Adapting Communications: Learnings from Partnerships
There were a couple of firsts for us last week. Having run 31 networking workshops, this was the first one we’ve held focusing on the learnings of communicating with partnerships. And thanks to Clyde & Co, as it was the first workshop we’ve held in a client’s offices!
We’ve done a lot of work with professional services firms. We’ve run communication reviews and audits to assess the reach and resonance of channels, provided comms skills training, and helped create effective cascades too. And of course, we’ve worked with many, including several magic circle law firms, to recruit comms professionals – interims, fixed term and permanent.
We heard first from Paul Summerhill who manages Executive Communications at Deloitte. Paul’s focus is on the 26,000 people and over 1,000 partners working across the UK. Paul shared some context to communications at the firm and the channels that are used. The importance of getting the channel mix right was highlighted by the different channels deployed by the Comms team to cater for different people’s needs; from the FT to the Tik Tok generation, as Paul succinctly put it. One example was a range of short videos that are created by colleagues to shares tips on technical issues with their peers that will help people be more effective.
Paul also talked about what Deloitte has done to reduce noise, one example was getting support for a “Quieter December” campaign, to reduce the amount of non-essential communication.
Listening and encouraging conversation is critical and Deloitte has done a lot including ‘Ask the CEO’, where questions are submitted online or via an App and is often attended by around 25% of Deloitte’s UK colleagues. They submit questions and vote for the ones they’d like the CEO to answer.
Paul concluded by saying that hybrid working remains a challenge; and they are keen to find ways to involve those who can’t attend face to face gatherings in person and some parts of the firm have created “watch parties” where teams can hear presentations together and then have discussion about the local impact of what they’ve heard.
We then heard from Keith Hardie, as Will Brewster from Clyde & Co was unable to join us.
Keith has held senior marketing and communications roles in a range of organisations including BCLP, Bird & Bird, Berwin Leighton Paisner, as well as Whitbread’s Premier Inn, Thames Water and the Post Office. He has also helped launch a number of legal start-ups, several of which are now multi-million pound a year businesses. He now works as a consultant, with clients that include ‘magic circle’ law firms and legal innovators. He is currently working at Slaughter & May.
Keith shared his view on what’s different with working with partnerships.
There is often much greater diversity and complexity of work, particularly in the larger firms so you can’t rely on industry knowledge alone – you need to utilise best practice communications frameworks and approaches that deliver value
In many professional services firms, the people employed such as lawyers, accountants etc have been trained to be risk averse so tend to be naturally cautious of communicating widely
With partnerships there is less likely to be one dominant voice that may be more typical in corporate organisations. Communicators have to be nimble to reflect the collaborative nature of partnerships and navigate a number of stakeholders
Organisationally there may less structure and an absence of middle managers. In fact, Keith’s come across Associates in some firms who have not been clear on who their line manager is. Some communicators in the room nodded in agreement!
Often the communication focus is on the partners and sometimes getting clarity on what needs to be communicated firm-wide can take considerable time. And yet the output or decision may be communicated by a short presentation which doesn’t reflect the engagement and collaborative efforts
A number of the most senior individuals within professional services firms are not in their comfort zone doing more broadcast-style communications. Many tend to be reflective, consultative and their natural communication style is best suited to more conversational opportunities
Keith’s final tip was for Communicators in partnerships is to be confident; knowing their craft and being confident with others. And his belief is that confidence and being persistent will serve them well.
As ever at these events, we had a great discussion. A range of topics were covered from how questions to the CEO were managed at Deloitte to the impact of having dedicated people managers responsible for team communication. We also discussed the benefit of having a persona approach to communications, enabling tailored messages to specific internal audiences. The debate was only limited by time, and many commented on the joy of being able to connect with peers from other partnerships.
Thanks to Paul and Keith for some great input and stimulating a great discussion. Thanks too, to Will Brewster, Debbie Cross and Poppy Robson for hosting us at Clyde & Co and the delicious breakfast.
As a business that’s worked a lot with partnerships and professional services, I took that there’s much learning not only within the sector to be shared but also with other organisations on how engagement and collaboration can make for better communication.
As always, I’d be interested to hear your views on what works, as well as what doesn’t and if you’re looking for support it would be lovely to hear from you. Get in touch.
Published by James
