Hear what this top internal communications professional from ING has to say!

Ruth Weber Kelley - Head of ING Group InternalWe recently conducted an online chat led by our
Communicationschairman and CEO with 145 leaders from around
 the world discussing ING Group’s strategy.
1. What has been your career path in internalThe participants were very forthcoming with
communications?feedback to the chairman, in addition to chatting
After studying journalism and Spanish in the USwith one another. It’s a great way to surface
and abroad, I graduated from university into aideas and measure the pulse of a group, but it
tough U.S. job market. At that point in my life, Ican also be a bit like drinking water from a fire
was eager to have a paycheck, which promptedhose! If you’re looking for an orderly
me to consider all kinds of communications roles.Q&A forum, this isn’t the tool for you.
After a short stint in PR and advertising, I landed8. What are your most effective communications
a role with Honeywell in Minneapolis doing internalchannels at ING?
communications for their Latin American division.Face to face communications is by far the most
Throughout my entire career, I have gravitatedeffective way to connect with employees on
toward internal communications roles becauseboth an intellectual and emotional level. Our
they allow me to get inside an industry, achairman is currently doing a global tour to
company or a leadership team and act as ancommunicate ING’s strategy, and the
internal journalist of sorts. While I’ve done theresponse has been phenomenal. Unfortunately,
range of internal and external communicationsit’s not a very efficient option in a global
roles, I ultimately chose to specialize in internalorganization. Push emails from the chairman on
communications because of my personalkey topics are also very effective. They typically
stakeholder model that puts employees at thelink to our corporate intranet where employees
center of any successful organization.can find videos, Q&As and related articles,
2. Describe your role and responsibilities at INGallowing them to pick and choose the level of
Group.information they need. Used sparingly, the emails
ING has 130,000 employees in more than 60do get employee’s attention. We also recently
countries. In the eight years that I’ve beenintroduced a business leaders toolkit, which is
with ING (both in the Americas and now at thedesigned to integrate Group and business line
headquarters), I’ve seen the company movemessaging in a quarterly toolkit to help our leaders
from being a loose network of independentbe better communicators. Initial feedback has
subsidiaries to a more centrally managedbeen positive.
company that is united by a common business9. What skills should successful internal
strategy, brand and people philosophy. That shiftcommunications professionals possess?
brings new responsibilities for the Group internalI have high expectations, but first and foremost
communications function. One of my first tasksthey must be technically excellent and able to
when I assumed this role was to identify theexecute. By that I mean excellent reporters and
unique mandate for the Group IC function so thatwriters who can quickly master the content that
we could add real value and not compete with thethey’re writing about. They must understand
work being done by the IC teams at other levelshow to develop communications strategies that
of the company. Through stakeholder interviewsadvance the business agenda and are linked to
and surveys, we identified three key tasks thatother organizational systems (like performance
were uniquely our own: creating awareness andmanagement, recognition) so that the body
engagement with the overarching ING Grouplanguage of the organization matches what it
business and brand strategy; sharing the mindsetsays. Finally, I’m placing increasing importance
of the executive board; and building a “Oneon creativity, as internal comms people have to
ING” feeling by showing the breadth andfight more than ever for employees’
depth of the global operations.attention.
3. What were your top priorities coming into this10. How do you influence management decisions?
role?Try to quantify the benefits and/or downsides
I’ve had three key priorities over the pastassociated with a communications decision. One of
year that continue to be at the top of mythe best ways to do this is through stakeholder
agenda: strengthening the team and vehicles atresearch, so management can see exactly how a
the headquarters level; mobilizing ING’s globaltarget group thinks about an issue. Other
communications network to serve as aneffective alternatives include case studies or peer
extension of my team; and positioning my teamresearch that show how other industry leaders
as the internal consultant and air traffic controllerare addressing an issue. Finally, whatever your
for any ING function that wants to have accessrecommendations to management, keep them
to our global audiences. We’ve achieved goodsimple and intuitive. Recognize that your
progress on each of the three, and now it’smanagement team has 1001 decisions to make
about refining, making it sustainable and measuringevery day, and they won’t have the patience
it.to wade through a lot of theory and strategy.
4. What were your biggest challenges coming into11. What’s your guiding philosophy for internal
this role and how did you overcome them?communications?
There were some very good global commsNo other stakeholder knows the company’s
vehicles that had been put in place, but theywarts as well as employees do. So Internal
consumed almost all the team’s time andCommunication’s version of reality better
budget. There was little left over for the othermatch theirs, or you have no credibility. At the
things that I thought could take the function tosame time that you have to acknowledge the
the next level, such as aligning the global networkwarts, never lose sight of all the company’s
with our priorities and playing the air trafficstrengths and what’s possible. It’s a
controller role. In addition to the resourcebalancing act between being honest about the
constraints, our partners internally weren’tchallenges but never letting them be an excuse
consistently accustomed to working in this fashionfor not succeeding.
with Group Internal Communications. So I’ve12. What advice would you give to people just
invested a lot of effort into relationship buildingstarting in their internal communications career?
and educating people about our role. AndBe an excellent communications professional but
we’ve worked hard to show how we canadd the real value through your knowledge of the
add real value, which speaks louder than anycompany and your relationships with people in the
fancy business model presentation.business. If you do all that well, internal comms
5. Have you experienced a big change betweencan be a great launching pad for a number of
communications in the US and Europe?other careers. It’s a great career in itself, but
How have you adapted your work style? It’skeep your eyes open for where else it could take
dangerous to make any generalizations linked toyou.
geography, because I’ve found that so much13. If you could have any superhero power, what
of a communications culture is dictated by thewould it be?
values of a leadership team. So, even though INGI grew up on a dairy farm in the United States
is headquartered in Amsterdam, the environmentwhere our livelihood was inextricably linked to the
and mindset is very global, with an executivewhims of the sun, the rain and more catastrophic
board comprising people from four nationalities.weather like tornadoes. When my husband told
That said, I think it’s fair to say thatme that there is a superhero named Storm who
European work cultures tend to favor evolutioncan control the weather, I knew that was the
over revolution, so I’ve needed to learn tosuperhero power for me. If I could make it rain in
become more consultative and measure progressdrought-stricken areas or spin out to sea the
in smaller steps. On a more personal level,cyclone that devastated Burma, what a huge
I’ve rediscovered the importance ofdifference I could make on the well being of our
relationship-building. Because I had enjoyed aplanet.
strong, longstanding relationship with the ING14. What is the best advice that anyone ever
Americas organization, I knew instinctively how togave you?
do my job. When I started at the Group level inA wise aunt told me that I should go on a second
January 2007, I needed to build those relationshipsdate with my now husband because any man
and credibility from scratch, including learning all thewho loved to garden must have a good heart. His
unspoken rules about how you get work done.broken-down car and vague career ambitions
That was tough at times, because you want sogave me my doubts. But after just having ended
much to make an impact and show results, buta stormy relationship with someone who had the
you can’t do that until you have theperfect credentials on paper, I saw the wisdom
foundation in place – and that takes time.of revising my relationship criteria. Fifteen years
6. How would you describe the communicationsand two children later, her advice has stood the
culture at ING?test of time.
There’s a major commitment to15. What is your favorite book?
transparency that starts at the top, and you canI recently re-read “Love in the time of
see that in the way that ING has increased itsCholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His gift
communications with all stakeholders.for language is exceeded only by his insights into
Transparency is supported by an executive boardthe idiosyncrasies of human nature. Plus he’s
who makes the time to be an active participant inso darn quirky – he has to have known
the process. From a content standpoint, ING is apeople like his characters because I don’t
very much a “feet on the ground” kind ofthink you could make this stuff up. I’ve had a
company, so our messages are concrete andlife-long interest in Latin America, so the setting of
grounded in reality.the book feels like one big travelogue to me.
7. Have you employed any innovativeIt’s a treat on so many fronts.
communications methods?