New tool helps executives boost internal engagement

Those hard-charging executives: rushing to meetings, flying to Fresno for that town hall, wandering the factory floor to ask again what exactly it is that you guys make.

Is there a strategy to all this interaction with the little people? Or have the execs—and you in internal comms—lost sight of what it’s all about?

If your leaders’ internal communications tend to be sporadic or rudderless, steal a tool from the kit of Matthew Young, U.S. internal communications manager for ABB, power and automation technology leader, ship propeller builder, robot-maker.

Young creates calendars planning engagement opportunities for the year. Each participating executive gets a one-page document mapping out opportunities to meet and talk with employees, whether in a lunch, a speech, or a workplace walkabout.

Young is introducing this at ABB, where he has worked for less than a year, but he has successfully used the same calendar, known as The Plan, with previous employers.

“It gives the leader an idea of how they are doing their internal communications with their team and their entire organization at one glance,” he says. “And they know where their next opportunity is to get their message across.”