Chuck Gose and Jenni Field each build their own top-five reading list for communicators, then turn to London’s Tube strike as a lens on employee relations and unions, what Opendoor’s CEO resignation reveals about leadership visibility, a LinkedIn debate on whether video actually works for internal comms, and fresh insights from Gallup’s Culture Shock.
Reacting to a LinkedIn list of five books for communicators that leaned entirely on storytelling, Chuck and Jenni agree storytelling matters but isn’t the whole job, and each build an independent five-book list without seeing the other’s picks first. Chuck’s picks are Soundtracks by Jon Acuff, The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker, The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, Playful Rebellion by Gary Ware, and Digital Body Language by Erica Dhawan. Jenni’s are Busy by Tony Crabbe, Drive by Daniel Pink, Unleashed by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, Remote Not Distant by Gustavo Razzetti, and Leading with Cultural Intelligence by David Livermore.
Discussing BBC reporting on a London Underground strike over pay, fatigue management, and working hours, Jenni and Chuck compare how differently unions and labor disputes play out in the UK versus the US, and discuss what role, if any, internal communicators have in a dispute playing out largely between unions and executives.
An Inman piece arguing Opendoor’s CEO resignation shows the cost of low leadership visibility prompts Chuck to push back that the article’s own reporting shows real underlying performance problems, meaning visibility alone likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Both hosts agree visibility matters, but caution against treating it as a cure-all for issues rooted somewhere else.
Discussing a LinkedIn post by Lexi McCausland questioning whether video works for internal communications given how hard it is to search or skim, Chuck and Jenni agree video suits specific formats — a quick, unscripted executive check-in or a how-to — but is a poor vehicle for critical updates or reference material employees need to revisit later.
Continuing her read-through of Gallup’s Culture Shock, Jenni shares data on how “meaningful conversations” between managers and employees correlate with engagement, and the two revisit the ongoing four-day work week debate, agreeing that whatever the schedule, the quality of manager relationships remains the biggest lever on how employees actually experience their jobs.
What books do Chuck and Jenni recommend for communicators beyond the usual storytelling picks? Chuck picks Soundtracks by Jon Acuff, The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker, The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, Playful Rebellion by Gary Ware, and Digital Body Language by Erica Dhawan. Jenni picks Busy by Tony Crabbe, Drive by Daniel Pink, Unleashed by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, Remote Not Distant by Gustavo Razzetti, and Leading with Cultural Intelligence by David Livermore.
What can internal communicators learn from London’s Tube strike and UK/US union dynamics? Mainly how differently labor disputes play out across the two countries — Jenni and Chuck compare UK and US union dynamics and discuss what role, if any, internal communicators genuinely have in a dispute playing out largely between unions and executives.
Does leadership visibility actually prevent the kind of speculation Opendoor’s CEO resignation triggered? Not on its own, Chuck argues — while an Inman piece frames Opendoor’s CEO resignation as a case study in the cost of low leadership visibility, the underlying reporting shows real performance problems too, meaning visibility alone likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome.
Is video an effective format for internal communications? It depends on the format — Chuck and Jenni agree video suits a quick, unscripted executive check-in or a how-to, but is a poor vehicle for critical updates or reference material employees need to revisit later, echoing concerns raised in a LinkedIn post by Lexi McCausland about how hard video is to search or skim.
What does Gallup’s Culture Shock reveal about managers, meaningful conversations, and the four-day work week? Jenni’s read-through finds that “meaningful conversations” between managers and employees correlate strongly with engagement — whatever the schedule, both hosts agree the quality of the manager relationship remains the biggest lever on how employees actually experience their jobs, a point they connect back to the ongoing four-day work week debate.
Jenni: Welcome to Frequency, I’m Jenni Field.
Chuck: And I’m Chuck Gose. Frequency is your go-to for real talk about comms, culture, and employee experience — beyond the buzzwords and straight to what matters. Jenni, this week I’m in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on a pretty rudimentary podcast setup while traveling — I’ll get into why in my freak-out later. But you shared a LinkedIn post with me this week about five books every communicator should read. It was a good list, but a lot of it leaned on storytelling, and while we agree storytelling matters, there’s a lot more to communication than that. So we thought we’d each pull together our own top five, no duplicates — I’ll go first so you have to come up with fresh picks. In no particular order: Soundtracks by Jon Acuff, a must-read for anyone in business but especially communicators; The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker, essential for anyone who puts together events; The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, on how the highest-performing professions rely on checklists for a reason; Playful Rebellion by Gary Ware, on the importance of play for adults; and Digital Body Language by Erica Dhawan, on the digital equivalent of the physical body language we’re usually taught to think about. What are your five?
Jenni: That’s close — there are two on there I could have picked too. Mine go back to books I read about eight years ago, a couple I’ve read twice, and some more recent ones. First, Busy: How to Thrive in a World of Too Much by Tony Crabbe, which I read when I first set up my consultancy — really helpful on attention and self-management. Second, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink, which I’ve read twice and is great for culture and engagement work. Third, Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss — one I used to give out at Comms Reboot when people asked for leadership reading. Fourth, Remote Not Distant by my friend Gustavo Razzetti, fantastic on building culture across hybrid, remote, and on-site teams. And finally, Leading with Cultural Intelligence by David Livermore, given to me by my friend Sarah Black — essential if you’re communicating across different cultures; there’s now a second edition too.
Chuck: I haven’t run this by you yet, but here’s what we’re going to do — we’ll put all ten books in the show notes, and in the LinkedIn post announcing this episode, ask listeners to share whichever from the list they’ve read, or a book of their own they’d add.
Jenni: I like that — it turns the list into something collaborative rather than us just handing down homework.
Chuck: Let’s move into the news. Last week the UK announced a Tube strike over pay, and a few of my team suggested it as a topic since employee relations plays out differently on each side of the Atlantic. The union says transport bosses refused to engage on pay, fatigue management, extreme shift patterns, and reducing the working week; Transport for London says they’ve engaged, offered a 3.4% pay rise, and call a reduction in the 35-hour week neither practical nor affordable. Does this kind of standoff happen as often in the US as it feels like it does in the UK, and what’s the internal communicator’s role, if any, once something like this becomes public?
Chuck: Union dynamics in the US skew heavily by industry — much more prevalent in places like auto manufacturing or airlines than in a lot of white-collar corporate settings, so it doesn’t feel like a constant presence the way it seems to in UK transport and public services. Once something like this is public, I think the internal communicator’s role shifts to helping leadership be visible and responsive rather than hiding behind official statements — which ties neatly into our next story.
Jenni: Unions are much more embedded in day-to-day UK working life across a wider range of sectors, so a dispute like this feels more familiar here. I’d argue the earlier a comms person can get in front of leadership to encourage a proactive, human response — rather than a defensive one issued only once journalists are already asking questions — the better the outcome tends to be, regardless of which side of the pond you’re on.
Chuck: Speaking of visibility — Inman has a piece arguing that Opendoor’s CEO resignation shows the cost of low leadership visibility, framing visibility as fuel for growth and now an “existential imperative.” Does this make the case for leader visibility, or is it still going to fall to the bottom of the priority list?
Chuck: I don’t fully buy the framing here — the article’s own reporting describes real underlying performance issues at the company, so I’m skeptical that more visibility alone would have prevented the speculation that followed the resignation. Visibility is valuable, but it’s not going to paper over an actual performance problem.
Jenni: I agree the causation in the piece is shaky, but I do think it reinforces something we keep coming back to: leaders who are consistently visible build up a reserve of trust and context that carries them through a rough patch far better than leaders who show up only when something’s already gone wrong.
Chuck: Next, a LinkedIn post from Lexi McCausland asking whether video actually works as an internal comms tool. She manages internal comms for about 400 people but, as an employee herself receiving comms from a larger organization, admits she almost never watches videos unless they’re mandatory training — her complaint being that video isn’t searchable, and she doesn’t want to sit through three minutes to find something she could skim on a page in twenty seconds. Is that a fair critique, or personal bias?
Chuck: I don’t think it’s just her bias — video is fantastic for certain things, like an unscripted executive check-in that builds trust through tone and presence, but it’s a poor tool for anything someone needs to reference later. If I need to find a specific detail, I want text I can scan, not a video I have to scrub through.
Jenni: Completely agree — video should be an addition to written information, not a replacement for it, especially for anything with details people will need to return to. Where it earns its place is exactly the kind of quick, human, unscripted moment you just described — not policy detail or reference material.
Chuck: Let’s turn to the book you’ve actually been reading cover to cover — Gallup’s Culture Shock. What stood out to you this time?
Jenni: There’s strong data in there on “meaningful conversations” between managers and employees — the frequency and quality of those conversations correlates directly with engagement, reinforcing that managers, not just senior leadership, are the real lever here. It also revisits the four-day work week debate, and I think the throughline is the same one we keep landing on: whatever the schedule or work arrangement, it’s the quality of the manager relationship that determines how people actually experience their jobs.
Chuck: That tracks with everything we’ve said about managers being under-supported and under-trained — no work-week format is going to fix that on its own.
Jenni: Agreed — it’s the same root issue wearing a different outfit each time it comes up in the headlines.
Chuck: That’s this week’s stories. What’s your freak-out?
Jenni: Mine is really more of a delight than a freak-out — I keep being reminded how much genuine community exists in this industry when people show up for events and actually get to meet in person, rather than only interacting through LinkedIn comments.
Chuck: Mine ties into why I’m in Sioux Falls — I’m here for the ICology Flyover Festival, and it’s been a genuine reminder of the same thing: how much richer these relationships feel in person after months of only seeing each other on a screen.
Jenni: That’s a lovely note to end on. Thank you all for joining us this week. All the books and articles that inspired this conversation are in the show notes — rate and review after you’ve listened, subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, and pass this along to someone who’d enjoy it; find us on YouTube too. Thank you to Poet Ali for contributing the music to the show, and we’ll be back next week with more news, insights and opinions about comms and leadership in workplaces today. Keep tuning in and turning up.
Chuck is a US-based internal communications strategist and the founder of ICology – a community and resource hub for IC professionals. He brings a practitioner lens to every conversation. Chuck is a recognised voice in the industry, a regular speaker and event host, and one of the most connected people in the North American IC world.
Jenni is a UK-based leadership and internal communications consultant, author of two best-selling books, and international speaker. She runs Redefining Communications, a consultancy working with organisations around the world to help them communicate better and close the gap between what leaders say and what employees experience.
