OPEN

Euan Semple has it down pat when he reflects on the experience of high production values being applied to internal communications at the BBC (something I expect is the fantasy of many an HR supremo or internal PR person):

…there is so much inevitable artifice in the process [of TV production] that clinging to the truth is no mean feat.

This was why it was so hysterically funny when the BBC turned the monster in on itself and employed televisual techniques for their One BBC internal comms campaign. The idea was to engender a more collaborative culture within the organisation but mass staff meetings with swooping camera moves, “hard hitting” interviews with senior managers and happy clappy staff talking heads just made some of us feel like all grip of reality had been lost. It is bad enough doing this sort of stuff to the public but doing it to yourselves ….. It was a bit like watching a dog caught in a trap chewing its own leg off.

So where are high production values appropriate in any setting? For entertainment, perhaps – when we’re enjoying the form as much as the function?

Does that mean that if you really want to connect with people, to show that you mean what you say and that you want to listen you should drop the glossy approach?

Yep. Lo-Fi, as my co-conspirator, Jim Byford is fond of calling it, is a much more real and honest way to work it.  And cheaper…