Six LA communicators gathered around the dinner table in Venice March 31 to share experiences and challenge each other on how ethics play a role in our professional lives. As one diner said, “we have a balancing act inside us.”
The discussion focused mostly on internal communications, reviewing ethical issues inherent in leadership, as well as corporate culture, change management and organizational strategy. The group’s discussion continually circled around the idea that internal communicators, especially, play a variety of roles all at once. While they help executives and organizational leaders drive change, they also are like the nerve networks of the human body, bringing signals in from all the extremities to inform the central brain.
Cheryl Farrell (Internal Communications Manager at RAND Corporation), who facilitated the conversation, posed a “lightning round” where individuals posed solutions to a short case study. Six participants contributed six unique solutions.
IABCLA’s new VP for Communications, Ephraim Freed, summed up the discussion at the end of the night saying: “internal communicators are advisers to executives, champions of employees and bastions of truth and ethics.”
IABCLA members and those interested in IABC can look out for our next Nine & Dine event, which will focus on the topic of diversity and take place in downtown Los Angeles.