Thriving in Complexity Podcast
Episode 23: Strategic Communication in a Complex World with Dr Libby Mitchell
August 15, 2023
At the core of every successful business lies the importance of good organisational communication. It’s the thread that connects teams, departments, and stakeholders and helps them make sense of their context. However, when communication isn’t clear, people can get messages that cause confusion and distract them from what’s most important. In this episode of Thriving in Complexity, Susanne Le Boutillier talks to Dr Libby Mitchell, a specialist in stakeholder engagement and strategic communication with experience in consulting, working in corporates and academia across the globe and in multiple sectors. Dr Libby shares insights about the impact of effective communication, the pitfalls of storytelling and why using clear, concise, jargon-free communication in complex situations is essential. Don’t miss this episode as Dr. Libby helps us understand the value of strategic communication and how doing it well can help us thrive in complexity.
At the core of every successful business lies the importance of good organisational communication. It’s the thread that connects teams, departments, and stakeholders and helps them make sense of their context. 
 
However, when communication isn’t clear, people can get messages that cause confusion and distract them from what’s most important. 
 
In this episode of Thriving in Complexity, Susanne Le Boutillier talks to Dr Libby Mitchell, a specialist in stakeholder engagement and strategic communication with experience in consulting, working in corporates and academia across the globe and in multiple sectors. 
Dr Libby shares insights about the impact of effective communication, the pitfalls of storytelling and why using clear, concise, jargon-free communication in complex situations is essential. 
 
Don’t miss this episode as Dr. Libby helps us understand the value of strategic communication and how doing it well can help us thrive in complexity.  
  
  
   
WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE:          
          
          
Quotes          
      
"Strategic communications is very influential, it can be used for both good and evil. And it's a responsibility that should not be taken lightly." -Dr Libby Mitchell 
 
"A communications expert would save you from sending out some bland bit of jargon-laden babble that won't help you achieve your objectives." -Dr Libby Mitchell 
 
"It's not about what you think the audience needs, you need to test and retest the messaging to figure it out." -Dr Libby Mitchell 
 
"You need to understand that less is more, focus on who the audience is, and leave out everything they don’t need." -Susanne Le Boutillier  
 
"As a leader, you need to get up off your chair, walk the floor and have conversations with people. This gives valuable insight about how people are interpreting what they're hearing." -Susanne Le Boutillier 
 
 
Resources  
  
Thinking, Fast and Slow 
 
Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking that Block Women's Paths to Power 
 
The Efficiency of Constructed Week Sampling for Content Analysis of Online News 
      
WHERE TO FIND DR LIBBY MITCHELL    
         
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/libbykmitchell/