Start With Discovery: How to find out what’s actually wrong with your comms

Before you change the channel, change the platform or commission another piece of content, find out what problem you are actually trying to solve.

Webinar: Start With Discovery: How to find out what’s actually wrong with your comms
Speakers: Sharon O’Dea and Jonathan Phillips
Date & time: Wednesday, 26 August 2026 · 13:00 CEST / 12:00 BST
Format: Online
Who can attend: Open to all IABC members
Register: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/aQyjMvK4LD

Engagement is down, so perhaps it’s time for a new intranet. The newsletter isn’t being read, so video might work better. Employees say there is too much communication, so the answer must be fewer messages.

These may all be reasonable ideas. But they are still solutions — and they often arrive before anyone has established what is actually going wrong.

Discovery is the work that comes first.

It helps communication teams understand where communication is failing, why it is happening and who is affected. Instead of working from assumptions or a general feeling that “comms isn’t working”, discovery gives you evidence to make better decisions about where to spend time, attention and budget.

In this IABC EMENA webinar, Sharon O’Dea and Jonathan Phillips, co-founders of Lithos Partners and co-authors of Digital Communications at Work, will show what useful discovery looks like in practice.

Drawing on their work with organisations and the discovery approach explored in their book, they will look at how to investigate communication problems without turning the process into a lengthy research project — and how to translate what you learn into a case senior stakeholders can understand and support.

What we’ll cover

• How to distinguish the visible symptom from the underlying communication problem
• Discovery techniques that help surface real issues rather than confirm existing assumptions
• What useful discovery can look like when time and budget are limited
• How to identify where communication is breaking down — and for whom
• How to turn evidence into recommendations and a credible case for investment
• How to keep the conversation focused on outcomes rather than simply producing more outputs

About the speakers

Sharon O’Dea
Digital Communications Strategist · Co-founder, Lithos Partners
IABC EMENA Board Director, Professional Development

Jonathan Phillips
Digital Workplace Strategist · Co-founder, Lithos Partners

Sharon and Jonathan are the co-authors of Digital Communications at Work: Designing Channels for Employee Engagement and Experience (Kogan Page, 2026).

If you work in internal communication, employee experience or digital workplace — particularly if you are reviewing channels, planning a new platform or trying to understand why existing communication isn’t delivering the results you need — this session will give you a practical place to start.

Wednesday, 26 August 2026
13:00 CEST / 12:00 BST
Online

The webinar is open to all IABC members.

Register for the webinar: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/aQyjMvK4LD