I was fortunate enough to meet Yasmin Diamond a few weeks ago. Yasmin is the Communications Director for the Home Office.
I was delighted to be matched with Yasmin as I knew she could teach me a thing or two about the world of Government (quite an important thing to know when you run new business in an agency.)
From the moment I walked into her office I really liked her… I like how I felt initially intimiated and the challenge that posed on me. She seems like someone who is straight down the line, tells it how it is and extremely intelligent. Excellent.
I learned a lot about how communications works in the Government world (a different comms world all together). Hugely insightful as I have not worked on a Government client yet in my 6 years in the UK. The critical way to think about it is that marketing is used when communications help deliver policy. Sometimes communications is not the answer, so its critical for the agency to understand a. the policy. b. why the client sees comms as the answer to deliver this.
I also questioned management of different stakeholders. This is a challenge I deal with in my day to day work life. Often ‘stuff’ needs to be shared with a wider audience and things get diluted when there are too many opinions. Yasmin shared a great way to manage this which is around thinking about making it clear whether I am ‘consulting’ vs ‘informing’ someone. Everyone is then clear about their role in the discussion. So simple. So Brilliant.
Thanks Yasmin for a fantastic one hour.
