Chris Brennan (00:03)
Welcome to Modern Coms, the podcast series designed to help communication leaders navigate today's hyper speed demands and move forward with clarity, confidence, and

My name is Chris Brennan and in each episode, we sit down with experts who are shaping the future of internal and corporate communication and unpack the strategies, tools, and mindset shifts that are driving real results today.

This podcast is brought to you by Cofenster, the creators of AI video assistance built specifically for comms leaders.

Our assistance empower your teams to deliver high impact on brand video without needing any prior video experience. So for today's episode, we're gonna be talking about positioning internal comms as revenue critical.

And joining me for this conversation is the Senior Vice President for Siegel-Benz, Preston Lewis. Preston, welcome to the show.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (00:54)
Thank you for having me.

Chris Brennan (00:55)
My pleasure. So just right off the bat, for those who might not be familiar with your work, could you give us a little background on yourself and what you're focused on right now?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (01:05)
Absolutely, Segal Benz is the communications practice area of Segal, a large HR consulting firm based here in the United States. We work with a lot of high tech, a lot of corporate clients, one of the biggest HR communications and consulting partners in the higher ed market. And then we also work with multi employer or employer organizations. So I love the complexity of big HR challenges, but my team and our team, we focus on internal communications, HR communications.

core focus is modernizing how we approach HR and internal communications inside large organizations.

Chris Brennan (01:42)
Well, since we're called modern comms, I think we found the perfect conversation. So basically today's topic is all about revenue critical. ⁓ But for you, what first got you thinking about internal comms as something that should play a more strategic role in the business success itself?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (02:01)
Well, first, I appreciate the setup of revenue critical costs. know, all of us as leader communicators are always looking to figure out the best way to align our efforts in communications with the bottom line in their quotes, you know, with the business impact that we're looking to drive.

When we're able to set that expectation that we think that way, you know, we are strategic function inside an organization. ⁓ One of the practices I like to preach is when we start meetings, when we start a kickoff to build a say communication strategy for a new initiative, or if we're revisiting how we want to approach open enrollment this year, making sure that we're paying attention to the business drivers, you know, a number one in that kickoff meeting when we ask questions like, and what is success?

look like 12 months from now you know if we were to impact this program or this benefit what kind of value would that bring what kind of cost savings might it have or even better how might it impact levels of wellness financial wellness physical wellness mental health and well

⁓ as well as the bottom line. if we increase participation here and decrease participation over there, particularly in the United States frankly with the rising cost of healthcare, how is that going to really align our?

in the right direction with our business strategy for this year. So ⁓ on a meta level, if you will, ⁓ maintaining our strategic mindset and connecting our work as communicators to the business and the priorities is always the first place to start.

Chris Brennan (03:42)
Amazing. And do you have any clear examples of what these measurable business impacts could be?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (03:48)
Absolutely. So when we think about communications measurement, particularly internal and HR communications measurement, just because that's primarily where I like that where I focus and habit focusing for decades, it seems. ⁓ When we think about meta, I should say, ⁓ we think of a macro and micro measurement.

in the context of comms. So on a macro level, we're looking at, in some cases, things that ⁓ are connected to other initiatives or functions. So for example, employee engagement. That is often and should often be defined by the organization or what employee engagement might mean to that industry or that business function or that company or that university.

But we look at levels of participation in some way. As sad as it sounds, I've seen organizations measure levels of engagement by how many cars are in the parking lot after 4 o'clock PM on a certain day. So that's what I mean by in some cases difficult to measure, but it's important to talk about.

⁓ Other macro measures might be ⁓ levels of participation in certain programs or initiatives. ⁓ In the context of internal communications, micro measures are everything from channel specific measures. So it could be the number of people participating or attending a town hall event. It could be the number of clicks and shares on a new story on an internet. It might be click shares or the amount of time people have watched a video, right? So there's different ways to look at both

on a macro level employee engagement and participation and then for micro within that dashboard that we all like to have for internal comms. ⁓ When we are measuring clicks participation and views we also want to make sure that there's that secondary measure to a specific category of content area because then we can take action on the data that we see within that dashboard.

Chris Brennan (05:47)
Wonderful. And then is there that other layer that still needs to be done then where you can connect it to the actual business success? Like we have those engagements, we've got the clicks, but I imagine leadership and the C-suite will turn around and be like...

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (05:54)
Yeah.

Chris Brennan (06:01)
What does that mean though? Like it means they're engaged. It means they're paying attention, like, does that, how do you kind of connect that to the revenue critical topic itself? Because I think a lot of comms leaders are kind of stuck in that gap. We all know it makes sense, but how do you kind of describe it or communicate the value of it in those kinds of terms?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (06:02)
Yeah.

Yeah, well one of my favorite definitions of value is addressing concerns. And we think about concerns, it's kind of our word we like to use in strategy development, but concerns are things that help leaders look good.

So to be more specific, when we're building a internal comms strategy for 2026 and we're sitting with each of the business units that we may partner with a support and we're sitting with the sales organization and we ask that question, you know, what does success look like at the end of the year? You know, the head of sales, she might say, we want to increase our revenue. Let's keep this really simple. Okay, great. Well, what are the things that we need to do as comms communications to align with revenue creation and

generation for your sales organization. It might be as basic as ensure that the product sheets are updated.

And we are enabling faster access to the correct product information so that sales engineers have the right information for their customers and their customers do not get frustrated with bad information. So they actually close more deals. I mean, that's a very specific example, but as communications, there are absolutely things we can do by improving search within the digital workplace or communications technology or on an internet on the most basic example that are directly aligned with that need or goal of

of

increasing revenue, which is addressing concern for that sales leader. Same example for safety, compliance, ⁓ manufacturing. That might be a good safety example. ⁓ there is a different answer to that question of what value.

Chris Brennan (07:51)
Mm-hmm.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (08:07)
looks like and how we define that as communications. ⁓ one of the kind of stories I like to play out is the elevator story. You know, if you're walking into an elevator and the CEO asks you as the head of internal communications, what might, not that they would do this by the way, but you what are you working on might be the question. What are you working on for the product development organization? Because I heard that there's a communications as they're having over there. Well, the answer is here.

Here's how we defined value for the product development organization this year. So here are the things that I'm working on.

Chris Brennan (08:43)
Yeah, right. And in marketing, we actually have a phrase, the only thing worse than no data is bad data. So it really resonates when you talk about make sure all the files are up to date, because those can be absolute. I know that even for marketing, I provide the PDFs to sales for outreach, and then I take down the older ones, and I still see that they're probably using one of them because it's been saved on their computer. And it's like, that's old. Like, no, these are the new ones. So yeah, I could definitely feel the

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (08:48)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Chris Brennan (09:12)
pain there.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (09:13)
Well, you touch on something,

it's interesting, if I could. You're bringing up a really good point for internal communications leaders, ⁓ particularly when we think about areas of focus for 2026.

Chris Brennan (09:16)
Yeah, of course.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (09:27)
It's always a good idea at the beginning of the year to take a close look at how you're defining your data story. You asked earlier about measurement and how we're aligning our measurement framework for communications with the business and with revenue, with business critical goals and needs and objectives. ⁓ How we tell and share our data story as communicators is really important. And one of the things that I always suggest and advise the organizations

Chris Brennan (09:47)
Yeah.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (09:57)
do is also focus on what didn't work last year. You know so the question is what's the data story? It's well here's how we're defining it. Here's the framework and what we found is that here are the areas that we didn't get right. You know these are the areas within our story that we really need to make direct improvements. That's what people want to know about.

You know, it could be a similar story, but what people are really asking when they're saying, know, what's the story? How we think about data for communications? They're really asking, well, what are we focusing on that we where we need to really make improvements? Because unconsciously what we know about human beings, leaders included, is, know, we're here to help each other out, you know, and that leader is really asking, what might I need to know to help us improve communications this year?

Chris Brennan (10:48)
Yeah, and do you think that there's a bit of a barrier with internal comms where when they're asked that question, they feel forced to say something when actually this is a great opportunity to ask a question back of, well, would you like to tell me a little bit more about what your goals are and we'd love to see how we can help? Because what I'm finding out is a lot of these comms leaders are

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (10:57)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris Brennan (11:11)
feeling like they have to force an answer out then and there rather than just patiently just considering it and going, let me understand the objectives, the obstacles and the goals that are aligned to this project. And from that point, I can properly detail how we can help. And I think there's always a gap there because they'll come in a room and the problem has been discussed and it's like, what are you doing to help? And I like, maybe first off, inform me, communicate to me.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (11:36)
Yeah, yeah.

Well, one of the biggest mistakes that often leaders of all types, of all functions, including communication leaders make is being too optimistic. And as a serial optimist, I have this problem, but it's something I'm very conscious of, obviously, and that's why I'm bringing it up. It's important that we're not always all good all the time.

You know that to your point, we need to also be clear around the things that are not working. And so, you know, when, ⁓ you know, we just talked about it a minute ago, but when we are speaking with leaders, really people at all levels of an organization, people managers is a great example. You know, when we're talking to people managers about improving communication, we really need to be clear on the one, two or three things. No more, that are very actionable.

and very doable in terms of how we can improve communication. you know, this is, think, a really great example because there's no question that if you look at the top five priority areas for need, it needs improvement right now for communication leaders inside organizations, it's manager, people, manager, communications and effectiveness. It's very difficult to do, especially in today's age with the levels of uncertainty and concern that people have about.

the jobs and the opportunity to grow or you know the concerns you have around how much they're maybe being paid or the benefits that are being offered. So when we're looking to improve people manager communications and effectiveness it's really important to say here are the two things you know that we're really focusing on. We're focusing on being proactive with sharing less messaging requests to the right functions at the right time.

So we're only going to ask you, people manager, to communicate one thing a week, not three or five. And secondly, I would say people managers are employees too.

Chris Brennan (13:32)
Right.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (13:39)
You know, what we also need to focus on is ensuring that we're doing everything that we can to illustrate that not only the people in our organization, employees are being heard, but we're playing back what we're hearing from people managers and their specific experience. Because what we know about human beings is until our concerns are being addressed, until we feel heard, we're not going to do or listen to anything anybody has to say, including our leadership.

Chris Brennan (14:08)
And the repetition too, because a lot of times it takes three of a statement until it's understood. like maybe... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (14:16)
Three times three different ways, you know it that's that's absolutely

right, you know, and the good news there is you with the technology that we have now, you know, it's faster better cheaper to make sure that we've got the right story in writing posts on the internet with a really great photo, you know that we can also create cut and edit videos really quickly. I know you know a lot about this, you know and and and create faster.

Chris Brennan (14:40)
That's right.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (14:43)
access to the right content and then third what we know we can do with this faster better cheaper technology is is personalize the right story or message to the right people and then send it at the right time.

So one the things where we talk about modernizing internal communications and HR communications functions, strategies, systems, structure, you looking at the new roles on teams and then stack, you know, the tech, the communications technology that we use to activate that strategy. spent a lot of time, not just building personas, but then taking those personas and having them in form. Okay. You know, to your point, three times, three different ways.

These are the channels that are most effective to reach these audiences at this time. And then we align the stories. we now have, you know, the new intranet is the content orchestration platform. And we need to be really thoughtful about the ways that we're telling similar stories. Sometimes it can be just that one image that grabs people. And other times it might be that audio.

You know, in podcasts, we're seeing those numbers click up a bit. I'm to make sure that someone has easy access to a listen now button beyond having to sit there and read because we know that time and attention is only decreasing for everyone.

Chris Brennan (16:08)
Absolutely. And we're seeing it from our side with particularly with the video, like we have an AI video agent Theo is text to video. So what people are doing is taking transcriptions or they're taking the slide decks and they're converting that into like a 90 second dynamic video. And they're putting that on their intranet to accompany the text.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (16:13)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Chris Brennan (16:28)
So as you say, it's a different way to communicate the same information, but at least the people who are more driven by video rather than reading will actually get the priority information. You can give somebody the book and say, study this as a quiz on Friday. But some people just go, no, just give me the need to know because I have a million things to do. So when you diversify the type of content, ⁓ it really gives everybody a chance to connect and engage with it. And from our side, we're seeing.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (16:49)
day.

Chris Brennan (16:58)
a lot of opportunities rise when it comes to video because AI video agents themselves are opening up video for the first time to internal comms who normally would have to go to a different department and go, I was asked to make this by Friday, do you have time? And the person says, no, I don't have time.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (17:15)
Yeah. Yeah.

Actually, if we could turn the tables a bit, I know this is your podcast, but the one of the questions I'm curious about and no pressure, you know, maybe you can get back to us with the answer is when you look at the clients that are using your platform and how they're using video content.

Chris Brennan (17:26)
Yeah.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (17:34)
Are you able to either tell inside the platform or continue to pull customers and users how often they're repurposing the same video content internally and externally? When we're, you know, we're seeing the rise of modern.

Chris Brennan (17:49)
⁓ Yeah, could.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (17:53)
channels and digital channels in particular for certain segments Gen X for example Instagram still is very big and we're seeing organizations truly leverage Instagram as one of the most one of the most ⁓ popular Communication channels that means internally and externally, you know how thoughtful we're being with sharing great stories of what it means to work in an organization

and easy access to share to social networks to, you know, to increase attraction and, you know, the number of friends that are applying for job opportunities as a specific example, ⁓ or the amount of customers, you know, that may be buying a service or a product. ⁓ As a communications junkie, you know, I'm always curious about video consumption, but also ⁓ how organizations are repurposing great content that we know is applicable

for both internal audiences and external.

Chris Brennan (18:55)
It's a great question. And one of the fascinating things that I'm seeing from our customers is that they're really starting to explore this new format that's been previously out of their hands. So like what we're starting to see, we're learning so much from their usage where it's beginning, they kind of try to do the templates, but then they start exploring and expanding their, their opportunities. So they'll take the all hands deck and they'll convert that into a dynamic text to video. And I'm like, wow, that's a great idea.

or they'll take the quarterly report, the meeting, and they'll cut it into clips. So then they'll share the specific clips for each department with the department. So it's like, look, it's nice to know everybody, what everybody's doing, but now we can actually share this individual clip. Or the same thing with podcasts, where they'll do an internal podcast, then they'll cut out specific clips where they find it super relevant. And that's one thing that I'm really enjoying. It's actually more of like an evolution of the internal comms role.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (19:43)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Brennan (19:55)
to become more video focused and then they start going on camera to do the interview. So they become basically the internal podcaster. But now they have the ability to edit it and distribute it in a complete on brand and professional manner. And like for me, I just love to see that. It's a new toy and now they get to have so much fun with it and we get to learn from them too. And we're like, we should tell these other clients that these guys have done this because that's quite an exciting use case that we

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (19:55)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Chris Brennan (20:25)
didn't even think of yet.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (20:25)
Yeah,

yeah, just to take this a little bit further, because I know this is kind of on point with the platform and this topic. It's so interesting when we're looking back on 2025 right now.

Chris Brennan (20:28)
Yeah.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (20:35)
to see how people are, to see the data on content engagement and the openness that people have to different types or styles. So for example, I won't name the company, it's a very large AI chip global company and they are exploring and have been exploring new ways for a little while actually for earnings communications. In this organization, the leadership, the senior leadership

is bored with earnings presentations, you know, and so they've used animation, you know, they've used AI generated content, you know, with animated leaders to spice things up a little. When I say spice things up, I think I'm a little bit more interesting because I think everyone knows, including the audience, that this content can be boring sometimes. So why not take the same content and then just deliver it or share in a different format also

Chris Brennan (21:10)
Of course.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (21:36)
video

but we're able to use all the technology that we have powered by AI and

to just do things a little bit differently and no surprise it's much more interesting. Engagement's going up and very importantly the leader isn't tasked to do something that she may not be interested in doing frankly which we know doesn't serve anybody but it's just another good example of experimenting a bit with format and approach with some of the new technologies that we have as communicators.

Chris Brennan (22:06)
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. And it's what's really fun about this because when we leave our job and we go out into the world, how we consume content and how we communicate is so different. So I think what we're seeing is the expansion or the catching up of like the work culture to the external culture and video has become a major player in that field anyway. So it's really exciting times for internal comms. And I think what I'd love to do is

is to start seeing less of the fear of AI and more of the kind of strategic adoption of it. Because I don't believe AI is gonna take your job. I think somebody who knows how to use AI is gonna take your job. So you should be that person. It's just, you gotta level up. Everybody has to level up. we're no different, marketing's no different, sales is no different. And if you want the old way to stay, you're gonna, that's the, you're gonna.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (22:49)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris Brennan (23:03)
be replaced, but it's by another person, not by the AI.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (23:07)
Yeah, it's interesting. Although this is a great opportunity to touch on this. We defined this, this AI trust spectrum we call it.

And ⁓ it's actually more of a maturity path where we are finding that those that are making the decisions about how and when we're using AI powered technology, those that are making decisions are often further away from the day to day usage of the technology. what's happening inside organizations are people are feeling like there's decisions being made and this is being done to them.

Chris Brennan (23:39)
Yeah.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (23:39)
You know,

it doesn't feel good. And what we're finding is that we need to really look at closing that gap and involving those users in some of the decisions. And so to be really specific, we do a lot of work with defining communications technology roadmaps. So what would we assess the ecosystem? This is what our communications technology stack looks like today. Here's the duplicate feature sets. Here's what's not working. And where might we need to be 12, 18, 24 months from now? You we only know so much about AI technology.

12 months from now, that's for sure. But at least we can begin to assess how long it's taken over the past 12 months.

to use technology or not. How long are people still resisting the usage and what can we do differently? And no surprise, co-creation works. Including others and those that use technology in the conversation early is an effective practice. So to be really specific, the best work we're seeing now to increase the adoption of AI power tools and technology and platforms inside of organizations is to take a close look at your listening strategy.

Make sure that you're asking the right questions the right ways so people feel involved in the work and then next ⁓ Really define a variety of paths so people can cut choose their own adventure

You know, somebody may be a bit more open to try new things. Others might not so much, you know, and so that the multiple learning paths is also really important. And then to contextualize this change, you know, this rapid change and transformation as we often call it powered by AI in today's work world. Be sure that you're defining, you know, in our communications context, the narrative, you know, the collection of stories that resonate for the right people, for the right reasons. And as we said earlier, you know, tell those

Chris Brennan (25:05)
Right.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (25:34)
on the right channels but defining that change narrative you know that's what we call it but what that really means is that people feel like we're being honest and realistic about the pace of change you know and that's that's the right work to do right now

Chris Brennan (25:50)
Excellent, yeah, yeah, it's true. And we see that with Co-fenster and the AI video agents that we have because...

Sometimes when we get in those initial conversations with comms leaders, they're worried about like, no, I don't want to replace, like some people like to read. they no, no, this isn't a replacement. It's and or, not or. It's like we are, have to supplement and deliver the same info three times, three different ways. I think it's the recurrent beat that we keep coming to. But whenever you speak about... ⁓

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (26:08)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris Brennan (26:24)
Kind of like auditing these internal comms, formats, and channels. Have you actually seen anything in particular that is recurring to you that is outdated? Or on the flip side, are you seeing something that's more underused or underutilized when it comes to the format or the channels of internal comms?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (26:26)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. when we're, thank you. That's a great question. So when we're looking at, assessing communications ecosystem, inclusive of digital communication platforms, it's interesting because you will see organizations, say for example, our Microsoft organizations, and they may have for whatever reason, chosen the path of building a SharePoint powered internet. You know, they are, you know, boxed in and that could be a good thing in some cases or not, but with that stack.

And so, you know, I'll be real specific. An organization that relies on the Microsoft stack for this in today's world for ⁓ an intranet or that source, that front door, that source of truth may be powered by SharePoint or Viva. Yeah, there may be a strong need for an email newsletter technology.

integrated into their internet, but that is separate. And what that does is it's not that duplicative in terms of feature sets for email push communications and personalized email newsletters. So, you know, we see organizations that need to go in that direction. Others, and Microsoft or not, may have chosen a modern internet platform that does also include email newsletter technology for push. You know, we see a lot of that. The third example

I'll just bring up since you asked is is mobile app technology, you know Is there an other mobile app which really guides people to different platforms to say a workday experience or service now experience or the core internet experience or is there a very orchestrated

thoughtful and intentional decks, you digital employee experience that is powered by a platform that has those other systems integrated. And then there's a map that ⁓ isn't necessarily connecting them to other apps, but is really orchestrating experience all in app. So that's a lot of the work that we do in the digital employee experience and communications technology service set that we offer. But, you know, having said all of that.

I don't want to understate the importance of what happens outside the app, know, or outside the internet. You know, that's where the content and content strategy and storytelling, you know, really matters most because, you know, nobody is going to be going into an internet or a mobile app or opening up their email newsletter if the right content that we all want to see that addresses our concerns as an employee, you know, isn't there for us to engage with.

Chris Brennan (28:57)
Yeah.

Absolutely, that makes total sense. Just to swing it back to the kind of revenue critical topic itself, like if somebody's listening and they want to position their internal comms team as being revenue critical, where's like the smartest place to start?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (29:24)
Mm-hmm.

Huh?

Yeah, the first place I would start is by revisiting the rules and structure of the internal communications team in today's world.

I think that you had a question as we were preparing for this conversation about what's new or different. And we're seeing a lot of change in terms of structure and roles on communication teams, internal and HR today. And so the first place to start is take a close look at the roles and structure of the team. Now this is important, but we all know, and you said it a few minutes ago, that there's a lot of concern about losing jobs and for communicators in particular right now. But what we have found is that ⁓ before

or talking about what might need to change with current state, spend a moment on future state. So when we do our strategic planning, we always start with context, frankly. This is why we're even having this conversation. Then we move to future state next. That's really important because what we do is, for example, to be very specific, we think about two years from now,

What roles would we love to have on our team as a communications function? So for example, we're seeing a lot of digital analysts and measurement. Somebody in a kind of a data or numbers or measurement role solely.

on a comps team. They don't see too much of it. We're seeing more and more of that. That's a new role. Another role might be an inside journalist or storyteller. You know, that's a different kind of framing for maybe a writer on a team. But you know, there might be 10 new roles that we can envision for the future on a comps team. And it's important for everyone to see what those could be.

and potentially even see themselves consciously or unconsciously and what those roles could be, then we talk about current state and what our roles are. And then how we might need to think differently about those roles. That's a much more constructive conversation, right? And we talk about the gap between future state and current state, of course, and we define pathways and calls to action and make commitments. But that's the best place to start.

Chris Brennan (31:41)
What I love about that is it feels like they're being more active than passive when they think of that. Like where's the new roles going? Where do I envision myself? Like I can actually have the opportunity to shape my own path. Whereas I think a lot of the fear is being, I think that the path is being shaped for me. It's like you.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (31:45)
Exactly.

Chris Brennan (32:00)
actually can control it yourself if you do what you just said, which is really think of the future and how you can carve it in the way you believe it should go rather than just waiting for it to happen to you. So that's a lovely sentiment.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (32:09)
Yeah.

Yeah.

And then the second part of your answer to your great question. So that's where you start. The second part is when you ask about how do we connect that to revenue critical priorities? Then when we think about future focused view, maybe this is only six or 12 months, we could ask that question. Okay, well, how do each of us in our roles, individually and collectively, what do we need to be focusing on to align with

those revenue specific business priorities and goals that we mentioned a few minutes ago that we've surfaced from the leadership of the different functions that we support as communications or that we partner with as in a strategic partner relationship across the business. And then we're able to say, well, this is what those goals are as revenue critical goals for the product development organization or the sales organization or commercial if you're in a pharma industry.

When we're clear about that as those goals as a communications team and those revenue critical priorities, then we're able to connect the work that the role that we're in and the work that we're doing now and into the future with with meeting those needs. That's the right conversation to have. And sometimes you hear, you know, sounds like that's a lot of business strategy. Preston, like that's a lot of strategic planning and you know, work communications and you know what I'm going to say, which is exactly.

I mean, that's the point. That's how we partner strategically with the business is partner with everyone in aligning our communication efforts to the business critical, often revenue connected priorities for the business.

Chris Brennan (33:59)
and 2026 is a perfect time to start looking into that mindset shift as well. ⁓ Wonderful. Okay, so now we're going to move on to a new section, a new segment of our podcast, which is called the Comms Roleplay Q &A. So Preston, this is how it's going to go. I'm a skeptical CEO who doesn't see the value in comms. You're a comms leader who has to justify your role, your goals, and your budget. So I'm going to ask you some hard-nosed CEO questions.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (34:09)
Bye.

Love it.

Chris Brennan (34:29)
I'd love to hear what your response would be to these questions. Does that make sense? Okay, so first off, what would actually break if we cut your comms budget in half tomorrow?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (34:34)
Sounds good, let's go.

Well, first we look at what we're spending our money on. So here's the good news is IT is playing, paying for some of our technology. So let's just put that aside. So when we think about our comms budget, if it's not related to technology, it's people and maybe ⁓ agencies or consultants that we partner with. So it's the people on the team and maybe agencies or consultants to partner with. Okay, great. If that was cut in half, it raises the obvious question.

Am I going to lose people or am I going to lose support and partnership? And the short answer to the great question is what are you going to lose? Well, you know, of the work that we do, here's the percentage that we need support and partnership. And here's how it's directly in line with some of our goals for our business strategy this year. And here are the things that our people are working on. And if we were to lose, say, for example, somebody on the team is a graphic designer for our internal communications function.

Well, what would a world be like if it was only in text? You know, ⁓ do we feel that people are gonna engage with text only content? The data says no. So we're going to lose content engagement that directly aligns with people understanding what's happening in the business, or how to take advantage of say benefits that are available to them. So we're gonna decrease the return on investment.

in those programs and decrease participation in business critical information or engagement with business critical content. So people are going to show up at work every day and not necessarily know what to do. And people managers aren't necessarily going to be able to answer their questions. So people are going to start walking out the door because there's no purpose or connection each day from our work to what success looks like for the business.

Chris Brennan (36:27)
Good answer, good answer. Okay, next hard-hitting question. What business problem is Com solving this quarter?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (36:31)
You all right?

So this is a tough one because we have to make up a problem that we're aligned with. So business, so communications.

Chris Brennan (36:41)
That's true.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (36:45)
is addressing our critical business problem of people understanding what our strategy is as an organization. When people don't understand what our strategy is, they are not able to prioritize their day. People are not able to focus on the things that each of us need to do to implement that strategy.

So as communications, we are facilitators ⁓ of conversation and information and dialogue that directly links the work that people do every single day to the goals and what success might look like for the business. And if there's disconnect and people are not aligned with how their work impacts the success of that business strategy, then why show up at work? Because nothing feels worse than feeling like our work doesn't matter.

And the only way that we're going to know that it does is when we can see the impact of our work and the overall impact that our organization is looking to make.

Chris Brennan (37:51)
Interesting. So we talk about engagement and alignment, but how do we know it's working?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (37:58)
Well, great question. So let's pull apart engagement and alignment, because I really think they're two different things. We talk about engagement. Is it content engagement in the context of a tech platform, or is it employee engagement that might be defined?

by levels of performance or time and attention or discretionary effort. Employee engagements we know can be defined in lot of different ways. ⁓ To me, we measure engagement by constantly listening and asking the right questions. ⁓

so that we can be tracking where we might be versus where we were before. Do people understand the impact that their work might have on our business today? Are people doing things and focusing on making better decisions faster? Are people...

sharing opportunities to come work for our organization with their friends and family. You know, those are all indicators of high levels of engagement. Alignment is a bit different. know, alignment moves from, again, micro to macro. Do I feel aligned with my individual purpose in my role and job? ⁓ Is the work that I do aligned with the rest of my team or, you our function? And then is our team or function in our work that we do aligned with the business?

You know alignment's a really difficult one to measure but the good news is we can ask basic questions like do you see alignment from your work that you do you know with our business critical priorities that's absolutely measurable.

Chris Brennan (39:35)
You handled that really well, because ⁓ that was a question with lots of trap doors. I bundle a couple things together, and then there's a broad interpretive point to it. And this is exactly what is asked. And so what you started with was actually questioning the question and breaking it up, because that's what happens. What do you mean by, no, it's working? What does working mean? You immediately went straight to that.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (39:39)
Yeah.

Yeah, exactly, exactly,

Chris Brennan (39:59)
But this is

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (39:59)
exactly.

Chris Brennan (40:00)
why I'm not making these questions to be like, this is a really nice one or a clean one. These are the questions they get and they can be, you can stumble on them so easily because you're like, I'm not even sure I understand the question, but how you answer it is going to matter to the leadership. So you handle it really well. like, I kind of built this to be like, are you going to spot the trick here? And you did, you got it. All right. And then final question.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (40:12)
Yeah.

Yeah, I tried.

Got it. Good.

Chris Brennan (40:27)
Why should we invest in comms when sales, product, or marketing can show ROI faster?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (40:36)
It's a good question when you think about again, why should we invest in communications? Simple question, right? I'll go to where I typically go. We think about kind of the essence of communications inside organization, the context of HR or generally speaking, technology adoption or even externally. You know, we think about communication. It's important to remember just like in any relationship.

Whether it's with your partner or significant other in a one-to-one relationship or the relationship that people have with their employer. One thing we know to be true about human beings that the efficacy or the measure of any great relationship is when each of the parties feel heard.

And I'd like to take the stance that as communicators, we are facilitators of relationships. Our responsibility is to ensure both people and the company and the leadership both feel heard.

and communications is the only function in the business that's chartered to improve that relationship. Again, bottom up, top down, and sideways. So without investing in communications inside an organization or outside, we're going to decrease the value and quality of the relationship, and nobody wins.

Chris Brennan (42:07)
And then the ROI on all the departments goes down. That's good.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (42:11)
Oh, I don't want everything goes down. I mean, yeah, I mean again,

you know communications is an enablement Yeah, I it's a little controversial and I'd love to debate this but I do feel that communications is an enablement function you know, we are in the strategic position to enable the success of people on an individual level functions departments initiatives and you know on a macro level

the organization, whether it's in a university or ⁓ a union, a professional sports organization, there's all different types of organizations and of course companies. But we are in a position to enable success with more effective relationships powered by strategic communications, unlike any function in the business.

I think all of us know that nothing is worse than feeling like somebody or some people or organization are not listening. We have the power of making that happen.

Chris Brennan (43:13)
Absolutely. Yes. And that's it. Now you have passed the comms role play Q &A. Great job, Preston. ⁓

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (43:21)
Thank you very much. That was fun, man. That was good. Keep those coming.

I'm gonna be really interested to see how other people answer those good questions.

Chris Brennan (43:28)
Yeah,

yeah. think it's just really funny because that's some of the questions we hear and people ask us like, how do I answer this? And it's like, why don't I just start asking the guests on the podcast and then we'll have like a nice database and it's good for inspiration and aspiration as

Preston, into the new year now. What are some main priorities, topics, or subjects that people should be looking at from internal comms perspective right now?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (43:54)
⁓ Thanks for that question. There's a few kind of mega trends. like to call them a few areas of focus that we're spending a lot of time on right now in terms of how to improve internal and HR communications, primarily moving through next year in this modern era of communications. The first is it's interesting. We're spending a lot of time and energy positioning digital employee experience and decks as a core business function.

So that's a, some organizations have been doing this for a little while. And so we've been able to look to see what's been successful or not. But if anything, whether an organization or a company decides to invest in this and structure this as a, as a, a new role or team or area of focus, we know a lot of companies are thinking about it. Next information overload.

You know the the bad news with all of the faster better cheaper tools and technologies that we have is that there is just higher Overwhelm is increasing and information overload is is a real thing and people are starting to tune out You know, that's why I'll say probably the third is you know that's why we need to move beyond lists and groups and make sure they're quality and they're right and focus at that next level of you know content areas and

content to address the concerns of lists and groups so that we can align the categories and the content the stories to the right people for the right reasons and so ⁓ beyond information overload the personalization is the third. I were to surface a fourth more strategic storytelling

You know, we don't just check our box on the value story and the business strategy story and the wellness story just because we know it's the right thing to do. When we look at the levels of uncertainty that exists in organizations in today's world, that might be in the context of financial uncertainty or ⁓ some type of uncertainty around.

other types of wellness, like physical wellness. And how can I fully maximize what's available to me for my physical health and well as an organization? Being very strategic with telling those stories, again, to the right audience for the right reasons is another, I would say, way beyond a trend. It's another priority.

that we're recommending organizations take a really close look and make sure they're doing the right things to deliver the right content to the right people, to move the needle on the things that we know will enable people to show up work more often. know, enable people to perform at a new level. ⁓ So I'll stop there, but those are the three or four different priorities that we're seeing and recommending that more communicators focus on in 2026.

Chris Brennan (46:48)
It's a great list and also what we're seeing from our side too is with our AI video agent Ella.

It's giving comms leaders the ability to actually gather those stories because they can just send a quick request link that opens up with a prompt, a teleprompter if need be, but like the dedicated ⁓ requests for video to send back to them, which then is inserted directly into an already edited branded feed. So for easy consumption and distribution and collection of material, basically. So it's really nice because you could just send this one link. It opens up.

their side, either on their phone, so for mobile or on their computer, where they can immediately just answer the questions in a natural manner and thus gathering those kinds of stories for for 2026.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (47:38)
love that example, but I wish we had been talking about modernizing the function of, let's say, open enrollment communications. ⁓

these conversational experiences and decision support tools and we need content like that to you know video content specifically few short bites of content that might surface something or build more of an awareness of the value of say an option for a benefit and that's all built in now you know that's what we mean by hyper personalization so thank you for you the UN team for doing the great work that you do because we need more access to great content like that so ⁓

Chris Brennan (48:15)
It is our pleasure.

All right, Preston, ⁓ where can we find you?

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (48:17)
Yeah.

I do act the easiest person if I do actually respond to LinkedIn messages, please connect with me with LinkedIn and Preston Lewis LinkedIn slash I am Preston Lewis or just react reach out to the Segal Ben's website. I'm also on there very accessible spending a lot of time speaking with organizations and ⁓

conferences and events, partnering with technology vendors and other great communicators and strategists and consultants this year. So if you're looking for data, support, just information or ideas, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Chris Brennan (48:54)
Perfect. All right.

So yeah, we come to the end of today's episode. Preston, thank you so much for joining us today. This was really fun and insightful at the same time.

Preston Lewis / Segal Benz (49:04)
Well, thank you for having me. I love these conversations. Thank you for inviting me into this one along with all the other great people that you've invited into this podcast and look forward to staying connected.

Chris Brennan (49:14)
Excellent and for all the listeners and viewers. Thank you so much for watching and listening I'd be sure to subscribe wherever you like podcasts and subscribe on YouTube as well And if you want to learn more about cofenster I definitely recommend you check out

where you can book an interactive personalized demo and try the product and the platform out for yourself My name is Chris Brennan and until next time take care guys. Bye.