Welcome

Welcome to For Your Approval.

FYA is a blog for everyone who has the sometimes thankless and always challenging task of communicating with the employees of an organization.

The goal of this blog is to make your job a little easier -- or, at the very least, to give you some interesting stories, some practical tips and some food for thought, and maybe even some ideas to help you cope in the corporate world, where sometimes trying to communicate with employees can be a Kafkaesque nightmare.

Why me, and why now? I've been working in this field for over 20 years. I've spoken at conferences, written in the trade press and counselled large corporations. In January my handbook, Writing and Editing the Internal Publication: Delivering Employee Communications with Impact, Integrity and Style, was published by the International Association of Business Communicators.

So it's time for me to blog.

I follow in big footsteps. My old pal, Steve Crescenzo, has the best blog on employee communications, the hilarious and often insightful Corporate Hallucinations. No one can compete with Steve. What I hope to do is add another voice to the blogosphere, maybe sing some harmony, maybe provide a diversion while we're all waiting for Steve's next post. Sometimes, I might even pee in his beer. But no matter what I write here, he will always be there, lurking, looming, the Uncle Fester of employee communications.

While I'm at it, I should also acknowledge two other important people in my life: my favorite guru and host of the For Immediate Release podcast, Shel Holtz, who encouraged me to start up this blog, and whose pioneering work informs and inspires  everyone working in this field today, and David Murray, my longtime friend and editor, whose elegant prose is a model for anyone who aspires to be a blogger -- or a writer of any kind, for that matter.

I hope For Your Approval will be a forum in which you can ask questions, raise issues, vent, joke, laugh, cry, confess your sins and share your salvations with me and the readers of this blog. If this thing works the way I hope it will, soon you and I will be part of a new community -- an addition to the web-enabled, blog-happy, pod-savvy "social network" that is changing the way people share information.

So, let's start the conversation.

Hello. How's it going?

Comments

[Chat]

I’d be interested in an updated GoogleAnalytics chart (may be two with about six weeks coverage), just to see if the effect did wear off after a while and also, did others link to your new name with the same link-text (allinurl:…). I hope you will publish a follow up.

[Steve Soltis]

I love your blog -- your comments about having pity on the CEO ... "pothead environmentalists, dickhead journalists, etc." had me rolling on the floor. So true, so true. Also, thanks for the kind words from the Ragan Conference.

[regina]

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and insights in the CONVERSATION!

[Laura]

Ron - crazy - I grew up on the North Shore as well, in the Grouse Mountain area. My family still lives there but I moved to Burnaby a year ago. I'm used to the rain, I actually like it. It's nice to go for runs when it's pouring. Better than snow, I say!

[Ron Shewchuk]

Thanks for the warm welcome. I'll do my best to make your visits here worthwhile. And, yes, I'm from Vancouver -- beautiful Lynn Valley, in North Vancouver, in the heart of the rainforest. Wet, but nice.

[Laura]

Welcome to the blogosphere Ron! I was really thrilled to read John Wagner's post that there was a great new blog focusing on internal communications, a particular area of interest of mine. I was even MORE thrilled to learn you're a fellow Canadian! You wouldn't happen to be from Vancouver would you?

Look forward to reading your upcoming posts.

[D.]

Greetings Ron. All is going well over here, thanks for asking.
General PR gets a lot more of look in than internal comms so I'm looking forward to viewing your posts.
Oh, don't be too quick to remove the piercing the soul photo, its a good thing.

[Lee Hopkins]

G'day Ron,
Good to see another internal comms person in the blogosphere. Count me in as one of your new subscribers!

[Ron Shewchuk]

Hi, Kami. Good question. By "incorporated" I assume you mean involved, part of the family, or, to use the current buzz word, "fully engaged."

I'll give you a short answer now, but I'll cover this in more detail in future posts. The key is to make the content meaningful to the readers at the same time as it's relevant to the business. Insider tips are good. So are profiles of employees. What's important is to make it open, honest and timely rather than bureacratic, guarded and stale.

[Rick McCharles]

If anyone need to communicate internally, it's me. "Rick to right foot. Rick to left foot."

Actually I am scheduled to do a workshop in April on team building. Your ramblings should help.

[Kami Huyse]

Welcome to the community. I have many years in PR but have just started edtiting an Internal publication for a client. I will keep an eye on your blog for ideas.

I have a question too. What kind of content makes employees feel incorporated? Insider tips? Short pieces about particular employees? Etc.?

[Ron Shewchuk]

You’re right, Steve, the picture is a bit too corporate. I’ll see what I can do.....but I like the piercing, guru-like stare/glare.

And thanks, Brad. I'll put up a link to your blog.

[Steve Crescenzo]

Hey, Ronnie!!

Welcome to the b-sphere. I'm a little shocked by the very "corporate" photo up there, though. You look like you're trying out to have your own CEO column.

Where's the sauce-stained apron? Where's Rockin Ronnie, captain of the All World Barbeque Champion Team, The Butt Shredders?

Where's the Ronnie that we all know and love?

I have to admit, though, that you do LOOK pretty good in the CEO pose. All your missing is a headline, like "Synergy!" and a lead that says something about how employees are our greatest asset.

Steve Crescenzo

[Brad Bellaver]

Great to see another internal practitioner is going to add value to the blogosphere! Just wanted to say that there is another internal comms blog called "The Memo" and I will be posting a link to your blog on the site.

Cheers!