What a brilliant day yesterday! 🙂

A huge thank you to Institute of Internal Communication and sponsor Silicon Reef for a fantastic Change Conference!

I had the pleasure of opening the day talking on 𝐀𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐈 – 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞, which seemed fitting given that without agility, change is difficult to effect.

The conversations I had afterwards confirmed that it resonated. A big 😂 moment for me was an attendee telling me, “𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒎𝒆… 𝑰’𝒎 𝑺𝑻𝑼𝑪𝑲.” (For context – STUCK stands for: Static, Traditional, Unresponsive, Cautious, Knowledge-stagnant).

Other takeaways called out by attendees from my session:
✅ Being slow is the new the risk
✅ Planning for 3m instead of 12m and working in shorter cycles
✅ “The ‘Agile’ vs ‘agile’ message really resonated with me.”

For me, leadership was a clear theme.

➡️ Change is testing leaders’ resilience, with 38% saying they would rather quit than lead another change programme. In some instances, they’re navigating uncertainty along with everyone else.

➡️ We were reminded of the human side of change and how people-led, honest communication, even a “no update update”, can support people when the road ahead is unclear. We also heard how messages land far better when line managers are engaged early, and how people feel seen and valued when senior leaders show up.

🎯 So, as a comms community, let’s play a bigger, more active role in coaching and supporting our leaders through change. Let’s help bridge the gap between transformation, adoption and fatigue – with the right messages, at the right time, in the right way.

A few acknowledgements…

It was great to hear from: Becci Gould, Ceri Aiken, Dean Coleman, Barbara Phillips, FPRCA, Shalini Gupta, Nadine Dixon, Renee M., Emma Bridger, Lee Smith, Belén López and Emma Cash.

And meeting the Silicon Reef team; Alex Graves, Amanda Harvey, Nicki Pugh.

And always great to catch up with the IoIC team: Rebecca Nicholls, Melissa Newlyn Richard Bowes & team.

Not forgetting, great hosting from Rob Jones and Joe Salmon FIIC. 🙂