Reimagining and Reinventing: The Corporate Communicators’ Sunrise to Innovation

Peggy L. Bieniek, ABC

As the mega-hit English musicians Duran Duran proclaims, “Only change will bring you out of the darkness. In this moment, everything is born again.” This insight from their song “(Reach Up For The) Sunrise,” not only applies to our personal lives, but challenges us to reimagine and reinvent our professional roles to drive and inspire innovation.

As I describe in “How Thought Leaders Can Thoughtfully Lead Collaborative Cultures,” internal communication is the foundation of a collaborative company culture that carries forward to your clients and customers. Building a collaborative culture requires change, which leads to innovation, a necessary element for sustainable business success.

To lead the charge for change, begin by reimagining your role as a communicator. Reinventing yourself will not only make you more successful in managing change, but you’ll become empathetic to employees going through the same change with you.

In “Why Corporate Communicators Must Expand Their Roles,” internal communications expert (and Duran Duran fan) Chuck Gose explains that “it’s time for communicators to shed the tactical nature of how they’ve approached communications in the past and determine how they can better deliver for their employers as corporate storytellers, data appreciators, technology advocates, community builders and business connectors.”

Now that you have an idea of what a reimagined corporate communicator looks like, it’s time to consider how to reinvent yourself to drive innovation within your organization. In “How Communicators Can Drive Innovation,” communication and collaboration expert Stacy Wilson, ABC, outlines the process:

Facilitate contacts: bring people together to share ideas
Leverage technology: bridge gaps in time, location, people
Bring the stories: tell stories about the collaboration and innovation that results from actions
Be innovator identifiers: help make innovation part of the language of the organization

To do this successfully, you should constantly nurture relationships and get out of your usual environment. “4 Unwritten Commandments of the Corporate Communicator” includes some practical advice to apply immediately, including the mandate to “get out among employees and see the environment you communicate with.

”Nurturing relationships and venturing out to seek new experiences and people will enable you to sustain innovation. “Lou Reed, Big Sisters and Influence” contains some great analogies between American rock musician Lou Reed and communication and influence. John O’Reilly says “it’s not the volume of people you connect with that matters, it’s the right people. You might have to go off the radar of what is conventionally considered cool and go offline because stuff happens in the physical world too.

”In the physical world, a sunrise is a beautiful thing. In Duran Duran’s “Sunrise,” “you can touch the sunrise, feel the new day enter your life.” By reimagining and reinventing yourself, you and your organization will enter a new day of collaboration, transformation and innovation.

ABOUT OUR GUEST BLOGGER

Peggy L. Bieniek, ABC is an Accredited Business Communicator with 20+ years of experience in developing and managing best practice communication programs in corporate environments. She is an expert blogger on communication best practices, customer experience, media insights, market research, and innovation. Connect with Peggy on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and on her website at www.starrybluebrilliance.com.