We’ve all been in those creative sessions, those brainstorms, and, sorry about this, those thought showers (shudder) when everyone panics about having to say something, anything, so they just shout out random thoughts.

You end up with a bucket full of vaguely connected sound bites and, more often than not, about a million miles from where you need to be.

Excuse the lengthy fruit and veg references, but running a creative session can feel a bit like juggling tomatoes – messy if mishandled!

Whether you’ve been tasked with renaming a greengrocer (Life Live On the Veg, surely?) or trying to crack the nut of a tricky business challenge, the secret isn’t just ‘being creative’ – it’s structuring creativity so ideas can grow, branch out, and eventually bear fruit (you can’t say you weren’t warned about the fruit ‘n’ veg puns).

PREP, PREP AND MORE PREP

Good ideas don’t often spring from out of the blue. It’s good pre-session preparation, which is the fertile soil from which they shoot.

So if you’ve been tasked with running a session, before anyone enters the room, get clear on your brief, gather a few starter keywords, and sense-check the energy you want in the session.

Give your thought shower crew a pre-read. It could be just a quick email with the creative brief or even just a couple of lines about what you want them to do. It will get the creative fruit juices flowing before the session and give people time to think ahead.

Think of yourself as part conductor, part gardener. Your role is to guide the flow, keep momentum, and make complex thinking feel simple and approachable, all while ensuring the most introverted of introverts can feel empowered to have their say (still waters run deep and all that).

Think, too, about who should be there. Keep the group tight. Four or five people tends to be the sweet spot. It’s small enough for focus, big enough for diversity of thought.

STRUCTURE IT BECAUSE CHAOS ISN’T CREATIVITY

Getting great results from a creative session very rarely just happens. You need to set a rhythm and a bit of a framework so you can corral all those lovely thoughts and suggestions into your ideas fruit bowl. Yes, you read that right. We said ideas fruit bowl.

Here’s a plan for you to scrump…

1. Introduce context – set the scene. Share the brief and answer questions so everyone starts from the same place.
2. Brainstorm freely – but before getting into it maybe provide some initial words and thoughts as a prompt. It’s much easier to think creatively around a word or topic. Once people are sharing ideas, capture everything. No judging, and no “yeah, buts”, just let the ideas flow fast and loose.
3. Dig deeper – spot patterns, stretch ideas, and explore interesting angles. Always remember the problem you are trying to solve.
4. Review and refine – now you can be picky. Shape the best ideas into something usable.
5. Recap and actions – leave with clarity, not just a whiteboard word salad.

Let’s go back to that greengrocer example. Instead of forcing ‘pear-fect’ or, ahem, awful puns, start by listing fruits and veg, then associated words, then maybe some relevant cultural cues. Suddenly, ‘Peas and Thank You” doesn’t feel like a stretch – it feels inevitable

DON’T KILL THE FRUIT ON THE TREE

Even the best sessions can wither on the vine if you’re not careful…

• Killing ideas too early – if you start saying ‘no’ too soon, people stop sharing altogether. Save judgment for later.
• Overcomplicating the brief – complexity stalls creativity. Your job is to simplify the challenge, not amplify it.
• Energy dips – if the room feels flat, change the angle or topic. Steer people towards it. You could try starting from something random (a food, an animal, even a nonsense word) to spark new thinking

A fun twist? Ask the group what wouldn’t work, then flip it. Sometimes the worst ideas are just the best ones in disguise.

MAKE SPACE FOR EVERYONE

Not everyone thrives in a loud, rapid-fire brainstorm. In fact, quieter, more introspective thinkers often have the most interesting insights; they just need the right conditions to share them.

To make sessions more inclusive:

• Give thinking time before asking for ideas (not everything needs to be shouted out).
• Actively invite contributions – but don’t put people on the spot.
• Capture everything visibly, showing all ideas are valued, not just the loudest ones.

The best creative sessions aren’t about forcing brilliance. They’re about creating the conditions where ideas can naturally grow and bear deliciously creative fruit.

Keep it structured, keep it open, and keep it human.

Do that, and you’ll find your sessions don’t just produce ideas – they’ll ‘produce’ whole orchards of them!

Need some help getting ideas off the ground? Well, we’re here to help (no more puns, we promise), so give us a shout today!

Big fish, little fish, cardboard box.

Is that how you throw shapes when you’re on the dance floor?

It’s probably been a while since you strutted your stuff (with confidence at least), we’re guessing.

But back when you were giving it your best Bee Gees moves down at the roller disco, we bet you didn’t stop to think that the shapes you were throwing actually might have some deeper meaning.

Okay, so maybe not the Lambada (keep up at the back there, Millennials!) or Grandad’s ‘sprinkler’ routine from your last family wedding.

Not those sorts of shapes, no. But as our incredibly talented Head of Animation, Bradley Poston, explains, shapes, colours, characters, and how you use them in design can ignite all sorts of emotions, vibes, and feelings.

Who knew, right? Well, apart from Bradley, obviously.

“Circles, for instance, feel soft and comforting. They impart a sense of approachability and safety,” our expert says.

“Squares feel grounded and dependable. They can be effective when you need clarity, structure, or authority, but you still want to avoid an overly corporate tone.

“Triangles feel energetic and directional; they could be good for highlighting change, urgency, or motivation,” he adds.

It’s all part of the tricks great designers have up their sleeves. Getting over messages, through brilliant design (and often without saying a word), is a powerful way to deliver change and a new way of thinking.
And, of course, it can emotionally tie people to what they are seeing.

GREAT DESIGN STAYS IN MIND

Great design is all around us. When you see something extraordinary, it stays with you.

“It’s not just shapes that have the power to do this; even the smallest variations in a character’s appearance can instantly change the mood,” Bradley explains.

“We can tailor visual character to the message before we even get into details.

“Characters are visual personalities that help make a message feel warm, relatable, and easier to understand,” he adds.

“The goal isn’t to make everything cute, it’s to make communication feel human and approachable. That could mean supporting complicated information, reinforcing cultural values, or simply giving people a reason to pay attention in a world of visual overload.”

In internal comms, getting cut through in a blizzard of messages means it has to work hard.

“The challenge isn’t that the messages fail, it’s that people are busy, distracted, and overwhelmed. We skim. We prioritise. We forget,” Bradley says.

“Adding a strong visual device, such as a character, can create an emotional hook that reinforces the message and makes it easier to remember.

“It’s less about replacing strategy or wording, and more about giving it a helper: something that connects emotionally and communicates tone instantly.”

As Bradley says, characters build warmth and work well because we are wired to notice personality and expression; we process faces faster than almost any other visual information.

“Giving comms a ‘character’ creates instant recognition and, over time, familiarity. They make the message feel like it’s coming from someone helpful rather than a faceless organisation,” he adds.

“A character helps create a story. Even if they aren’t telling a full narrative, they imply a voice and point of view that can guide employees through information, which helps it stick.”

A character doesn’t need to be detailed to communicate emotion clearly. Tiny changes, like the curve of a mouth or the direction of the eyes, can instantly shift tone.

“A slight slump can communicate concern; a frown signals disapproval,” explains Bradley.

“This is really valuable in internal comms, where tone matters, especially for topics that might feel tense, confusing, or unfamiliar.

“Expression and body language let us ‘soften’ instructions and make information feel like it’s coming from a helpful guide, not a directive

PROPS TO YOU FOR USING PROPS

Using props can pass on similar subtle language. They act like visual shortcuts; they let us communicate meaning far faster than text alone.

“For example, a bow and arrow instantly suggests aiming for a target, setting direction, or striving toward goals. It’s a strong metaphor for performance, ambition, or alignment,” Bradley explains.

“A calculator with a receipt can signal anything financial. A pin board evokes planning, reminders, or organising information, and a velvet rope barrier communicates exclusivity or controlled access.”

“A character isn’t a decoration; it’s a strategic device.

“Ask: Does this character make the message easier to understand, remember, or engage with?

“Does the character make the message feel more human and natural? “If yes, it’s doing its job.”

So, remember next time you frown slightly, or pick up a calculator, use a pinboard, or throw those triangles down at Cinderella’s in the High Street on a Friday night, you might be giving off more signals than you thought!

Tap into Bradley’s genius for your next IC project and deliver your messages through award-winning animation.

Get in touch today!

I’ll get to the point. This is a blog about Smart Brevity. Smart Brevity is a communications approach designed to cut through information overload and GRAB ATTENTION (note for blog page designer, please put this in 30pt sparkly font)

I guess that should be the end of the blog, really. You know, if we’re being all smart and brief.

But we’ve come this far, and you’re still here, so let’s dig a little deeper!

YOU’VE GOT 26 SECONDS. USE IT WISELY

Developed in a US newsroom, Smart Brevity is a reaction to our increasingly busy lives.
Lives in which we barely look up from our smartphones or devote any more than 26 seconds to reading a social media post, news article or internal comms message.

It’s not a lot is 26 seconds. In fact, reading this far would have taken you around 26 seconds. So, to all you 26 seconders, thanks for tuning in, and we’ll see you next time.

For the rest of us, the below is why Smart Brevity is increasingly becoming a thing, and why so many organisations are adopting it for their external and internal comms.

Oh, and breaking text into bullet points is all part of SM scripture, so here goes:

• We are all overwhelmed – on average, we check our messages/phone between 70 and 400 times every day. You can see why it’s hard for your announcements to cut through, right?
• News, news, news, news – we are bombarded with thousands of messages every day. How on earth is yours supposed to cope?
• It’s frustrating – TL;DR, baby, so KISS it. (That’s too long, didn’t read, so keep it simple, sister.) Or, in other words, people get frustrated with long reams of fluffy, dreamy copy.
• We’re all tight on time – 26 seconds might be all you get, so be more Post-it note than Dostoevsky.

IN A WORLD OF BOXER SHORTS… BE BRIEF

Here are your key takeaways:

• In a world of boxer shorts, be brief – keep it tight and concise, not baggy and airy!
• Get to the point– make the main thing you want your reader to know the star. Get it up top quick
• Chunk up info – people scan, so keep those bullet points coming and use headers and sub-headers
• Nobody likes a clever Trevor – big words don’t impress Shania Twain much, so stop the jargon
• Assume people are busy – because they are. Make sure your reader can get your key message in seconds
• Be direct but human – until our AI overlords truly get their big old robotic feet under the table, you are still the most human person out there. So, write like you are.

Smart Brevity is not rocket surgery, but it is a neat way of bringing sound writing principles together in one place.

Remember, less is more, more or less!

Need some help? Get in touch today.

Who remembers those terrifying ice-bucket challenges?

What about when water was found on Mars?

Did you see Hamilton, the biggest show on Broadway? If you did, we bet you were wearing a long leather skirt with clashing colours (some of us still are), or minimalist whites, all while showing off your fancy new smartwatch tech.

Even worse than that, Korean boy bands had just been invented.

We’re talking about 2015…. 10 years ago!

While some things definitely get worse over time (exhibit A: that old bit of Red Leicester in the back of your fridge), some things only get better… like Barn to Boardroom 10, for instance.

GETTING BETTER WITH AGE

Yes… Barn to Boardroom has been booting boredom up the bum for a whole decade now, and like the best friendships, it just seems to get better with age.

As it was a special anniversary this year, we decided to do something a little different… B2B10 – Leaders Unplugged!

Our tenth B2B event focused on collaboration and working together to address the challenges and issues presented by a panel of senior leaders.

Our intrepid B2Bers all got together into teams (decided by the farm animal on their name badges) to present their solutions in front of the rest of the class.

They were asked to demonstrate how they would engage with colleagues about change when the audience was not particularly interested, and how they would provide employees with hope in uncertain times.

Congrats to Team Sheep by the way, who won the challenge by really throwing themselves into this year’s ‘Baa-rn’ to Boardroom (sorry/not sorry about the pun).

GETTING EVERYONE TOGETHER

This year’s theme proved to be a fantastic way to bring together a diverse group of creatively driven minds and form actionable insights and practical takeaways for our band of B2Bers to apply in their workplaces.

Some teams were so absorbed they didn’t even look up when the pre-arranged ice cream van came tinkling around the corner (we’re looking at you, Team Chicken).

There was also plenty of top-level advice and tips from IC pros, of course, including a brilliant keynote address from NATS Head of Employee Comms, Lynsey Davidson, who told delegates how they helped NATS leaders understand the benefits of IC and start displaying best practice every day.

We also heard from Elsevier’s Director of Internal Communication, Kevin Ferneyhough, on how they internalise their customer promises so their people really live and breathe them in everything they do.

And as ever, it was a golden opportunity to network and learn from others over a glass of fizz, a BBQ, and with a game of ‘Get to Know Me’ Do Si Do.

OVER TO YOU

We think B2B10 was the best ever. Here’s what you thought…

“A great day to connect with IC colleagues, sharing insights to help me become more professional in what I do.”

“It was a comms hive of expertise!”

“Relaxed, interesting and engaging!”

“A fun way to discuss topical issues and build relationships.”

“A brilliant day as always! Thank you to all the Surgery Team for a fab event.”

“I really enjoyed my first B2B event and all the inspiring conversations, as well as meeting so many IC pros. Already looking forward to B2B11!”

So, a big thank you to our leadership panellists Caroline Welsh, Faye Blakes, and Gerry Davies, and of course, our leadership panel moderator and IC Director Seb Hearmon.

Thanks to all our keynote speakers and, of course, to all our friends and clients, old and new, who we saw on the day.

B2B10 was so good, we should do it all again next year! One thing we can promise for B2B11… there’ll be no Korean boy bands. Unless they suddenly become IC experts. Which is unlikely.

To register your interest for THE event for IC and employee comms pros in 2026, just click here

And as ever, please get in touch if you need our help to ban the boring in your next IC project!

Right then, let’s talk internal comms audits. No, wait, come back! Internal Comms audits rock!

Alright, they might not be the sexiest bit of IC (and we’d love to know your thoughts on what the sexiest bit of IC is, but maybe that’s a blog for another day.)

Anyway, as we said, we think IC audits rock. How else can you get an overview of how your comms are received by your people?

How else can you truly understand the strengths, weaknesses, and how your people prefer to be communicated with, as well as where they go for information?

The building blocks of your IC strategies

Understanding all the above can help you build effective IC strategies and plans, providing people with what they want in the right way at the right time and in the right place.

Let’s face it, knowing your people’s preferences and being able to cut the channels which nobody uses (we’re looking at you, newsletters!) gives your messages at least a fighting chance of being read and acted upon.

Getting pre-and post-audit results is where the big bags of gold dust are. Whether you’ve spent the GDP of a small European country on a big IC change project or whether it’s just you working from home somewhere in the home counties, running audits really can show you the value of what you’re doing and how you’ve smashed those KPIs.

Happy office bunnies

It’s not a bad way to show your people you care, too. If they think their views are important and lead to change, then you’re going to have a happy bunch of bunnies in the office.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, here are a few thoughts around the sort of objectives you might need when getting into audit mode…

• Get a comprehensive understanding of our existing channels, how they perform, and current communication gaps.
• Gain a clear picture of what excellent communication feels like across different internal audiences by involving employees across functions, geographies, and cultures.
• Use the data to inform recommendations and actions which could help you deliver on your wider business strategy and a local or global IC strategy.

Insight, insight, insight

You can use online surveys, focus groups, drop-in sessions, or any forum where your people can speak freely and honestly about internal comms.

Not everyone will be interested, but make sure everyone who can have their say, wherever they work (and not just outspoken Margaret from Marketing).

It’s about insight, insight, insight, as you might have heard us say once or twice!

Link your questions to your objectives to make the results actionable and measurable.

And crucially, spend some time and effort to get your senior leaders on board.

We all know how busy they are, so help them as much as you can with pre-filled FAQs and leadership packs so they can advocate and explain why your audit is so important (and will help make people’s working lives better).

Get your results, collate the data and use them to inform your strategy and tactics.

Once your tactics and changes have had a chance to make a difference, check in again with your people and sit back and enjoy those positive results (before doing it all over again in a few years’ time).

Something which can give you a very clear picture of IC in your business, and provide the data you need to inform your strategy?

Sounds pretty sexy to us!

We’ve won awards for our comms audit work, so if you need a full overview of IC comms or need some help getting an audit up and running (and if you’re ready to join the anti-boring revolution), let’s talk!

Fun and creativity have always been central to IC as a function. So it’s only natural that LEGO could click right into place as a powerful tool.

Let’s start with a confession. We love LEGO.

Come to our offices and you’ll see LEGO minifigures for each employee, a Star Wars millennium falcon and, depending what day, who knows what else.

So, investing in LEGO serious play was a seriously easy decision.

What is LEGO serious play?

If you’ve not heard of LEGO serious play before, it’s a means of using LEGO in a work environment.

It’s a way of building models to represent thinking, provide a visual representation of ideas, and it’s naturally very interactive and hands on.

But there’s some serious theory behind it. And we found that quite powerful.

Spoiler: LEGO serious play isn’t about LEGO

Here’s the surprising thing – it’s not actually about LEGO. Yes, there’s LEGO involved, but it’s actually about storytelling.

Have you heard of third point conversations? It’s a way of taking communication away from what can sometimes feel like a confrontational person to person approach, and making it about a thing (or third point).

It’s used in some therapies and means a move away from ‘me versus you’ to a place of looking at something together.

Third point conversations

Let’s say we asked a colleague how they were feeling about work. Depending on our relationship with them we may get different responses:

• They might be tempted to censor their answer to protect our feelings
• They may feel pressured to give a specific response they think we want
• They may just give us both barrels, focussing on what’s really frustrating them!

Instead, we could give them a framework of LEGO serious play and ask them to build a model showing how they feel about work.

In this scenario:

• They’re able to reflect as they go and build a model showing a more rounded view, allowing more detail
• They can talk it through in a dispassionate way, “these blocks reflect the workload building up behind me”, making for an honest and free conversation
• You have a visual model to discuss and ask questions about, allowing for rich conversation without feeling like you’re probing into difficult areas

The collaboration really clicks

Now if we have a group of people building individual models, it gets even better when we come together.

When everyone has shared their stories, we work through a process of taking the best from each to create a single, larger shared model, updated and refined as a team.

What you end up with is a story created together, showing a collective view, which anyone can talk through. And that can lead to some wonderful things.

You can make anything with LEGO

You may have got the gist – these little coloured blocks are a powerful tool for some great conversation and collaboration. And where you take that is up to you.

Here’s where we think it can add real value:

1. Employee experience. LEGO can be great for time travel. Create a model of how things are now, and rebuild it into how we’d like them to be. That can help improve the experience of onboarding, returning from leave or anything in between.
2. IC strategies. Consider a workshop where your IC team is building individual models about how to use IC to support the business and employees for the year ahead, then they all come together to make a central model. You’ll have a great foundation to switch onto Post-Its to unpack the ideas, then develop, prioritise and refine.
3. EVPs. Getting honest feedback from employees and a future vision of the organisation from leaders could become even better through the LEGO approach. There’s no ambiguity in the blocks, so you get an accurate shared view to tee up the all-important framework and creative process.

We’re now officially certified to facilitate LEGO serious play and we’re seriously excited about it.

If you’d like to see how LEGO can support your strategies, or you just want to come see the millennium falcon, give us a shout. It could be the building blocks of something rather special.

AI chatbots offer a human-like technology that can help you out with many tasks. But what a lot of people don’t realise is interacting with them is, well, surprisingly human. 

ChatGPT, the chatbot from OpenAI, hit 100 million users in just two months. To give that some context, Instagram took 2.5 years to hit that number.

So, it kind of exploded onto the scene.

What came with it was lots of content claiming things like “The only 10 AI prompts you’ll ever need”. It made using something like ChatGPT seem complicated and, well, it’s not.

See AI as that new team member

If you asked your colleague to go and create a report on your biggest competitors, you might get a 10-page document giving you everything from their heritage to open job roles. Or you might get a really brief summary of each one’s main products, presented in a table. You’re leaving it to interpretation.

Tell them which competitors to look at, what information to find, and how to present it – and now you’re getting somewhere.

But what about when they come back and it’s not quite right? Do you a) get frustrated and never ask them to do anything again, or b) tell them how to improve it and ask them to update it?

The beauty of AI is you don’t feel guilty asking for changes. Then more changes. And then even more changes. When your colleague might tell you stick your requests, AI will just keep on helping and do it all in a matter of seconds.

Tips for AI or even just colleagues 😉

Giving you tips kind of goes against our whole point here. Really, this is just some advice on setting expectations, iterating and being realistic with your outcome – which is arguably helpful for any team communication!

• Give as much guidance as possible. Think about what you want to achieve, put some parameters around it, and specify what you want as an output.

“Create strapline ideas for a wellbeing campaign we’re going to launch in the summer. Include clever wordplay around wellness trends. Create 10 ideas, each one with justification as to why it will work and ideas to bring it to life.” 

• See it as a conversation. It’s unlikely anyone will deliver your request perfect first time. So, expect some back and forth as you get clearer on what you want and give guidance on ways to update and improve.

“Create more ideas like idea number four. Include no more than 10 words in each. Create at least three that include humour.“

• Be prepared to finish it yourself. No one is going to perfectly deliver a task you have in your head. They may get close and take a lot of the graft away, but the finishing touches are all yours. So get it in a format which makes it as easy as possible for you to take it on and use as you need.

“Put these ideas in a table for me to copy and paste into excel. Include a column for the tagline, a column for the justification and a column for activation ideas.“

Not all colleagues are equal

There’s many AI tools out there but it’s worth considering what you’re prepared to share with them.

Something like ChatGPT, that’s a colleague you can’t fully trust with sensitive information. They can still be incredibly useful but you may want to hold back on sensitive details (that’s where using dummy names and a find-and-replace can be really useful).

A paid-for subscription to Copilot on the other hand, that’s like someone with full security clearance. No problem in getting them to look through your sensitive data. In fact, uploading a file of data and asking for analysis is great time-saving way to use it.

In conclusion

AI chatbots are designed to be simple to use. So just chat to them. Try things out, learn better ways, and see them as a helpful colleague. Whilst we don’t doubt your real colleagues are extremely lovely and supportive, AI has added benefits: it’s incredibly quick, it won’t get tired of your requests, it doesn’t have a birthday, and you can be sure – it definitely won’t steal your mug.

If you and your internal comms team want an interactive walkthrough of how to make the most of AI, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.