[00:00:00] Mel: Hi, and welcome to Less Chatter, More Matter, a podcast about all things communication without the waffle. I'm Mel Loy, and in this show, I'll give you short, punchy, practical communication tips and insights you can start using in your communication practices right away. I'm a former corporate communication executive who happily took a redundancy, started my own business, and never looked back.

[00:00:32] Mel: These days I use my 20-plus years of experience to guide organizations of all shapes and sizes in how to communicate more effectively. I'm wife to Michael, aunty to 12 nieces and nephews, a gym owner, group fitness instructor, yoga teacher, and a bunch of other things as well. I promise these episodes will always be short, sharp, and insightful, so let's get amongst it.

[00:00:56] Mel: Hi, everyone, and welcome to our sneaky bonus episode [00:01:00] of Less Chatter, More Matter. It is a delight to have you tuning in to our very first bonus episode, which is where I'm going to share my key learnings and highlights from our recent IABC Asia-Pacific Conference in Bali. So for those of you who don't know, IABC is the International Association of Business Communicators.

[00:01:19] Mel: It's a worldwide organisation with local chapters in many countries and cities around the globe. And I'm the president of the Queensland chapter. And it is a great organisation full of wonderful humans. Wherever I go in the world, I always look up the local chapter leader and organise to meet up with them for a coffee or a meal, because I love, just love getting to know people, but also sharing what we know and what we can learn from each other is, so brilliant and it's one of those rare organisations where you can build a truly national and international network, which is another thing I really love about it.

[00:01:54] Mel: So I was also on the organising committee for this year's Asia-Pacific regional conference, which was in Bali in [00:02:00] Indonesia. And I was on the speaker lineup and this was the first regional conference in three years - courtesy of COVID - so we were pretty excited about getting it up and running and look, Bali is not a bad place for a conference either. Not gonna lie.

[00:02:14] Mel: It was two days with speakers and attendees from all over the region and some from Europe, the USA and South Africa as well. A really cool group of people and you really get the sense of just how diverse the Asia-Pacific region is. It's so cool. And we not only learned a lot, but we laughed a lot as well. And while nowhere as big as the World Conference I spoke at in Toronto back in June, it was a much more chilled vibe, which I really loved. So I've gone back through my pages and pages of notes, and I'm going to share the three key trends that came out of the conference and what that means from a comms perspective. So let's get into it.

[00:02:51] Mel: The three big trends were leadership, cross-cultural communication and artificial intelligence. Let's start with leadership, which a [00:03:00] few speakers spoke about over the course of the two days and a common theme, was that leaders are operating in an increasingly complex world with demands coming from all sides.

[00:03:10] Mel: There's more expectations, greater polarisation, greater diversity, constant change. And now look, that's not new necessarily, but it does mean that leadership needs to adapt. And that's not always happening. What we're finding is there is a feeling many leaders are out of touch with what's happening in their environments and out of touch with the feelings and needs of their team members as well.

[00:03:34] Mel: So within the leadership discussion, there were two core skills that stood out. One was emotional intelligence, and the other was a leader's ability to build connections. Emotional intelligence was described in terms of having empathy, authenticity, and adaptability. There's a real need to walk in the shoes of those you're serving as a leader.

[00:03:56] Mel: So the comms implication here is that when we are working with [00:04:00] leaders in organizations, we need to help them showcase their EQ through their actions and their written and verbal comms. So that means encouraging them to get out into the trenches, have deeper conversations with team members, show they're listening.

[00:04:15] Mel: People want to feel seen and heard and have their issues recognised. It also means bringing that authenticity piece to light through showing a little vulnerability. So encouraging leaders to communicate in a really genuine way and acknowledging their failures, not just their wins. And that helps build connectedness, which is a nice segue to the next sub-theme.

[00:04:38] Mel: Some of the key messages from our speakers were really around leaders, building relationships and developing deep listening skills. Building connectedness doesn't happen overnight. It takes time and consistency. But connectedness leads to increased performance, so it is well worth investing in. It also gives leaders that confidence to [00:05:00] navigate the unknown.

[00:05:01] Mel: So what does that mean for comms teams? Well, it means working with leaders to showcase transparency, share stories, and recognize their people. It means helping to break down silos and create shared norms between teams. And it means tailoring communication for specific teams and their contexts. Soundari, one of the leaders, she shared some really great stories and examples around this idea of leaders building bridges to connect with employees, connect teams with each other, and even connect different businesses.

[00:05:32] Mel: So some concrete examples of connectedness at work and the benefits that it has. I also really liked how Adrian Cropley described deep listening skills. He had three types of listening: pretend, active, and intuitive. So pretend he described as when we're hearing somebody talk, but essentially we're just not paying attention.

[00:05:54] Mel: Active was the ability to essentially repeat back what people say and show interest, [00:06:00] but intuitive is the next deepest layer of listening, and that is really about just being present, which I love. So encouraging leaders to develop that intuitive listening will also help to build connectedness. I also really enjoyed Serge Borg's brave model of leadership, which is this set of five leadership values. Brave is an acronym that stands for benevolent, respectful, authentic, vulnerable, and emotionally conscious. So benevolent means that a leader is working in the best interest of an individual within the common good. So they're not going to do something for someone just because they want to be nice, but they'll do good, if it helps the common good, which I really like that definition. Respectful means that we value our differences and understand we can learn from each other. Authentic is around actions aligning with values. Vulnerable, I really love how he described this. He described it as I trust you even with my shadows.

[00:06:58] Mel: How cool is that? [00:07:00] So again, not just showcasing the wins, but talking about the things that didn't work and the things that are hard. And emotionally conscious, meaning I can manage the impact of my own emotions. I think this is a really great model because it is not only easy to remember, and has great meaning, but it covers a range of skills that can help leaders really build their EQ and their connectedness.

[00:07:22] Mel: So I'll put links to all these speakers in the show notes as well. The second theme was cross-cultural communication. And we heard from a few different speakers on different aspects of this topic, which makes sense at an Asia-Pacific regional conference. And again, there were sub themes that came out of this topic, including ensuring everyone has a voice at the table, co-creating and engaging communities in our communication and localising and adapting communication and brand to regional context.

[00:07:53] Mel: So many companies these days are operating across different regions, different countries, meaning from an internal and external [00:08:00] comms perspective, there is a large, diverse audience that needs to be catered to. Also, some of the work we do often involves public campaigns, and if we want those to be successful, then we need to acknowledge different cultural needs.

[00:08:14] Mel: Chris Saxby and Elizabeth Petersen spoke about how in some organizations, there's a very hierarchical structure and the "mothership" makes decisions about what should happen at the regional level without involving the regions in that decision-making. And of course, that means that not only do regions not feel heard, but often the comms aren't fit for purpose at a local level.

[00:08:38] Mel: The other speakers on this topic also spoke about the need to co-create communication solutions with the communities you need to reach; make campaigns with, not for, communities, and that can take some capacity building, and it will take time to also build those trusted relationships, but they all made the point that you can still have a consistent brand.[00:09:00]

[00:09:00] Mel: But adapt it locally. So for us in the comms trade, this means drawing on data and insights while humanising our work, collaborating and localising the output. And of course, avoiding generalisations and stereotypes. Comms has the power to unify or to fragment. So look at the collateral and the comms you're producing for external and internal audiences, and ask if it's really representative of the voices of your audiences.

[00:09:30] Mel: Also look around your own organisation and ask if it is truly diverse and inclusive. You need to get your own house in order first, one of the speakers said, which I completely agree with. And we know that diversity within organisations drives innovation and financial performance. So there are solid business reasons for doing the work.

[00:09:52] Mel: Final note on this topic. I really liked a quote by one of the speakers. I think it was Clare Gleghorn, where she said, "Empathy can lead [00:10:00] to epiphany," meaning when we truly engage with our communities and audiences, we can create some really wonderful, meaningful and impactful comms. The third and final big theme out of the conference I'll talk about today was the topic of the year, artificial intelligence.

[00:10:18] Mel: As a side note, I was chatting to one of the delegates who had been at a marketing conference in Singapore a couple of weeks earlier. And she was saying how different AI was talked about by marketers versus communicators, in that marketers were super excited about the practical implications, whereas communicators tended to be more worried about risks.

[00:10:39] Mel: And that brings me to the sub-themes of this topic, which very strongly centred around: responsible and ethical AI, AI leadership, and of course the practical uses for us comms pros. So let's chat about responsible and ethical AI first, because this is a topic that companies are grappling with right now around the world, and so are communicators.[00:11:00]

[00:11:00] Mel: Some of the key risks our speakers noted were: things like the accuracy of information being delivered by AI, the ability to cite sources, clarity for people on whether or not they're interacting with a human or a bot, because this can be very confusing for a lot of people, biases coming through AI's output because of human input, and of course privacy and security.

[00:11:23] Mel: One of the speakers, Ross Monaghan, made the point that reputation risk is at the heart of these concerns for businesses. And we've already seen examples of irresponsible or unethical use of AI damaging individual and business reputations. So there is a need to educate our audiences about AI, what it can and can't do, the things we need to consider when we use it.

[00:11:45] Mel: And while there may be regulations coming into place in various jurisdictions, it also requires common sense. Rita Arrigo, our keynote speaker on day one from the CSIRO here in Australia, she also encouraged us to check out [00:12:00] Australia's AI ethics principles. And I'll put a link to those in the show notes as well.

[00:12:05] Mel: Which brings us to the next sub-topic, which is leadership. And our speakers all agreed that comms teams are well placed to lead AI in organisations, because our role is largely about managing reputational risk and building trust. So not only will we become avid users of the tech, but we will almost have a governance or custodian role in its implementation and ongoing management.

[00:12:29] Mel: But to do that, we need to demonstrate that we understand the potential business risks. We need to educate ourselves on these tools, and we need to ensure that we are being heard. And that will take influencing and educating others in our businesses. Speaking of using these tools, the final subtopic in AI was of course the practical use and application of it in businesses and different industries.

[00:12:54] Mel: So Rita Arrigo gave us an incredible demonstration of using virtual reality as an [00:13:00] education tool. This was so cool. So she was up on stage. You can imagine she's up on the stage. She puts on a pair of VR glasses, which were connected to the large screen that she was standing in front of in the conference room.

[00:13:10] Mel: So we could see what she was seeing. So she was looking out at us. So we could see her looking at us and then a skeleton pops up in front of her. So it's this tool that you can use to learn anatomy and physiology without the use of cadavers. It's completely interactive. So she was using her hands, you know, remove a bone, move a liver out somewhere, add on different systems, like the nervous system, muscular system, and those sorts of things.

[00:13:36] Mel: And the applications of this kind of take across health, education, retail, pretty much every industry are immense. Supriya Addanki from Microsoft also shared some examples of AI being used for good. So for example, helping a person with tremors caused by Parkinson's disease to be able to draw properly again and write their own name, which [00:14:00] is just incredible.

[00:14:02] Mel: But again, you need to apply a risk lens to all of this stuff. Another speaker, Sabho Das, got into the more technical side of communicators using AI, and he showed a really great framework for working with language prompt tools like ChatGPT. It's another acronym, the word CREATE. And it's a step-by-step process for using these tools effectively.

[00:14:24] Mel: So C is for character. So speak to the tool like you're talking to a person. R is for your request. So it might be, for example, help me write an article about Bali. E is for examples. So by giving these tools examples of what you want or like, it can help them replicate them. So you can put a link in and say, write an article about Bali in the style of an article from Condé Nast magazine, for example.

[00:14:50] Mel: And these examples help the AI learn, which is really cool. A is for adjustments. So this is about adding some rules. Like, [00:15:00] uh, you know, you write this article about Bali but don't refer to Australians drinking beer. That might be one adjustment. T is for the type of output. So this could be a 300 word article and three short posts for social media, for example.

[00:15:15] Mel: And the final E is for extras. So this is where you say things like include a testimonial from someone who has been to Bali, apply a friendly tone of voice, use plain English. I like this create process because, again, it's really easy to remember. It's simple to use for those who are just getting to know these tools.

[00:15:35] Mel: Subho also positioned the use of AI as a collaborator or a co-pilot, which is a term I'm hearing more and more around AI use. The tool is there to help, but you still need to lead it, feed it relevant information, and you need to check its work. I liked how he also said that AI augments human intelligence, it doesn't replace it, which I think is a really great way of summarising it.

[00:15:58] Mel: But what it does do, [00:16:00] or can do, is make our workloads more manageable. Improve productivity and arguably produce better work because we're able to draw on this machine learning while we work.

[00:16:12] Mel: So here's your bonus episode recap for today. Number one, the three key themes that came out of the IRBC APAC Fusion 2023 conference were leadership, cross-cultural communication, and artificial intelligence. Within leadership, there was a lot of talk about the importance of leaders building emotional intelligence and connectedness to help navigate a changing, more complex, more polarized world and engage their people on the journey.

[00:16:39] Mel: Within cross-cultural communication, the key themes centered on representation in decision making. Uh, co-creation during the design phase and the need to adapt and localize comms to the communities in our audiences. And finally, AI was all the rage again. And the key themes here were around responsible and [00:17:00] ethical use of AI, how communicators can take the lead to, due to our natural alignment with managing Reputational risk and the practical application of these tools in our work.

[00:17:11] Mel: So that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed my verbal download. I'm also posting about this stuff on my social media channels. So you can tune in there as well. If you want to just recap some of those learnings. In the meantime, I'll see you next time when we're back on our weekly Thursday podcast schedule, keep doing amazing things - bye for now.