My student experience studying the IOIC Advanced Diploma by Joseph Hill.
My student experience studying the IOIC Advanced Diploma by Joseph Hill.
In this interview with Advanced Diploma Lead Facilitator Chris Coburn, Joseph Hill shares his experience of studying the diploma. With eight years of IC experience, Joseph explains what surprised him, what shifted, and why the learning felt instantly applicable.
I went into the Advanced Diploma because, though I had eight years of experience in IC, I wanted to pair this practical experience with the underpinning theory.
What surprised me most was how practical and immediately applicable this theory was. I had so many penny-dropping moments where I was learning things and then thinking “oooohhhhh, that’s why that works well (or doesn’t!).” I was attending workshops or reading books on the Tuesday, and putting my learning into practice on the Wednesday!
It wasn’t just me who noticed the difference in how I was thinking and executing - my stakeholders, audiences and entire business felt the impact. Just by taking this course and investing time in thinking and learning, I was able to pause the cycle of ‘doing’ and create better ways of managing IC.
I’m a team of one, so having immediate access to a network of IC peers on the Advanced Diploma was a fantastic additional benefit. Sharing our different challenges, solutions and thinking was helpful, and my project group still meets monthly now - even after a year of handing in our project assignment!
Overall, there have been two significant shifts in how I now manage IC in my role. The first is being more intentional with measurement and research - bringing in more qualitative measures so I can better understand how people feel and what sense they are making of the messages. And then being more strategic with my IC. I know this is a word that gets thrown around a lot, and I don’t have written strategies for everything, but I do now think in a more strategic way. For example, I focus more on outcomes than outputs, challenge more robustly on the purpose of certain topics, and stop doing specific things that do not contribute to the overall success of our business.
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