Q&A with The Surgery
‘We want to see a world where boring is banned!'
Winner: Team > Best Medium Agency
Congratulations on winning the IoIC Award. How did you feel to win?
We were very excited to be nominated for Best Medium Agency and we’re delighted when our name was revealed on the night.
We work with clients across industries to create everything from internal comms strategies, campaigns and planning, to design, digital, film and animation. We especially loved being recognised as the whole agency, rather than for one specific piece of work, because it rewarded everyone whatever team they are in, for all their hard work and creativity.
What do you think makes your team so special?
The judges told us we stood out for our “personable, human approach”, which is just how we want to be! We are “people” people, but still keep things grounded in data and research.
In fact, having pre- and post-project data is key to evidence your achievements too. We always prioritise researching to understand the problem inside out, and our clients come for the solution and stay because of who we are and how we do it.
What do you put your success down to?
Everything we do is nailed to our mission mast – we want to see a world where boring is banned!
All our work is shaped by this anti-boring mantra alongside our drive to get the insight we need to understand our clients’ problems so we can deliver the best solutions. We like to think that nothing gets delivered unless it meets our anti-boring standards, and we’ll challenge our clients to think along the same lines.
What’s the key to working collaboratively and successfully with an in-house IC team?
We always aim to be an extension of our clients’ team to help collaborative working. Being clear on what we want to achieve means we can have honest conversations along the way about ensuring we’re on the right tracks.
We’re not afraid to positively challenge our clients and having clear project goals and objectives ensures our work matches the required output – and helps to measure success or how things could be tweaked for the next project.
What advice would you give to anyone considering entering the IoIC Awards?
Carly Murray, our IC director, says: “Measurement, measurement, measurement. Lots of internal comms teams do amazing work, but there’s often no time to think about measurement, or they only measure at the end of something, rather than at the start, meaning you miss out on important benchmarks.”
Start thinking about what you can measure before writing the entry. Do you have the stats to back up your claims? Make it personable and fun.
What do you think of when you think of IoIC?
Internal comms can be tough, so it’s very easy to stay in your bubble, to miss out on what’s going on in the IC world and to not spend time nurturing your own development.
We would encourage internal comms pros to protect some time for themselves to engage with the IoIC and what it offers. The IoIC has got your back. Being recognised by such a prestigious organisation was fantastic for us, and it’s a feather we proudly wear in our cap.
As an IC team, what would you like to achieve next?
Employee Experience (EX) is the latest buzzword in internal comms, but many internal teams don’t have the bandwidth and the support to integrate it into their offering. So start small and be problem-led.
Simon Andrew, our behaviour change expert, says: “Very few companies have the budget to jump fully into EX. Use design thinking to build and test a solution from the employee view. The outcome will be better for you and the experience better for employees.”