Hello. My first blog but one I’m excited to write with encouragement from Cath Everett. I’m lucky enough to spend my timing working with Heads of Internal Comms and their teams, but – time and again – I see the overlap between the issues they face and those ‘on the plate’ for their counterparts in HR. So i hope some of my thoughts and our research might be of use to you. And I also very much want to learn from those working in the HR space. Alas, all too often, I also hear stories of the ‘less than friendly’ relationships between the 2 functions. I doubt any of us would be debate that the world would be a better place if we could all just get along, but why is that relationship so fraught? IS it just a turf war or are there bigger issues at stake? I’m keen to get your views on this and also understand your perspective on what it takes to succeed in internal comms nowadays in terms of competenices. We’ve been doing some thinking on this for our annual Summit conference http://www.melcrum.com/summit – see below for how we’re throwing the gauntlet of change down to IC (the graphic on our ‘at a glance’ page at http://www.melcrum.com/summit/at_a_glance.html is a real favourite of mine; a change curve illustrating the shifting role that IC has to play, but also that none of the more traditional demands are necessarily disappearing as more are added. I tried to include it in here but couldn’t do so! Apologies for being technically inept!). Are we being fair? What are your experiences with IC? I’d love to learn and – over the next weeks and months, perhaps share some thinking from our research into how to take IC forward and how to establish stronger partnerships across our functions.

As we make the move from craft experts to strategic partners and organizational connectors – we’re facing the steepest change curve in our history, with eye opening implications for our profession.

While it’s fair to say we’re further along the "tactical to strategic" journey than we were ten years ago – our ongoing research and conversations with IC professionals across the globe suggest the journey is far from over. As the complexity of our remit increases we must ensure: 1) We have the right skills and competencies on the team to be able to grasp new opportunities; 2) Our function is agile enough to respond to the changing communication needs of the business and the workforce, and where necessary, renegotiate our mandate with leadership.