The Future of Internal Communication

Highly commended in the 2025 Business Book Awards, The Way We Talk Around Here offers a treasure trove for internal communicators. It examines the intricate interplay between culture and language, showcasing how the forensic analysis of language and discourse can accelerate organisational performance.  

In this episode, Jen, Dom and Cat chat with Gill to learn about her work and what she has learned about how the choice of language – both written and spoken – go on to shape and underpin culture. Understanding the relationship between language and culture is a superpower to be leveraged by internal communicators seeking to deliver strategic impact.

 

About Gill Ereaut

Gill Ereaut is a researcher, author, speaker and organisational consultant.  She founded the consultancy Linguistic Landscapes in 2002, pioneering the application of language sciences to real organisational issues. 

Her book "The Way We Talk Around Here: How your organization's culture shows up in your language and why it matters" is an Amazon No.1 Bestseller, was Highly Commended in the 'People, Culture and Management' category of the Business Book Awards 2025, and won in the 'Stories and Conversations' category of The Change Ninja Book Awards 2025.

She holds degrees in Psychology and Contemporary Cultural Processes and has amassed more than 40 years’ experience in business consulting. She remains insatiably curious about organisations and language and the effects they have on each other.

She lives in Oxford, UK with an oversized whippet and (probably) too many books.

 

Find Gill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillereaut/

Linguistic Landscapes website: https://linguisticlandscapes.com/

Get the book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-way-we-talk-around-here/gill-ereaut/9781788604840

With no shortage of external crises to worry about, most forward-thinking organisations by now have devised a crisis communication plan, to assist and reassure colleagues in case of emergency. But what happens when crisis turns from temporary to sustained? How do people working under the threat of persistent danger maintain focus on core business objectives?

In this episode, Dom, Jen and Cat talk with internal communication professional Ada Borucka. Located in Poland, Ada has spent the past four years helping organisations leverage internal communication to allay colleague anxieties. She introduces the concept of resilience communication and shares her experience of the pivotal role internal communication now plays in helping organisations sustain performance despite the odds.  

 

About Adriana Borucka

Adriana Borucka is an internal communication strategist with 20 years of experience helping organizations build effective communication and navigate change. As the founder of Poland’s first agency dedicated to internal communication, PinPoint, she has supported leaders and teams in shaping strategies, refining processes and adapting to an evolving market.

For the past decade, Adriana has also been building a national community of communication practitioners through an annual industry conference, podcasts and regular meet-ups for professionals. She co-authors Poland’s annual IC market report and recently published a study on workplace communication during election periods.

She additionally supports international companies in understanding and entering the Polish IC landscape. Adriana believes communication creates real value when it connects people, builds understanding and helps organizations evolve responsibly in a changing world.

Find Ada on LinkedIn:           https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianaborucka/

Find Pin-point:                       https://pin-point.pl/

This episode, Cat, Jen and Dom chat with Heidi Allan who heads up Employee Financial Wellbeing at pensions and investment advisory firm LCP. LCP’s research into financial wellbeing provides illuminating data points that link financial worries to poor engagement, in turn impacting wider organisational performance.

Heidi’s work in this field highlights the benefits of offering financial education and support to anxious colleagues and showcases the opportunity for internal communicators looking to support colleagues in retirement and wider financial planning.

 

About Heidi Allan

Heidi has been in the pension and employee benefits industry since the early 1990s and has worked for organisations from both a consultancy and provider perspective.  Over the last decade she has produced and authored a number of thought leadership papers on many facets of employee wellbeing.  Heidi helps clients to understand their workforce and the challenges they may be facing, supporting them in providing a valued, engaging, and well-communicated benefits package

 

Find Heidi on LinkedIn:         https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidijallan/

LCP’s website:                         https://www.lcp.com/en

LCP’s employee wellbeing report:              https://www.lcp.com/en/insights/publications/employee-wellbeing-report

Global economic uncertainty shows no sign of abate and most organisations face a challenging 2026. Headcount and budgets are under intense scrutiny and internal communication carries the additional threat of, in some quarters, GenerativeAI offering a plausible and more cost-efficient alternative to human contribution.

Under such intense pressure, how can internal communicators successfully advocate for the value they bring?

This episode, Dom. Cat and Jen chat with Colin Archer, Head of Communications for Spirax Sarco. With a wealth of experience spanning several decades, Colin succinctly argues against using ROI to measure internal communication. This is both transactional and reductivist. A more effective measure is that of impact – showcasing the powerful effect that the thoughtful use of words and language can have on human behaviour.

 

About Colin Archer

Colin Archer has worked in Internal Communications across different sectors and industries and loves working with people and cultures.  His reason for working in the profession comes from a strongly held view that if we are to spend such a lot of our life in work, then we should enjoy it and certainly not waste any of the precious hours we have in something which doesn’t make us feel good.

His strategies encourage deep personal connection with purpose, and with other people, to achieve significant steps forward for the organisations he has worked with. 

A Fellow of the IoIC and great believer in extending our sphere of influence to make things better for everyone who is touched by our work, Colin cares deeply about bringing people and ideas together through impactful communication

 

 

Find Colin on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-archer-fiic-072a306/

Whether its geopolitical turmoil, AI, climate chaos, stakeholder activism or intergenerational differences, there’s no shortage of issues inhibiting organisational progress. But this is hardly surprising when we consider so many of the operating frameworks still in use today are now decades old.

It’s time to introduce new ways of workplace organising.

Dom, Jen and Cat welcome global HR thinker Perry Timms to this episode to introduce the concept of polymorphic organising. They examine communication as a primary organisational linchpin and explore what this means for internal communicators.

 

About Perry Timms

Perry Timms has over three decades of experience in business change and performance, with the last 23 years in HR/Organisation Development. He ranked Number 1 in HR's Most Influential Thinkers 2022 (his fifth inclusion in that list) and is now in the HR Most Influential Hall of Fame. He is a 4x Guest Professor, a 2x TEDx speaker, a 3x Author, 4x Engagement 101 Global Influencer plus 2024’s Global People & Culture Icon. Perry is a Chartered Member of the CIPD, a Fellow of the RSA and in 2024 was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in self-managed, democratic organisations, and a Thinkers 360 Top 100 Global HR Influencer.

Perry on LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/perrytimms/

Perry on Substack:    https://pthr.substack.com/

PTHR website:            https://pthr.co.uk/

Additional Company Information

Perry founded People and Transformational HR 13 years ago. The venture is a (re) Certified BCorporation, a WorldBlu Certified Freedom-Centred organisation, a Global Top 50 Self-Managed Organisation awarded the Haier Institute’s RDHY Certification; is a Gold Standard 4-day Working Week, a 2023 Top 50 EMEA Inspiring Workplace, a Top 2 Most Flexible Workplace on the Flexa Index, a Living Wage employer, and a Climate Positive enterprise.