This episode features an interview with Ann Melinger, CEO and Owner of Brilliant Ink, an agency dedicated to designing meaningful employee experiences. Ann has spent the last two decades counseling organizations on improving business results and employee engagement. In this episode, Amanda and Ann discuss refreshing company values, engaging with hands-on employees, and how language factors into inclusivity.
This episode features an interview with Ann Melinger, CEO and Owner of Brilliant Ink, an agency dedicated to designing meaningful employee experiences. Ann has spent the last two decades counseling organizations on improving business results and employee engagement.
In this episode, Amanda and Ann discuss refreshing company values, engaging with hands-on employees, and how language factors into inclusivity.
-------------------
“Typically, we see companies refresh their values every five to 10 years. But, what we really encourage is that companies should revisit their values, intentionally, at least once a year. Sit back, take a look at them, ask yourselves, ‘Does this value represent where we are today? Does this value highlight what makes us different? Is it something that we do better than most other companies out there? Is it something that we expect people to demonstrate the moment that they walk in the door?’ And if the answer to any of those questions is, ‘No’, then it's probably time to think about a refresh.” – Ann Melinger
-------------------
Episode Timestamps:
*(02:33): Why keeping company values fresh is important
*(14:12): Segment: Story Time
*(20:10): Segment: Getting Tactical
*(24:55): Why hands-on employees are at higher risk for burnout
*(31:15): How language factors into inclusivity
*(38:40): Segment: Asking For a Friend
-------------------
Links:
Follow Brilliant Ink on LinkedIn
Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn
Amanda Berry: Ann, thank you so much for joining me today.
Ann Melinger: Oh, thank you, Amanda. It's great to be here with you.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, I'm just so excited to talk to you. I'm a big fan of Brilliant Ink. We'll talk about your connection with that in a few minutes, but I'm a big fan of your blog. The content you put out, the work you do. It's like top tier communications work, and I just love reading all this stuff you write.
Amanda Berry: On your blog and I really wanna start off talking about the blog. 'cause one of the themes I keep seeing throughout, it's something we just isn't being talked about. 'cause there's all these other buzzwords, you know, employee experience and remote work. But you on their, their Brilliant Ink blog, you mentioned company values quite a bit.
Amanda Berry: I see it pop up often because values are foundational to how a company operates. You're a big proponent of keeping company values fresh. Why do you feel keeping values fresh is so important?
Ann Melinger: Yeah, it's a great question and just as you said, values are so important. I think of them as something that's truly embedded in the company's DNA, right?
Ann Melinger: It's, it's really like your ways of working, how you show up, and it, when it comes time to make really hard decisions, which we see a lot of companies making right now, it's values that really guide how those decisions are made. And so, Really when you stop and think about it, your values shouldn't change that much.
Ann Melinger: However, if your ways of working are evolving or if there are major changes in leadership, or if there are changes in the business, maybe your company has acquired others and some of the things that you do have changed, then it is important to look at refreshing 'em. Typically, we see companies refresh their values every five to 10 years, but what we really encourage is that companies should revisit their values.
Ann Melinger: Intentionally at least once a year. Sit back, take a look at them, ask yourselves, does this value represent where we are today? Does this value highlight what makes us different? Is it something that we do better than most other companies out there? Is it something that we expect people to demonstrate the moment that they walk in the door?
Ann Melinger: And if the answer to any of those questions is no, then it's probably time to think about a refresh. So
Amanda Berry: what would that look like for an internal communications person? Right? What role would they play in keeping that? Because I know a lot of times when I've worked at companies and it's generally driven by maybe the top down, how would our listeners start that conversation?
Amanda Berry: What does that look like?
Ann Melinger: Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely one of those areas that maybe communicators shy away from. They feel like it's not in their swim lane, but I really think that communicators are the right people to bring this up because for a few reasons. First of all, you have a finger on the pulse of your people.
Ann Melinger: You understand what their challenges are, what their priorities are, what they're thinking about. If you have to make that case to leadership, that it's time for a refresh. It's a great opportunity to look around. What are your competitors doing? What are you saying? Could you make a case to leadership and say, Hey, none of our competitors have refreshed their values in five years.
Ann Melinger: I think it's time that we do. Let's go out and be leaders of the pack in that way and make that case and. The other thing that internal communicators are really good at is listening, and that is really the starting point when you are sitting down to refresh your values, is to talk to your people, actually show them your values.
Ann Melinger: When we do focus groups around values, we literally, let's put 'em up on the screen and say, does this resonate with you? How does this show up in your day-to-day experience? Do these words align with what you're living and breathing every day at this? Company, and if not, what would work, what might be here that we're not necessarily captured in these values.
Ann Melinger: And so it's also a matter of uncovering some of those values that may already exist within your organization. And communicators are really good at doing that work. Yeah.
Amanda Berry: So something that I've noticed when working in other places when we've gone through a value refresh is that you could take 10 companies, right?
Amanda Berry: And you could line the company with their values right underneath them. And what you're gonna see is that they're all very similar, almost even if you pick different industries, right? When we're working with leaders to refresh, how can we make sure our values stand out of the crowd? I.
Ann Melinger: It's a great question.
Ann Melinger: There's actually some really interesting studies that have been done that have shown that so many companies list, for example, innovation as one of their top values. And it's like, well, are you really, is that really core to who you are? Are you really stand out at that? If every other company in your industry and beyond has it.
Ann Melinger: So one of the biggest ways to stand out, we say, is to sit down and think about what is truly core. So a lot of times I think leaders feel they fall into this very common trap that if I have. Core values, they need to reflect everything. In other words, I care a lot about ethics. Of course, we have an ethical company.
Ann Melinger: That doesn't mean that that has to be one of your core values. In fact, that may be something that is just like table stakes, right? You can't even work here if you don't believe in ethics. That's just basics. But a value is something that you do differently or better than almost. Everyone out there. And so really thinking about and drilling into what is core to who we are.
Ann Melinger: And really it shouldn't be more than four to five. Brilliant, Inc has three values, so that to me is ideal. You want them to be differentiated, you want them to be real and core to who you are. I mentioned Brilliant, Inc. I mean, one of the other things is to really look at the language that you use in expressing your values.
Ann Melinger: So for example, inclusion is something that's really important to us and it is something that I think makes us different. But we don't use the word inclusion because that's a word that everyone uses, and it may mean something to one organization, different to another. So at Brilliant Ink, we say Be human.
Ann Melinger: And we talk more about what that means. That's language that's really. Fits us. And so it's both making sure you have the right core values and then that you're using the right words to express those core
Amanda Berry: values. I feel like that's what stood out to me when I've worked in on these types of initiatives is it's not just, if you use that one where like innovation, if that is your core value, it's more like a sentence that described it.
Amanda Berry: We believe in something, so the values became more sentences, which honestly kind of felt I'm out more connected to because you understood how the get go, what they were saying.
Ann Melinger: Exactly, and you, and you hit on another really important point too with that, which is that values on their own are not enough.
Ann Melinger: You really have to continue to define not just the value, but what does it look like in practice? What are those actual specific behaviors? I. What do I mean by be human and get very specific about it means I show up this way, it means I come to meetings with this mindset. It means, and really as much detail as you can drill into, into specific behaviors is super important.
Ann Melinger: Otherwise, values are pretty meaningless. I.
Amanda Berry: Yeah. Is there a company that you, you think does this really well that stands out from the
Ann Melinger: crowd? It's a great question, and I think we spend a lot of time talking about companies that don't do it well. Especially with all the recent layoffs that have been happening and seeing how those have been handled by companies that claim to be very people first, and then they're doing their layoffs in a way that is very much not people first, but I often talk about Patagonia as a shining example as a of a company that has.
Ann Melinger: Very strong, very clear values that reflect their day-to-day. They refresh them in 2022, so they don't sit on their laurels. They are looking at them and making sure they're fresh. And so I really encourage people to check out Patagonia. Not only are they great values, but they truly show up in how they work and what they do day to day.
Amanda Berry: Just given how the past, let's say 10 years has gone, we know three years ago we really hit a different spot with the pandemic and the social injustice in the country and, and all sorts of stuff happen. Have you seen a swift shift in values over time and maybe even just pre pandemic versus post pandemic or the way people are even talking about them at organizations?
Ann Melinger: Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's no question that this has become more important and to some extent, I mean, we can think of ourselves at Brilliant, Inc. As our own little case study. When we see, well, we get a flood of calls and interest from companies about certain topics, that's when we know, okay, here's a trend.
Ann Melinger: And we have certainly seen a trend in the last. Five years or so of companies saying, we need help. We know this is important. We need to refresh our values. But there's so much research out there just showing that values are much more important. And I think it's sort of for two reasons. One, you hit on, it's really the last three years, COVID, the Global Pandemic, the Racial Reckoning.
Ann Melinger: All of these things have really combined to make. Workers rethink their experiences and really reprioritize, right, what's important to them, but it's also the generational changes that are happening in the workplace. You spent many, many years talking about millennials, and now we're talking about Gen Z and really more than most generations that have preceded them, gen Z workers really want meaningful and values aligned work.
Ann Melinger: And so companies are realizing that if they want to be able to attract. And retain the best young workers. They do really need to focus on this and sure, maybe companies felt this was more important when the labor market was a little tighter, but I would argue this is important no matter what's happening with the economy, no matter what's happening with the labor market, because in truth, Looking at your values and how you express them does not have to be a terribly expensive and arduous undertaking.
Ann Melinger: It's something that companies can do that really does make a difference. That isn't necessarily a huge change in your manufacturing processes. It's something that you could do without a huge, massive investment of time or
Amanda Berry: energy. So the crux of this is you have the new values, but the thing is for me is where the rubber meets the road, right?
Amanda Berry: You can have these values, but how do we ensure that they're actually being sort of used to guide the business and serve as the foundation for the business? So when you work with leaders at a company, how are you instructing them to make sure that they're living the values and not just asking their employees to live the values like, Maybe at their annual evaluation, they have to write how they demonstrated each value and then they have to go, oh, how did I do that?
Amanda Berry: So how are you making sure the company level, that high level, that it's happening at all levels?
Ann Melinger: Yep. That's a great question and it is absolutely crucial. And it goes back to what I said before. If it's just values, then you're doing it all wrong. And unfortunately, a lot of companies are even getting advice.
Ann Melinger: From other consultants that like, here are your values, go launch them. Here's, do a campaign. And that is just completely wrong. It, there should not be a campaign to launch your values and then walk away. It's something that really does have to be baked into every component of the employee lifecycle. So Brilliant, Inc.
Ann Melinger: We often talk about this employee life cycle. We have. Graphics of it that kind of show the key moments and what we do when we're working with an organization is we'll sit down and actually audit their employee lifecycle. Let's talk about each point in the lifecycle from when you're hunting and hiring for new employees.
Ann Melinger: How are your values showing up? How are your values showing up in the hiring process? Are you asking questions in interviews? What about on day one? What about in onboarding and really making sure that we actually build a roadmap to ensure that it's showing up all the way along the employee lifecycle.
Ann Melinger: And I love the one that you mentioned, which is end of year reviews. You know, measuring and rewarding performance based on values is probably the most important and impactful way to make sure that your values are being lit. Because if you're not measuring people on it, then they're really not given any reason to care.
Ann Melinger: But you also don't want them to get to that, you know, end of year review and think, well, how was I living that value? You want it to be something that they're thinking about on a regular basis, and that requires thoughtful planning. You can't just expect it to show up. You've gotta have a roadmap and a plan to make it happen.
Amanda Berry: Let's back up a few minutes and talk just a little bit more about you and I. I wanna hear some stories you have. So we're gonna move into our first segment story time.
Amanda Berry: When I was thinking about guests. Because I get your blog. I was like, wow, I'd really like to have someone from Brilliant Ink. Here. And so I reached out to Carolyn Clark, my boss, and I said, Hey, do you know anyone from Brilliant Ink? And she says, I know Ann. I was like, Ooh, this is a wishlist item for me. So I wanna say thank you for coming.
Amanda Berry: You've been a Brilliant Ink for about 14 years. Can you tell us about what it is and what you do there?
Ann Melinger: Sure. Absolutely. So I've actually spent my entire career working in employee communications and engagement, and I've always worked on the outside, meaning I've never actually sat in-house and run a function.
Ann Melinger: I've always been at consultancies or agencies that focus on this area. And so in that time I've seen lots of different ways of doing that. And so the way that we do it Upward Lean, Inc. Has sort of been my vision, which is that we are a hybrid of strategic consulting and. Creative. So what that means is that we work with companies exclusively on employee communications.
Ann Melinger: It's all that we do, and we really take both sides of that equation. We can be strategic partners, we can help them define communication strategies that are appropriate for the organizational changes that they're facing. We have deep research expertise. We have. The ability to build channels and measure and you know, ensure constant improvement.
Ann Melinger: That's all really strategic, consultative work. But the other part is it of it is that we wanna be able to help our clients actually make the changes. So we also are a full service creative agency, so that means we can. Bring all that strategy stuff to life through writing, through design, branding, video, photo, all the kind of fun stuff that people think about because I, I think in looking at the landscape, there are a lot of companies that do one or the other really well, and I really wanted to be able to support those in-house folks that have a job that is frankly, Much, much harder than mine to be able to give them everything that they need and not say, okay, we can get you this far and then you're gonna need to find someone else to take you the rest of the
Amanda Berry: way.
Amanda Berry: And so what is your role there at Brilliant Ink.
Ann Melinger: So, I'm the c e o in addition to being the full owner. So we're proud to be a, a woman owned business. And I run the company, which means I do a lot of marketing like this thought leadership speaking at conferences, but it's also really important to me to continue working with clients.
Ann Melinger: I love doing that work. I was an employee of Brilliant Ink. Long before I was the owner of Brilliant Ink. And so I love being able to continue to be in the trenches with my clients, talk to 'em about the challenges they're facing, see what's working. But it's also really. Probably the most important thing to me and the deepest part of my passion for my work is.
Ann Melinger: Running a company with an amazing employee experience ourselves, we really feel like if we're gonna go out and advise companies on how to have a great employee experience for their people, I need to offer one to my people. And so that has been really important to me that we are living up to our own promises internally in terms of benefits, flexibility, inclusion, diversity, all the things that are so important to building a great organization.
Ann Melinger: I've really tried to do within Brilliant, Inc.
Amanda Berry: I do wanna let our listeners know that if you're one of those people like me who get a million newsletters and like you have this webinar and this webinar from all these different organizations, Brilliant Ink. Is the one that I actually am like, oh, can't wait to read it and I'll open it and then I'll save it and I'll, you know, go throughout a day and read it.
Amanda Berry: So, I find there's so much value and the blog you put out that I, I just wanna let our listeners know it's worth signing up for. Is there a moment in your career? You said, you know, you are always an agency, maybe even you know, college or whenever, when you said you wanted to change the employee experience or work in employee communications?
Amanda Berry: I started external communications, ended up rebuilding a website, and I was like, well, I'm at it. I'll add, I'll make it intranet for all the employees, which I didn't realize how hard that was gonna be. But then once it was done, I was like, wow, I really like this More internal focused. So that was for me where I changed.
Amanda Berry: But I'm wondering for you, because your experience is a little different, is there a moment when you're like, this is what I wanna do?
Ann Melinger: Yeah, I would say I graduated from college in the year 2000, which was a really great year. There were just a whole slew of job opportunities for people coming out of college, and I studied public relations and I was interested in it, but I also was really interested in consulting.
Ann Melinger: I had a policy. Studies major as well, and I was sort of like, is there something out there that allows me to do both? And the other piece of it is as I started researching and realizing that there is sort of this area of change management, employee engagement, while that really leans heavily on the communication strategies that I studied in college, but even more than that is that we've all had employee experiences at some point.
Ann Melinger: I was even at the very naive age of 22, I. Worked probably seven or eight jobs at that point, right? Throughout high school and college. So in every one of those you can relate to what it's like to be an employee. You can relate to how, you know, if you show up on the first day, is there someone to even show you how to log into your computer?
Ann Melinger: You can understand the concept of an employee experience. And so that is what really motivated me was like, wow, the ability to. Change what people experience day-to-day at their work felt so important to me. I mean, look how much time we spend working in our lives, right? It's like the majority of how we spend our time, hopefully not the majority, but a big portion of how we spend our time day to day, and the ability to influence that was really appealing to me.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, absolutely. I'm gonna move into our next segment, getting tactical.
Amanda Berry: One of the topics that's most near and dear to my heart that I know that I also read a lot through your newsletter and on your blog at Brilliant Ink. Is this desk-less frontline employee experience. I just had someone on, and we talked about this as being onscreen versus hands-on. I kind of like those terms as well, but for the sake of this, we'll call 'em hands-on, right?
Amanda Berry: People who don't work at a screen all day. I worked in a position where I had. Why that was a big, that was 85% of the population at work. And boy, I tell you, that was, that was challenging. You know, you try every which way. So that's why this is near and dear to my, my heart. So I wanna talk about that for a few minutes 'cause that's such a great topic.
Amanda Berry: I think this seems obvious, but can we talk a little bit about how that experience differs for them? And if you're one of those people who don't, have never worked with those hands-on desk-less employees. Can you just help people understand that experience and why it's so challenging?
Ann Melinger: Sure. Absolutely.
Ann Melinger: And this goes back to even what I was saying before. We can all maybe think back to our early working years. I actually have a, a 15 year old who is off at his very first paying job right now as a counselor in training at a, at a summer camp. And there you go. He's a desk-less worker. Right. My very first job was working in a retail store, then I was a hostess at a restaurant, a desk assistant at a vet's office.
Ann Melinger: So I, throughout my career, and probably throughout yours, and most listeners here have at some point had some sort of pain work that they can think of that's different from what they might be doing now, right? Where it wasn't most of your day spent sitting at a desk, either on the phone or on a computer, right?
Ann Melinger: And. Really try to put yourself into those shoes, into that position, right? My son got his first paycheck. He had questions about it. Who does he ask? How does he get in touch with that person? He's more likely to go up and walk up to them and ask them the next time he sees them, and it's his immediate boss.
Ann Melinger: He's not going to hr, he's not going to the c e o, right? So it's really putting yourselves into their shoes and thinking. This is different. And think about somebody who is driving in a car for most of their job. And how are they getting information? Or think about somebody that's working in a hospital for most of their job.
Ann Melinger: What are their touchpoints? Where would they go if they had a question? Where would they go if they need information? And so, so much of it is just really trying to take ourselves out of our day-to-day experience, which is. Feels so normal to us, right? It's hard to imagine, but it's not hard to find the people around you that work in a very different way and try to think about how their experiences are different.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, and that, that's one of the things that struck me when I had my experience with those more hands-on desk-less Screenless folks, is that I'd have to remind myself that while I'm building this newsletter, it'll take 'em five minutes to read it. But when you're working, you know you're doing something with your hands and you're physically starting exhausting yourself.
Amanda Berry: Probably the last thing you wanna do is get on your phone and read. A bunch of emails and then a newsletter and then go to the intranet. Like we have to be real with ourselves when thinking about their experience.
Ann Melinger: Absolutely. And not only that, we have to be real when we're thinking about you sent that newsletter, but what did their manager send them and what did their division leaders send them and what did their facilities person send them?
Ann Melinger: And think about all the different it's, and so one of the things that we often do is like a day in the life, let's think about what does that person's day look like? Not only considering what I, as the internal comms person wanna get to them, but all the things they get. And by putting yourself in their shoes too, you might recognize, huh, their day actually starts with a commute in the car.
Ann Melinger: Is there something I could do with that? Or when they get there, they have to clock in on their app, on their phone. Is there something I can do with that? Or every morning they have a huddle before they do rounds. Is there something I can do with that? So really that day in the life exercise could be super
Amanda Berry: helpful.
Amanda Berry: Yeah. I think all of that sort of context switching for them from my experience leads to more a lot of just not being able to be reached in the ways that internal communicators would want. Right, exactly. And it causes a lot of burnout, but can you talk about like why you think that desk-less hands-on employee, is it a higher risk for turnover and burnout?
Amanda Berry: I.
Ann Melinger: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when I think about it, it, it, it's actually something that's really, it's emotional. If you sit and think about it, I mean, first of all, deathless workers are the vast majority of workers out there. It's something like, In the billions, almost 3 billion desk-less workers in the world, and they are at, there's some studies that show something like a third have intention to leave their job in the next six months that represents a hundred million people.
Ann Melinger: That's just vast, vast numbers, and part of the reasons why are they're often forgotten and overlooked. Desk-less workers? Not always. I, I, I hate to make generalizations because doctors are desk less just like factory workers and the experiences that they have are vastly different. But if you do think specifically about areas like manufacturing or any type of service type industry where there's delivery or retail, Those jobs tend to be hourly.
Ann Melinger: They tend to receive lower wages. The communications to those audiences tend to be very tactical and production focused. Right? I'm gonna tell you how you're doing against producing this number of widgets. Per day, how many safety incidents there have been and how many late check-ins there have been, things like that.
Ann Melinger: Well, what about the meaning behind the work that I'm doing? Is my work impacting a patient somewhere? Is my work impacting the company in some significant way? The answer is very likely, yes, but it's often overlooked. And I think the other big piece of this that for me is really sad, is that these same workers were the ones that throughout Covid.
Ann Melinger: Didn't start working remote, right? Whether you are, again, talking about all the first responders and healthcare workers that were just expected to work straight through Covid and we were relying on them to work and people in labs developing treatments. They were all essential workers. But also I live in New York City.
Ann Melinger: I had people delivering my groceries, delivering my food. I wasn't allowed to go to the stores. And those people were expected to work, and yet were not given anything in terms of a race or a better experience. And so it's really not a surprise that burnout is happening in such large volumes among these populations.
Amanda Berry: For our listeners, like if you're sitting out there and you know that this is an issue, is there something companies can do to help with that? Burnout? That leads to turnover?
Ann Melinger: Burnout leads to turnover and it, and that's really the, I think that's really what it comes down to. I mean, look, I. We have to be able to make the business case.
Ann Melinger: And I think those numbers alone, there's plenty of data out there to make that business case the risk of our company losing a third of our desk-less workers. Can you imagine the cost of that, the replacement costs? I mean, look, I like to look at things through a human lens, but if you're trying to appeal to leadership, let's get specific with some numbers and financial risks that are involved.
Ann Melinger: And really I think it's it that communicators have a responsibility to. Elevate this in importance to bring it to leaders, and again, doesn't have to be a huge change, just doesn't have to be a huge expensive lift to make sure that we're focusing on these employees experiences. Let's sit down and talk to them.
Ann Melinger: Let's understand what do they want. Most often the research shows that desk-less workers really want more in terms of learning and development. And maybe you're already offering those things and you actually don't even have to spend any additional money, but you need to make more of an effort to ensure that they understand the learning and development opportunities available to them, that they're taking advantage of them, that people who are managing desk-less workers are maybe getting that.
Ann Melinger: Special training or additional resources and tools to make sure they're equipped to create a great experience for their people. So really, I just wanna motivate and inspire communicators to bring this to leadership, to make sure that deathless workers are sort of brought into the light that they are focused on as a specific audience, and that there are communication strategies tailored for them.
Ann Melinger: It's not hard. It's not expensive. It can really pay off.
Amanda Berry: Let's talk about some of those strategies to best engage with hands-on desk-less offscreen workers. I have my own thoughts just based on what I've done, but I'd love to
Ann Melinger: hear from you. Yeah, sure. I mean, I mentioned one of them already, but managers, you know, I don't often say it should always be this.
Ann Melinger: I don't make a lot of like always statements as a consultant, right? Classic consultant answers like it depends. But when it comes to those hands-on workers managers are. Always the number one best, most important way to reach them, because it's exactly like I said, my son gets a paycheck. Who's he gonna go ask?
Ann Melinger: He's gonna go to his manager. That's who he sees. That's who leads the morning huddles. That's who's there in the break room. That's the person. And so making sure that managers are equipped, giving them the tools and resources that they need, and also holding them accountable. Let's make sure we're measuring our managers on their ability to communicate effectively, and then asking our direct reports for that feedback.
Ann Melinger: So managers is a big one. Another really big one that seems obvious when we think about it, but a lot of companies overlook is physical space and the use of physical space to reach. Those desk list workers and I mentioned, you know, look, there might be screens that say our safety stats or our production stats, but how about using those screens for other things like spotlighting different employees that are doing great work or that are demonstrating values aligned behaviors.
Ann Melinger: Or reminding people the impact of the work that we're doing, showing patient stories, things like that. So using those screens or that even that physical space to bring some of those important messages to those deathless workers is another really important consideration.
Amanda Berry: Let's move on 'cause there's a couple more topics I wanna cover today.
Amanda Berry: Another topic that I see in your your blog newsletter regularly is de and I, and that's such an important topic that's been discussed pretty widely, especially more over the past few years. Absolutely. Let's take a step back and help our listeners understand how language factors into inclusivity when it comes to communications.
Ann Melinger: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, diversity, equity, inclusion, it feels scary to communicators. It feels like, Ugh, I'm not an expert in this. I, I didn't study diversity. I don't know, I don't know what to do. So let's just put that aside and exactly what you said. Language, okay, language. We're communicators, right?
Ann Melinger: We can all understand the power of words, the power of the things that we say, and the fact of the matter is, The total sum of your communications as an organization sends messages about what you think about inclusivity, right? Right off the bat. Do you include pronouns? If you introduce yourself with pronouns, you're sending a subtle message that.
Ann Melinger: Hey, this is something that we think about and everyone is welcome here, and you show up how you wanna show up, and we're gonna respect that. We're not gonna make any assumptions. Small messages can be sent through the ways that you communicate, the words that you choose to use, and it can't be accidental.
Ann Melinger: It does have to be intentional. So that's a good starting point for internal comms people is let's hone in on the language piece and really thinking about how we can make our language. The words that we use more inclusive. I
Amanda Berry: used to partner really closely in one of my previous jobs with the de and I group, and like once a year they'd get together with all the internal communicators, Andra, talk about the language that we were using and, and this wasn't a, you're using this wrong finger wagging.
Amanda Berry: It was like, Hey, the narrative has shifted. We'd like for y'all to start. And saying this or not saying this, and we're like, thank you. And then we'd all be grateful and we'd move on and then we'd keep doing it to make sure that we were being mindful, no one was being malicious in that way. We set that fear aside, but I wanna bring it back really quickly.
Amanda Berry: What do you think that fear is based in? What do you think they feel apprehensive of when it comes to that de and i?
Ann Melinger: There is definitely this sense that there's a right and a wrong way to do things, and yes, to some extent there is, but it's exactly what you just said, Amanda. It's always changing. It's always shifting.
Ann Melinger: We can say, right now, we don't say the word slave. We say enslaved people. You know what, in another five or 10 years, the thinking around that may evolve even further. So I love the example that you shared from a past job where you got back together regularly and really remembering that there is no set in stone right or wrong way to do things that right away can get rid of a lot of your.
Ann Melinger: Concern and worry by just recognizing that there is no right or wrong way to do it, that it is an ongoing dialogue. For example, we have an inclusive language guide on our website. Say this, not that as the title, but guess what? Our expert, our in-house expert on diversity equity inclusion is a regularly updating that because it's got to be refreshed, sensibilities are changing.
Ann Melinger: What's acceptable is changing, and. While it is risky to talk and speak on this topic, it's so much more important to take some chances. A lot of times when it comes to diversity, equity, inclusion, communicators have their heart in the right place. They wanna move the needle, they wanna make a difference, but the fear and apprehension.
Ann Melinger: Can cause you to sit still. And so what I often say to people is focus on just moving the needle a little bit. Just nudging the needle forward just a little bit. Because if in every communication you do, you're able to just make things one or 2% better over time, that is gonna make a difference And.
Ann Melinger: Think about those small incremental changes versus we have to go out there and pronounce our commitment to social justice and you know, all of these things. It doesn't have to be so big. It can be small, incremental changes. Sometimes that helps people get past that fear.
Amanda Berry: Absolutely. Something is better than nothing for sure when it comes to this.
Amanda Berry: Yeah. So we just had this long conversation about that hands-on offscreen employee, that frontline desk list. I wanna amend these two together because this isn't something I feel like I, I've heard a lot about. So what are some inclusion considerations we need to account for when it comes to that?
Amanda Berry: Hands-on desk-less screenless population.
Ann Melinger: Yeah, I mean it's really, it's no different than if you're thinking about your overall population. It is about really getting into their day-to-day and understanding what is important to them. What are those topics that matter most? What are the channels that are most effective?
Ann Melinger: And the best way to do that is to talk to them through focus groups and through surveys. When it comes to maybe targeting or thinking about making sure you're communicating appropriately with. Different type of audience. Maybe you wanna make sure that you're reaching out specifically to your black population, then you might engage your E R G, right?
Ann Melinger: Your employee resource group and talk to them. In the case of desk-less workers, it's the same thing. You wanna make sure that you're sitting down and talking with them. Focus groups can sometimes be hard with a desk-less workforce, right? You might not be able to just pull a bunch of people off the line or pull a bunch of doctors out during rounds.
Ann Melinger: And so sometimes we'll say, all right, you know what? Let's do two to three people at a time. Set up a laptop to take notes in the break room and call a couple people in at a time and talk to them about what's working, what's not working, what do you need? Because inclusion is really about understanding the unique experiences of people at work and making sure that we're considering those experiences and the way that we communicate.
Ann Melinger: That's really what it comes down to. Are there any
Amanda Berry: other dos or don'ts of a good D e I communication strategy that we haven't covered that you would, you can share?
Ann Melinger: I think that really it's around research. There is no one way of doing things, and so that's why we always focus on the need to talk to employees and so definitely focus groups are a great one, but surveys are also really important.
Ann Melinger: That's another really great way to check your. Progress, right? Focus groups are something that you might only have the opportunity to do once a year, but a survey is something you could do to check in every quarter to Pulse and really make sure that things are moving in the direction that you want them to.
Ann Melinger: And we talk about that a lot on our blog, but also it's about digging deep into the data that you find, right? You may find, for example, that you have a lot of women in your C-suite. Great. We have two women out of the five people on our executive team, but let's take a look closer. What roles are those women in?
Ann Melinger: Are they in roles that really can make a difference that are change maker type roles? Are they running something like operations or finance, or are they in something that is less of a change maker role? So really digging into results and making sure that. They're not just changes on the surface, but are changes that are getting at the things that you truly wanna accomplish and are truly gonna make a difference.
Amanda Berry: Let's move into our last segment, asking for a friend.
Amanda Berry: On the blog, there's a fairly recent blog published titled Why Most Companies Should Not Publicly Celebrate History, Heritage, and Awareness Months. Whew. And I read that, uh, when I saw that title, I was like, I've got to go into this one. Would you just discuss the crux of that, like what the meaning is and what companies are doing wrong when they celebrate these awareness months?
Ann Melinger: Yeah, I've talked a lot about research and you can tell I'm passionate about it, and it's similar to one of the things that I say about research, which is don't ask the question unless you're ready to actually act on it. Because nothing makes people more angry than being asked their opinion on something, them sharing and nothing being done.
Ann Melinger: You're better not asking at all, and it's very similar when it comes to de and I. Right. You should actually say nothing as a company, then say something that is empty and it's not backed up with actions. One of the ways that we at Bri Inc determine whether or not we're going to make some sort of public statement about something is can we actually back it up with action?
Ann Melinger: Are we actually going to back it up with action? And if not, we're not gonna say anything because you know, employees don't need to hear thoughts and prayers. They actually want action, and so unless a company is actually doing something, they shouldn't be out there talking about it. We can see that there've been so many examples.
Ann Melinger: One of the ones that comes to mind is recently with Budweiser and some of the communications that they have done, and I encourage if people haven't read or seen some of the controversy around that to do some research. You could probably Google search Budweiser trans community and see some of the. Ways that they have gone out and made bold statements and then walked those back, and the impact of that is so much worse than if they had said nothing at all.
Ann Melinger: And so again, it's like silence is better than empty words without action. That's really what it comes down to. Do not offend your people by putting a flag over your logo if you're not actually gonna back that up in your actions and decisions.
Amanda Berry: Absolutely. This just hit me. How many employees are there at Brilliant Ink.
Ann Melinger: Brilliant, Inc. Today is about 15 employees and then we have sort of a flexible team of experts that ranges from about 15 to 20 people that come in and out on different projects. I.
Amanda Berry: I was gonna ask if you have somebody there who does employee communications at one of the top employee communications firms, I would be so nervous if I was doing it and I've, I've been in the business for 16, 17 years.
Amanda Berry: I would be just handshaking hitting this and button. Yep. So would you just tell us a little bit about
Ann Melinger: that? Oh, that resonates, Amanda, that resonates. Like I said, the bar is very high. They always say the cobbler's children have no shoes. And yeah, it's really important to make sure, to me that doesn't happen, but it is hard.
Ann Melinger: Look, for a long time we didn't have an intranet. We're a small company. What does a small company need an intranet for? But oh, by the way, we do need one. Right? We do need to have a central place where people can see our values and our company holidays. And who to contact for different things. So it is something that actually the entire leadership team owns.
Ann Melinger: It's something that we look at constantly. We do have somebody that oversees our people operations and is constantly making sure that we are keeping our commitments, that we're walking the walk. So yes, we do. We actually have multiple people that look after employee communications at Brilliant Ink.
Ann Melinger: Starting with me. Yours truly.
Amanda Berry: It must be pretty amazing,
Ann Melinger: so, well, it's not easy. It's not easy, but it's important.
Amanda Berry: Well, I mean, like I said, you're one of the top internal comms influencers that I know of for sure. So I'm just wondering if you could give us like a preview or any trends that we need to stay on top of and be prepared for.
Ann Melinger: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think no one is having a conversation right now about trends and communications and not talking about ai. There is definitely a place to talk about ai. It's super important. There are a lot of places out there talking about it, including Brilliant, Inc. I try to play with chat G P T or some other AI tool at least once a day just so that I myself can understand it.
Ann Melinger: I think when people don't know it or understand it, they're much more likely to be scared and I'm hearing. On one end of the spectrum, oh, it's never gonna affect us. And on the other end, oh, our jobs are gonna be obsolete in five years. I don't actually think it's either one of those. I think it's somewhere in the middle.
Ann Melinger: And so I just really encourage people to be aware. Don't be fearful, don't completely brush it off, but just be aware. Read about what's happening, play with the tools, make sure you're experimenting with them, but also make sure that you're aware of the risks. That come along with them. There are plenty of inclusion risks that come along with using ai, and there are also risks around safety and privacy.
Ann Melinger: We work with sensitive client information and so our people cannot use chat G P T for any client work that's going to reach any of our agreements with clients, but we can certainly use it in other ways that are safe. And so just really getting in there I think is. Is super important and understanding it and then it's really the other things that we've discussed.
Ann Melinger: Values I think will continue to be so important. And it's something that I really want communicators to play a role in. It's something that can make a big difference in the life and health of a business, and we are well suited to play a role in that as well as shedding light on. Populations that maybe are overlooked in traditional communication strategies, whether that's your desk list workers, whether it's your younger workers or your older workers, but really honing in on those audiences that might be forgotten in day-to-day communications efforts.
Ann Melinger: This
Amanda Berry: was a bucket list level podcast for me, and it's been just a lot of fun. I wish we could talk forever, and I'm not gonna hold your feet to the fire on this, but I'd love to have you back. Maybe even next year we can come back and talk about new trends and, and other topics as well. I'd
Ann Melinger: love it. Let's do it.
Ann Melinger: Okay.
Amanda Berry: Fantastic. Before I let you go, let our listeners know where they can find you.
Ann Melinger: Sure, absolutely. So our website is Brilliant Ink.com and that's Inc i n k because we love to write and our website has lots of resources. Our blog, we also have resource centers there, so on different topics. We gather a lot of resources, whether it's diversity and inclusion.
Ann Melinger: We had one around return to work, things like that. And then of course, our monthly newsletter, the inkwell, which you mentioned, which we pull together lots of great different resources. We are currently on a break from Twitter, but you can follow me on LinkedIn Ann Melinger or Brilliant Ink. As well as all the members of the Brilliant Ink team are always sharing their own brilliance on LinkedIn as well.
Ann Melinger: Yeah,
Amanda Berry: And I can't recommend enough for our listeners to go out and subscribe with the newsletter and check the blog. I think I go in about once a month and just sort of look and see if there's anything I haven't read.
Ann Melinger: Well, thanks so much, Amanda. We appreciate it.
Amanda Berry: Oh, anytime. I'm one of your biggest cheerleaders over here, so thank you so much for joining me today.
Amanda Berry: It's been a lot of fun talking to you.
Ann Melinger: This has been just great. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you, Amanda, and keep doing the great work of educating and informing communicators. It's what we all love to do and it's what we're all here to do together, so I appreciate you as well.
Amanda Berry: I really, really appreciate you saying that a lot.
Amanda Berry: A lot of appreciation going on today. Love it. Thanks Ann.
Ann Melinger: Thank you.