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In this episode of Frequency, Jenni Field and Chuck Gose record live in front of an audience at Unily's Unite 26 conference in London. Instead of news articles, the stories come straight from two days of sessions, and the question hanging over all of them is whether anything in internal comms is new, or whether we're still having the same conversation we had 20 years ago.
They start with AI strategy. Charlene Li's keynote told the room to stop doing pilots, and Chuck agrees. Pilots without commitment just entertain us. Jenni points out Li's alternative was a "test," and Chuck adds the condition: define what success looks like up front, and if it works, the commitment follows.
Jenni then asks if communicators are shooting themselves in the foot by calling AI a team member. If AI is your extra headcount, how do you ever make the case for real headcount? Chuck polls the room on who has an AI "employee." Half a hand goes up. Jenni adds that plenty of senior leaders she works with barely touch AI, and Chuck reminds everyone that not using AI and not benefiting from it are two different things.
On skills, Jenni wrestles with "tastemaking," a phrase she heard for the first time at the conference. She buys the premise and not the word. Chuck ties judgment and curiosity back to AI, defends the "Make It Pretty Committee," shares a London Underground story about rolling out tech employees said they didn't want, and makes the case that UK communicators prize strategy while Americans love tactics. You need both. He also argues attitudes matter more than skills, pointing to the hungry communicator idea he built with Alan Oram of Alive With Ideas.
Chuck reopens an old fight: Jenni once said AI was just another change program. She still stands by it, citing an end-to-end AI playbook session as proof. Chuck calls AI a tidal wave, the biggest shift since the internet, back when you needed a business case to get an email address.
The last story asks whether "do less but better" (from Sharon O'Dea's session) is still good advice. Chuck pushes back with songwriter Jonathan Mann, who writes a song every day and says roughly 70% of it is garbage. You only find great by making more. Jenni counters that writing songs and reaching Tom the van driver are different jobs, and they meet in the middle: produce, learn, then cut.
The audience Q&A covers the one skill every communicator needs (Chuck says being a connector, Jenni says belief in yourself), the attitude that sustains you (optimism with realism, no toxic positivity) and return to office. Jenni sees real value in being in the room for relationships, but not by force. Chuck repeats his challenge: what if companies designed a workplace people wanted to come to?
Live, a little spicy and honest about the excuses our profession keeps making.
Timestamps 00:00 Welcome, live from Unite 26, and the new Frequency website
01:48 Ten years connected and Chuck's return to London
02:51 The AI strategy challenge: stop doing pilots
05:07 Are we shooting ourselves in the foot with AI teammates?
08:45 Skills for internal communicators: judgment, curiosity and "tastemaking"
15:04 Attitudes over skills: the hungry communicator
17:57 Is AI just another change program?
20:34 Is anything new? The case for and against doing less
24:51 Audience Q&A: the number one skill
26:36 Audience Q&A: the attitude that sustains you
28:17 Audience Q&A: return to office
Links Frequency website: thefrequencypodcast.com
Interested in Unite27? https://www.unily.com/unite
