and present it (you can do something very quickly and make it highly visual). Then you have something to back up your logic around tactical planning.

Q. How would you suggest engaging introverted employees, when they are hesitant to speak up and get involved?

A. To get employees to ask questions and speak up, you need to build psychological safety which is the concept of being comfortable to come forward with ideas, questions and concerns. I have written a series of blogs on the topic for Poppulo about this topic: Four-Part Blog Series on Psychological Safety for Poppulo. They are here:

Why Psychological Safety Matters in Internal Communications

Why Psychological Safety is Critical to Solving the Most Urgent Problems in Organizations Right Now

Why Psychological Safety is the Key to Being Better than Before

A Roadmap for Creating Psychological Safety in Your Organization

Q. Situation: CEO doesn't want to communicate a 3 year plan vision and asks Sr. Comms Manager to cover this during the townhall. What will be the best approach to address this? CEO is definitely an introvert. Will an interview like conversation help?

A. Yes. An interview would help. So would showing your CEO just how hard it is to get people to understand your strategy. There is plenty of research out there with data that demonstrates the disconnect between corporate strategy and employees. Even better is data showing that employees want to hear top line strategy information from the CEO. It is not a mistake to follow that up with more details at the divisional level.

Q. Any tips on how we can engage colleagues to come to townhalls face to face?

A. I'd make it worth coming to—a destination and experience of sorts with time for meaningful interaction with others. I think it's also important not to make your town hall a series of updates that could have been an email. What about a special guest, someone whose life was changed because of your product. We are writing a blog on town halls based on our work with a few clients. Stay tuned for that!

Q. We have a unique set-up: a Co-CEO structure. How do you work with 2 leaders making decisions and leading, and people not seeing that as more power to the CEO level?

A. I am answering both questions at the same time because if you have co-CEOs, then I would definitely create a strategy for the entire leadership team. I don't think it is a bad thing if one CEO plays a larger role in communication but you will also want to demonstrate unity and a common vision.

Q. I feel that some leaders don't fully understand internal communications. How can we best educate our leaders when they are making decisions regarding communications?

A. Isn't this the story of our lives?? I use a lot of research to demonstrate the link between the problems and challenges and communications. Always be prepared with research. For example, I'm a big proponent of storytelling and always talk about the science of storytelling. This includes stories are 22x more memorable than facts because they light up more parts of our brain, that brain processes like mirroring and narrative transportation make stories more persuasive and impactful. As you mentioned, it is an educational process but come armed with research, stats, facts, science and stories both from within and outside of your organization.

Q. A manager is almost oblivious to new staff feeling unhappy. How would you approach this manager?

A. This is really a management question rather than a leadership topic, and should be dealt with by HR not internal comms. HR should be collecting data on employee satisfaction and this data (plus employee retention data) will surface the problem.

Q. Why don't you like the term 'employee engagement'?

A. It is overused. has lost its meaning, and is very employer centric. The Gallup definition is somone who is puts in extra effort which to me says that person is going to work harder for me. Working harder is not always better. I prefer more specific language .

A. Yes, you can contact Andrea through the Vision2Voice Communications 

Q. I am super curious about too much communication. Examples please! I understand 'not enough' comms but my guess is that it not too much or too often but that the comms aren't strategic, relevant, timely, engaging. Too long perhaps? Poorly written? Examples please?

A. I don't think leaders need to overshare. I also think there are very specific topics leaders should focus on and others are best left to managers.

Q. I think some leaders need hard data to see te importance of internal communication. What data do you have that can help that discussion?

A. The best data comes from an internal comms audit but also from outside sources. Be a researcher and understand business problems so you can talk the CEOs language but demonstrate how their problems can be addressed by improving internal comms. I love Harvard Business Review because it is full of great business research that is almostalways directly relevant to internal comms.

Q. Personalisation of comms: How can this be best achieved?

A. I'm not sure if you mean targetting or more human, but I will pick the more human. I'd say that a good start is to focus on a tone that is warm, friendly and sounds like an actual person rather than a robot. If you explore my blogs, you will see a few posts about creating a more human workplace. If you are talking about more argeted comms, then communication tools like Poppulo can help.

Q. You talked through the arc of change and some major touchpoints with your audience. Are there particular times when those items are more or less appropriate for leadership to share? For example, is it best to recognize failures in the moment or after a period of time has passed?

A. I think making it safe to fail starts early on. Part of the fear of change is a worry about what I call the loss of mastery. I'm great at my job but then they change things and all the sudden, I'm struggling. So you want to make it okay not to be perfect. Brene Brown calls it the F'n first time—you just aren't going to be very good and that's okay.

Q. Usually the Board of Directors doesn't talk to mid level employees for suggestions or ideas. How can we make them communicate with the mid level employees?

A. There are no easy answers to this one. It gets back to my presentation and how I suggested first understanding what is important to your leaders. Then linking that to how you need to harness the power of your employees to achieve results.

Q. We have a very engaged workforce and are currently going through strutural changes, and this ends up with a lot of questions that we dont have the answers to yet. How would you recommend our (introverted) leaders can best lead through this change? What have you found works best to reaasure people when you dont the answers they want yet?

A. One of the things I forgot to mention about introverts is that they are often deep thinkers. I think making sure the leader shared their thinking and perspective about the change while also being honest and open about not having all the answers. In the spirit of generoristy, I'd like to believe that most people would accept that.

Q. How does the comms strategy change when the company goes through a rapid growth phase, no of people, projects and attrition? 

A. If your problems or goals change then your strategy changes. that is an oversimplistic answer but think about what issues that rapid growth is going to create. Probably a lot of change and some chaos! So supporting people through the change while creating some consistency is probably a good idea. I would also focus on listening. How are people feeling through all of this and how can leaders address those feelings?

Q. Where do the stats in your presentation come from?

,  conducted in the spring of 2022,  examined employees’ perceptions about DEIB at their workplace. Only 31% of employees say their organization is committed to improving racial justice or equality in their workplace. Compare that to what CHROs think: 84% of CHROs say their organization’s investment in DEIB is increasing.

, there is a 22 percentage-point gap between employers' perceptions of employee satisfaction with benefits and employees' self-reported satisfaction. That gap widened significantly last year, up from a 14 percentage-point difference in 2021, according to the insurance provider, which surveyed some 1,200 employers and 2,001 employees for its 2022-2023 Aflac WorkForces Report.

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Guest experience has always been a central focus for hotels. But the hospitality industry has undergone a permanent change, and the expectations of guests are changing with it. 

Consequently, many hotels are struggling to keep up with the latest trends and deliver the experience that guests expect, while continuing to run day-to-day operations and drive revenue on the property.

But it’s not just guest expectations that are changing. The way we work has completely transformed with the shift to remote work, and as a result, businesses need to curate personalized employee experiences that remain consistent for on-site and remote personnel in all departments and roles—especially in the hospitality sector, where employees have such a large impact on the guest experience.

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