Engagement Projects

The excerpts featured in this portfolio demonstrate materials from my work leading projects over the last decade, drawing from several roles.

The Sustainability Champions program at FedEx Ground began with fewer than 50 appointed representatives and grew to more than 400 volunteer participants representing over 60% of field locations. More than mere messaging campaigns, the program was the cultural vehicle through which sustainability became an everyday way of working.

This project stands as proof of the true power of a complete internal communications effort. Peers trust and learn from one another. Sharing ideas in innovative forums reinforces verbal messaging and non-verbal behaviors alike. As the message spreads, the culture builds, yielding concrete results for organizational goals and the working environment. Impact highlights have included:

• Educational outlet that teaches members to articulately share the importance of carbon neutrality goals, including newsletters, presentations, intranet sites, and other resources
• Replaced single-use plastic bags in operations with a durable, reusable option
• Branded attire exchanges for lightly used, outgrown, or replaced apparel prioritize re-use before materials are recycled
• Extracurricular gardens at our sites serve as educational tools, community outreach channels through donated produce, and accomplishments in team building

My tenure as Safety Communications Liaison produced a similar wealth of communications resources – newsletters, podcasts, intranet development, executive remarks, and presentations. Included is my communications calendar development plan for coordinating complex safety messaging across multiple internal audiences, a version of which was adopted by the European Safety team at the request of their Vice President.

As Content Director with Project Management Institute San Diego, I led the team of volunteers to coordinate messaging across social media, website, and email server channels. Changes I implemented had immediate results for membership and engagement, reaching 475 new members.

Internal communications have more indirect metrics than the straightforwardness of sales campaigns, where increased revenue is a strong indicator of success. It’s impossible to count how many people avoided danger (or how often) thanks to a safety message. Emails marked as 'read' or website visit tallies say nothing about the retention or practice of what we hope to communicate. Even social media metrics can be so passive that very high numbers can still yield disappointing concrete results.

Yet, we know the rhetorical power of mediated messaging does change minds, behaviors, and cultures. Internal communications efforts exist to make sure that the right cultures get built and continue to flourish in the workplace. More than the resources produced, a true complement of internal communications includes the channels, forums, feedback, credibility, and nonverbal modeling of the messaging that informs compliance and the social environment.