Topic 1. Internal Communications as the "circulatory system" of the organization: values, culture, labor market trends

• Key trends in internal communications in Ukraine and globally.
• The role of internal communications in supporting organizational strategy: objectives, value, opportunities, limitations.
• Key functions/roles involved in building and maintaining the internal communications system within the organization.
• Goal-setting in internal communications: how exactly does it impact organizational outcomes?
• Five strategic goals of internal communications in any organization.
• Employees' safety levels during wartime — calibrating the scope and topics of internal communications.
• The manager's role in effectively communicating goals to employees within internal communications systems (differences across business, public, and nonprofit sectors).
• Working with multi-generational teams: differences in worldviews, goal-setting, management expectations, perception of the employer, and communication channel and format preferences.
• Distributive, procedural, interactional, and interpersonal justice — how perceptions of fairness in employer–employee relations influence employee productivity.
• Common internal communication issues that management should be aware of.

Topic 2. Mission and values as the "structural carriers" of organizational systems

• Is it necessary for an organization to have defined mission and values?
• Communicating mission and values internally: why it matters, how often, and in what formats.
• What if values "don’t work"? How organizational values influence employee engagement and what types of engagement exist.
• Aligning employees’ interests with organizational goals: communication algorithm and approach.
• Schwartz’s Theory of Basic Human Values: ten value clusters that guide our behavior at and beyond the workplace; measuring organizational values using the Schwartz framework.

Topic 3. Organizational culture as a "product" of combined values, processes, meanings, and behavioral patterns

• The impact of organizational culture on internal communications and how it is shaped by dominant values and behavior within the organization.
• Classification of organizational cultures based on the Beck–Cowan Spiral Dynamics theory, which defines culture as a “mirror” of the real values of leadership and the majority of employees.
• Key characteristics of different organizational cultures: dominant values, common behaviors, expectations of leaders and subordinates, feedback practices, and management tools.
• Relevant formats, channels, and tools for employee interaction within different cultural types.
• The importance of aligning change initiatives with the organization's existing culture: what to expect in cases of mismatch between the scope/urgency of changes and the cultural specifics of the organization.

Topic 4. Leadership and change-making in modern organizations

• Differences between leadership and management: what indicates the presence of leadership in an organization.
• Ten key types of leadership and their influence on communication and motivation practices, including: transactional, transformational, charismatic, paternalistic, bureaucratic, demanding, affiliative, democratic, leader–member exchange, and servant leadership.
• The role of middle management in the organization: engagement, internal communication strategy, and a diagnostic template for assessing its capacity.
• Common internal communication mistakes during organizational change implementation.
• "Toxicity" in teams: what it is, how it arises, what causes it, 8 common manifestations of toxic behavior in organizations, and how to address them.
• The role of leaders and followers in identifying needs, co-creating, planning, and implementing organizational changes.
• Proper “packaging” of change: key message, narrative, strategy, action plan, channels, content, and result measurement.
• Specifics of communicating unpopular decisions (e.g., staff reductions, market deterioration, etc.).
• How to effectively engage employees in the change process — and what to do when engagement is low (antagonism vs. mutual reinforcement between change initiatives and organizational culture).

Topic 5. Measuring the quality of employee interaction in contemporary organizations

• How to properly set goals and metrics for assessing values, culture, and internal communications — and how to accurately interpret the results.
• How to design and implement change interventions based on survey results, including the involvement of executive leadership.
• What to do when employees are unwilling to provide feedback or the feedback they give is not truthful.
• How to gather feedback in organizations where no formal studies or staff surveys have yet been conducted.
• What types of internal communication channels exist and how they are used depending on objectives.
• Formal vs. informal communication channels: which combinations work best, recommendations, and key differences.
• The minimum necessary set of communication channels needed to maintain functional internal communications.
• Corporate media tools: features, formats, effectiveness. Dialogue-based formats in internal communication.