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Lost in translation 

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Lost in translation 

At some point in our career, we’ve all received a brief that’s vague at best and incomprehensible at worst. Often full of jargon, not thought through, completely unrealistic, or a mixture of all three – a poor brief is the bane of an internal communicator’s life.

So how do we diplomatically wade through the nonsense to get to the heart of what’s required (or isn’t required as is often the case!)?

Here are our top tips…

Repeat it back

When someone is explaining something complex, a great skill to hone is the ability to repeat it back to them in a simpler, shorter way to check you have understood it correctly.

You don’t have to do it there in the moment – take the brief, mull it over and then go back to the person later face-to-face or in email. There’s often an expectation you need to have the answers on the spot and you don’t – it’s perfectly ok to go away and think before coming to any conclusions.

And if it turns out you haven’t understood the brief correctly, ask them to explain it again in layman’s terms – remind them that everyone from the CEO down to the intern should be able to understand it, so if you don’t, chances are others won’t either.

Challenge ambiguity

If someone struggles to articulate something simply and clearly without using business jargon, they probably don’t understand it fully themselves, or it isn’t particularly thought through. Don’t be afraid to diplomatically call them out on it – it’s an opportunity to help them refine their messaging or come to the realisation that it’s not something that needs communicating at all. Act as a true trusted adviser – it’s where we add the most value.

Take a walk in their shoes

It can be hard to admit that you can’t articulate something properly, especially if it’s your boss’ idea, you don’t quite get it and they’ve given you a hard deadline to get it done. Remember that everyone is under different pressures and have different relationships with their managers and don’t always feel comfortable pushing back. It’s much easier to push the problem on to you.

It’s also worth remembering that people often use jargon to make the language they’re using exclusive or inaccessible. It’s often not conscious, but more from a sense of pride in what they do and an insecurity that if others understand their role intricately, it may place less importance on them or even do them out of a job in the long-term.

Understanding why someone is briefing you poorly can help you to be sensitive to their needs and insecurities, advise them on how to elicit further information from the powers that be and provide them with examples that demonstrate the benefits of being open and sharing learnings and successes.

Make it easy for them

Are there tools and templates available to help people think through their ideas and consider what you might need to know?

Have you communicated what a good brief looks like?

David Wraith recently blogged about the weird science of communication and he made the great point that the more you know something the less we are able to imagine what it’s like to not know it.

It’s a trap internal communicators can easily fall in to – we do this day in and day out and can reel off all the things we need to know before starting any kind of communication. But the majority of people in an organisation will have no idea. So maybe the first step in receiving a good brief is setting out what one looks like in the first place.

Ask the right questions

When receiving a verbal brief there are some key questions you can ask to ensure you get the key bits of information you need: Why are you communicating this? Why should people care? What do you want them to think/feel/do as a result? How does it relate to the business strategy? What are you trying to achieve? What does success look like? How will you measure that?

Visual communications can be really hard to articulate so when it comes to creative briefs ask them to give you examples of things they do and don’t like to give you a steer.

The burden of success is not on you

Even if you point out that a brief doesn’t make sense or isn’t thorough enough, sometimes you will be ignored. There is often an assumption that because you are responsible for communicating something, that its success hinges solely on you. Not only is that unfair, but it’s unrealistic.

There’s only so much you can do with a bad brief – as long as you’ve put across your concerns clearly and spelled out the risks of doing it this way your integrity can stay intact. With more and more organisations using collaboration platforms you can’t stop people communicating badly if they are determined to – all you can do is advise.

Being good at translating what people really mean takes practise – over time you’ll start to spot the tell-tale signs that someone isn’t going to brief you fully and you’ll know how to manage it. It’s also about confidence. Confidence to challenge peers and leaders, knowing that while it may not be an easy conversation, it will yield far more valuable results.

Ultimately, communication is as much listening and understanding as it is conveying, so the art of translation is a skill all internal comms pros should ensure they’ve added to their ever expanding comms tool belt.

By Helen Deverell for Alive!

“I feel like they own and care for the project as much as we do! I would not use anyone else for my creative work and think Alive is ahead of the game.”

Jo Hobbs — Communications Manager

“Thanks for all your help. We are delighted with the campaign, both in terms of the creativity and messaging but also the thought taken over the rollout of the materials. All looks absolutely fabulous!”

Sarah Crowdy — Campaign and Media Officer Communications, South East Water

“We went to ‘Alive’ for ideas on how to run a specific employee program in Europe. Alan and his team were brilliant in coming up with fresh, creative and practical approaches. The team took charge and executed brilliantly. We are pleased with the progress made so far and hope to have the same level of partnership and commitment going forward.”

Sobha Varghese — Tata Consultancy Services

“Alive helped us create a video of our response to the floods of winter 2019. Our Chief Officer received messages from all round the country praising us for it and was really pleased with both the video and the response to it.”

Alexander Mills, Communications Manager — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

“We had the privilege to work with the Alive team. It was our first time to be involved in creating an animation for our patients within paediatrics. The team were approachable, friendly, creative and very accommodating. Your vision for what you want to create, is at all times acknowledged, appreciated and accommodated by the team. They worked effectively and with great passion towards our project and worked not only alongside health professionals but also our patients who really enjoyed the experience of working with the Alive team. It has given our team the confidence and inspiration to do further projects in the future. We highly recommend Alive and their exceptional team.”

DR ELENI ATHANASAKOS, Lead Paediatric Clinical Scientist — NHS Barts Health

“‘The short animation developed in co-production with clinicians and young people is outstanding! Informative, developmentally appropriate, vitally fun and engaging. We are really grateful for the expertise of the Alive with Ideas team for their innovative approach in building children’s health literacy.'”

Kath Evans — Director of Children’s Nursing at Barts Health

“Our mission was to update our brand visuals to better reflect our innovative and forward-thinking organisation. After receiving numerous pitches from different branding agencies, Alive stood out with their clear passion and understanding of our identity and goals. We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Alive Team to create an engaging new brand that we are immensely proud of.”

Lianne Springer — Communications and Engagement Lead

“Alive wowed us during the pitch process and they didn’t stop wowing us throughout the whole project. Every person we worked with at Alive were so friendly, knowledgeable and clearly passionate about what they do. They have worked with us to really understand what we do and have created a new brand and website that really stands out from our competitors. Thank you!”

Louise Burnard, Head of Marketing and Communications UK — Be | Shaping the Future

“I think the team have done such a brilliant job, particularly with responding to our requests. It's one of the best mental health videos I've ever seen. Very proud to be associated with your exemplary work. Thank you so much.”

Dr Anna Batho — Clinical Psychologist – Critical Care, UCLH

“We have worked with Alan, Caroline and the wider Alive With Ideas team for many years. In that time, they have provided a dedicated service that is second to none. We appreciate their attention to detail and creative approach to bringing our brand, communications and stories to life. And would recommend them to anyone looking for creative communications support.”

Georgia Beech — Internal Communications Specialist, Ocado Group

“This is brilliant. I wanted to give my heartfelt thanks to all of the team who worked on this. You all understood exactly what we wanted to communicate and why, and then managed to do it in a way that was far better than anything I could have imagined. I’m a bit choked up to be honest!”

Sarah Wright, Head of Communications and Campaigns — NEA

“Each time I work with the team, I am always stunned at the effort and creativity that goes into each detail and am always eager for the end result. The team is extremely accommodating and always provide a fresh approach to our projects that elevates our communications materials!”

Alana Khaytin, Communications Specialist — Braskem America

“What I really appreciate about Alive is that they work with us as partners, and care as much about getting it right for our patients as we do.”

Sara Langston, Patient Engagement & Marketing Manager — italk

“Alive are unique in how much they deeply listen and invest in you and your ideas. I have not come across a company that listens as much as they do to ensure your needs are understood and met (actually - they always exceed my needs and expectations). Everyone I recommend Alive to has an equally brilliant experience. When you work with Alive, you are not only getting some genius creativity brought into your life, you are also hanging out with some of the best examples of human beings I’ve ever known.”

Steph Tranter, Hybrid Exec Coach & Psychologist — StephTranter.com

“The (Alive) team were able to creatively pull together and document (in just over 2minutes) everything our service has achieved over the last few months, from thousands of prescriptions deliveries to hundreds of phone calls made to the vulnerable. The final product was so powerful and reflective of what our service has and continues to achieve. It couldn’t have been better received within the service – thanks Alive for once again helping us to communicate our vision!’”

Emma Wright — South Yorkshire & Rescue

“We worked with the team at Alive to create our staff recognition video.
At a time like this, its never been more important to share the amazing work that our staff have done and continue to do on a daily basis under very difficult circumstances. We wanted to shout about this and recognise that when the time came, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue stepped up to the plate. We didn’t want an ordinary thank you post on social media or a basic email sent out internally, we wanted something special. Enter Alive. ”

Emma Wright — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

“Our company is fun, we have great brands, but most importantly we’re all about our people – and I wanted an agency who would understand that and help us bring it to life through our website and other comms. Straight away I felt that Alive ‘got’ us and provided the creative inspiration exactly where we needed it, as well as the technical expertise to deliver a well-functioning website.”

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

“Boom!
Thank you so much. Incredible work done at incredible speed by incredible people.
Outstanding work as ever and what a turnaround. As for the concepts – wow. These are that good it would be an insult to describe them as just good. It’s a joke, quite frankly. This is exactly the Alive effect I was after. Right now I feel like I am living in an Alive With Ideas wonderland. Thank you!”

Jack Grasby, Campaigns Manager — SYFR

“If you are looking to improve creativity and build teamwork, I highly recommend a session like this for your team. No matter where you are in your creativity journey, a workshop like this can give your team a boost of energy and ideas to invigorate their creative thinking.”

Amy Lilja, IC Manager — Hennepin Healthcare

“Alive were there to help when we were working every hour to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. They gave us the creativity, ideas and support we needed to deliver campaigns which empowered our residents in the most difficult time most of us have ever seen, personally and professionally. The team understood what we needed, worked closely with us and delivered fast without any compromise on quality. Working with Alive has been a joy in the darkest of times and I have no doubt will have helped to save lives. Thanks team x”

Julie Odams, Assistant Director of Communications & Customers — Derbyshire County Council

“We got 'Alive' involved to help us shift mindsets across our organisation and they delivered! Using simple, clear and creative ideas the team have delivered us a campaign which has seen a dramatic increase in idea sharing and development. They’ve also played a significant role in creating a culture of shared success. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with again, in fact, we already are!”

Gavin Buckle — B&Q
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