Time in Syria

There have been some interesting developments in the area of corporate communications for the Trust. These started during the recent planning process when the communications team presented a branding strategy in which the project brands, including Massar, would all be changed. Given that we have not yet answered the fundamental question of why we (the Trust, as opposed to the individual projects) are communicating, this seemed something of an unjustifiable proposition. And as I am irrationally attached to the Massar brand, I am extremely resistant to the idea of doing away with it anyway.

Then last week we had a communications workshop for two days, and what an exciting time it was. Perhaps because there is still a lot of basic organisational stuff still unresolved, the sessions became enmired in issues of clarification - "when we say 'we' do we mean the Trust at a corporate level, or the Trust including the projects?" There were also some very debatable presentations on branding and messaging, and debated they were. The delegates, who are all intelligent people, wanted some equally intelligent reasoning and didn't feel it was provided. Some of what was presented was at best misleading and at worst unprofessional.

So the session ended with dissatisfaction and lack of resolution. I don't think I've ever been to a workshop where so many people asked me seriously after day one if I would be coming back the next day.