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The Periodic Table of Internal Communication

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The Periodic Table of Internal Communication

Building a brand new comms resource, inspired by a 150 year old design…

The periodic table provides a significant amount of crucial scientific data.

It’s the most important chemistry reference there is because it brings together all the known elements under one roof enabling them to be studied, discussed and understood. It was started in 1869 by Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev when he predicted the discovery of other elements, and he purposely left spaces open for new ones.

A chance connection on Twitter has led us to replicate this original approach, producing The Periodic Table of Internal Communication, which you can find right here.

The Elements of IC brings together many essential building blocks of internal communication to jump start discussions and plans, helping to spark and communicate thoughts and ideas.

The idea

We’ve made some great connections on social media and one such friendship that’s flourishing is with Chuck Gose, Corporate Communications VP, speaker & fab host of the new internal comms podcast, ICology. (We’d highly recommend you tune in.) Chuck is an active social media advocate and it was on Twitter where we first crossed paths. We love Chuck’s commitment to the communications community as well as his energy and enthusiasm to continue driving the industry forward with new thoughts, concepts and ideas. It’s an approach we share.

We bounced around a few new ideas and Chuck suggested a corker – to design and build the periodic table of internal communication. We loved the idea from the start and it’s growing into something significant.

The idea was to create a table of terms bringing together all the elements of internal communication under one roof. We split the table across seven different categories: Strategy, Objectives, Themes, Audiences, Formats, Channels and Metrics, populating each section with a number of commonly used comms terms.

From there, we built the Periodic Table of Internal Communication, a full copy of which you can download here.

Just the beginning…

It’s important to clarify that this isn’t the finished product. Not by any means. This is just the beginning. We’d like to gather thoughts, feedback and opinion from comms pros everywhere. So we’re asking for your help in shaping the final result. We’d love to know what element you’d add. What’s missing? 

When you download the periodic table pdf you’ll be prompted to submit your own element. So let’s hear what terms should be added to make this the best it can be. You’ll also be prompted to share The Elements of IC around your network, which we’d encourage you to do in order to gather together as much expert knowledge and input as possible.

The future for The Elements of IC

We’re taking the whole thing a step further. Once we’ve gathered together your comments, ideas and additions, we’ll publish a fully updated, interactive version that will include descriptions of each term along with some additional thoughts, pointers and links to useful resources. This will become a resource for the comms community to contribute to, share and enjoy. And it will be an ever evolving source of ideas and information.

Thank you for your input.

We’ll let you know when the full interactive version is available, in the meantime, download your pdf and contribute your own element here. 

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Emma Wright — South Yorkshire & Rescue

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Emma Wright — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

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Keren McCarron, Head of Corporate Affairs & Communications — KP Snacks

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Jack Grasby, Campaigns Manager — SYFR

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Amy Lilja, IC Manager — Hennepin Healthcare

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