1.
Sharpening Communications
Leadership
A Case Study
From UK Government Communications
@IABC @ukgovcomms
Russell Grossman, ABC, DipPR, FRSA, FCIPR, FCIM
russell.grossman@bis.gsi.gov.uk
Group Director of Communications,
UK Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
www.gov.uk/bis
International Chair, IABC www.iabc.com
Director, Engage for Success www.engageforsuccess.org

2.
Today – in a Tweet

3.
Legislation Taxation
Regulation Communication
Government Does Four Things

4.
1. Cultural disconnect
2. Group think
3. Policy/Customer disconnect
4. Panic in response to crisis
5. Weak corporate centre
6. Lack of accountability
7. Not enough expertise
8. Too little consultation
But we haven’t always done Communication well…
What the Minister said
he was after
How the Communicator
understood the need
How the Agency
proposed the creative
The Budget originally
allocated to the project
What the Team
came up with
What the Citizens
imagined they would get

5.
2010 : New UK Government - Four Catalysts
Austerity
Politics
People
Digital

6.
2010 : Four Catalysts
Austerity
Politics
People
Digital
Opportunity

7.
1. Austerity
 Challenging financial context and savings targets for public
spending
 Continued pressure to deliver better communication activity
with less money
 Introduction of spending controls
 Ongoing need to achieve more with less, and greater output
from fewer people : greater efficiency *and* engagement

8.
Austerity
 UK Government
expenditure on
communications and
marketing 2009 - 2015
 In this period, numbers
of communicators
employed reduced by
40% from 6,600 to
4000 today

9.
2. Politics

10.
Decreasing trust in the EU, national government,
and political parties
Source: Eurobarometer

11.
Leaders
Elders
Experts
People on the street
Celebrities
Friends and family
Leaders
Elders
Experts
People on the street
Celebrities
Friends and family
Deference to Reference
Then
Now

12.
Source: TNS digital life
58
47
55 55
43
50
56
51
46
45
40
41
33
41
35
36
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Poland Italy Spain UK Germany France Netherlands Romania
Friends
Strangers
% internet users who trust comments people write about brands
Trust in online comment is high – especially in friends’

13.
The bird also has a lot to answer for…..

14.
And internally…
• Employees reading and contribute to
information online
• What and/or whom do employees
trust?
• Public wants to hear from employees
on the integrity, quality and
relevance of the organisation’s
products or services; leadership’s
true strength

15.
3. People
“People will possibly be at least as good, but will rarely act any better, than
what you credit them with.
So credit people with what they could achieve….and you may be surprised”

16.
Our GCS Leadership framework
• Provide visible leadership: Strategy, Leadership, Professionalism
• Set communication objectives and direct business delivery
• Champion personal development
• Improve performance management

17.
Stretching and building our staff
• We have over 4,000 staff in the Government Communications Service
• A responsibility to maximise quality, minimise waste, build careers
• To the organisation and to the profession.
• Stretching targets and courses, designed to break down silos and broaden skills
• Minimum five days learning each year, recorded and audited
Broaden
Skills
Agree it
Do it
Record it
Share it

18.
4. Digital

19.
#Trending in Communications today……
“Facilitators of the conversation”
Whatever the conversation is, wherever it is
Blurring of internal/external specialties
Integrated communicators
Making sense of the world around us
Maximizing digital, especially mobile
Using social media effectively
Maximising capabilities of mobile devices
Delivering personalised communication

20.
Multiple engagement points online
This is a post-email world
Multiple engagement points with internal and external audiences
No one channel commands attention
The more you master, the better your touchpoints
Running comms departments is like a never-ending political campaign
Sustaining engagement and culture internally
Managing conversations externally
Transparency and engagement wins every time vs command & control

21.
IT’S THE AUDIENCE
STUPID!
The starting question is,
“who and where are your
audiences?”.
Emily Turner,
CommsCamp
LISTEN,SPEAK,ACT
“The single biggest problem
in communication is the
illusion that it has taken
place.”
George BernardShaw
NUDGE,DON’TJUDGE
“It is not information per se that
leads people to make decisions
but the context in which that
communication is presented”
Robert Cialdini
CONTENT NEEDS TO BE
CONCISE AND TRANSMISSABLE
“If you can’t explain it simply, you
don’t understand it well enough”
Albert Einstein
DIGITAL CHALLENGE
“I never had any structure, I never thought this is
where I want to go. It was literally my little space on
the internet where I used to go to write about
things…my generation, at least the ones I know,
are like 70-30 YouTube (TV)”
Zoella
THE FUTURE MEANS WE
HAVE TO PRIORITISE,FASTER,
“Technology will never be as
slow as it is today”
Alex, Nikolay-KellGoogle

22.
Non Oui
UK Government’s Response

23.
Purpose of government communications
1. Fulfil a specific legal or statutory requirement
2. Help the public understand the Government’s programme
3. Influence attitudes and behaviours for the benefit of individuals or
the wider public
4. Enable the effective operation of services to the citizen
5. Inform the public in times of crisis
6. Enhance the reputation of the country
We have defined what Communications does

24.
Our premise
A stronger and
exemplary
profession
Better careers,
career paths and
career management
Better
governance
Strong, bold
leadership
Greater
accountability
Higher and shared
standards
More
collaboration
Secondments
and mentoring
More respect, inside
and outside of
government
Makethebest,standard
More skilledLess bureaucraticMore unified

25.
Resources
Google
“Government Communication
Service”

26.
OASIS
Objective
Audience/Insight,
Strategy,
Implementation,
Scoring/Evaluation
A Campaign Basis To What We Do

27.
Spiritual Material Personal
Why How Benefit
Campaign Design Principles

28.
ABC of communications
1. It’s about the Audience not the organisation
2. Brevity and impact in the moments that matter are necessary to be
heard in the conversation
3. Content and Conversation is king. It is no longer good enough to
‘broadcast’ material. You want stuff people will actively talk about
Campaign Design Principles

29.
Government Digital Service - Design Principles
More at https://www.gov.uk/design-principles
1 Start with needs*
2 Do less
3 Design with data
4 Do the hard work to make it simple
5 Iterate. Then iterate again
6 Build for inclusion
7 Understand context
8 Build digital services, not websites
9 Be consistent, not uniform
10 Make things open: it makes things better
Campaign Design Principles

30.
Make it Easy for people to do something
(right channel and short process)
Make it an Attractive decision to make
(Make it personalised from “a source I trust”)
Make it a Social thing to do
(“other people do this”)
Make the communications intervention is Timely
(priming, framing, key moments)
33
EAST
Campaign Design Principles

31.
Great campaigns - They all use EAST

32.
Rigour
1. Basing campaigns more than ever on research and evidence
2. Being clear about the story we’re trying to tell, and in a way it makes sense to the
audience
3. Gaining and constantly retaining the confidence of our leaders and clients
4. Using project management techniques for multiple
but integrated media channels,
and especially being masters of digital
5. De rigueur evaluating and measuring
our impact and knowing the change in
awareness, understanding and behaviour
6. Actively collaborating and partnering
Insight
Ideas
Implementation
Impact

33.
What skills are needed the
communications practitioner of the future?
Data Analyst
Content Editor
Behavioural Scientist
Movement Builder
Teller of Truth (to power)
…and still be able to write!

34.
Our journey Press officer
Rapid rebuttal, policy launch, email, web writer
Integrated Communicator
Data analyst, content designer, movement builder
Media Handler
Campaign delivery, blogger, tweeter
2009
2014
2019
The Death Of The Press Officer

35.
Rigour
Jointly agreed plans and co-ordinated
cross govt work
A collective approach to Spending and
challenge on to set the highest
standards
Mandatory Professional Development
And a requirement to learn
Clear Ministerial oversight and authority
to act
Assessed through
Leadership assessment
Training days done
(min 5 per year)
Quarterly Competitive
Monitoring
Recognition

36.
2020 Vision : Seven Principles
1. Apply big data.
2. Build our understanding of behavioural science.
3. Develop a new relationship with our audiences.
4. Create a structure and content of messages that builds trust.
5. Build responsive media centres. Make algorithms your friend.
6. Prioritise new technology, but be wary of fads.
7. Identify, develop and retain talent.

37.
Conclusion
Aristotle’s 3 truths about communications are as true today as they were
2,400 years ago, irrespective of today’s digital world
1. the character and quality of speaker (ethos).
2. the nature and structure and content of the message (logos).
3. the feeling, thoughts and attitudes of the audience (pathos).

38.
russell.grossman@bis.gsi.gov.uk
Further Reading
Small B!G Robert Cialdini
Communicate to Inspire, Kevin Murray
contentmarketinginstitute.com
BBC Future of News Report