Before becoming the head of corporate communications for GraceKennedy Limited in Kingston, Jamaica, Suzanne Nam was the CEO of a nonprofit non-governmental organization where she had worked for 10 years delivering environmental education and advocacy campaigns. When she found herself increasingly involved in administration rather than communication in that role, she decided to make a career change. Looking for new ways to engage with a new audience, she turned to the Communicating for Impact—Virtual program at Harvard Business School Executive Education.
My background is in geography and environmental management. When I decided to make a career change, I ended up at a large Jamaican-based multinational corporation as head of corporate communications. Even though I've proven myself to be completely capable of managing many kinds of communications, it was a completely different working environment for me.
So, I've had lingering questions: Are my communication strategies from the nonprofit world relevant to this new sector? How can I still be an effective communicator in this increasingly virtual world? I started looking for courses, and this was one of the top ones that came up in my search. It was as simple as that.
Before Communicating for Impact—Virtual, I was a big believer in "breaking up with breakout sessions," but they actually turned out to be my favorite part of the program. I really liked the way they were designed and structured. There were prompts about what we needed to talk about and what goals to set to answer our question.
I realized that every detail of this course had been well thought out, including the breakout sessions. Not only do you engage on key concepts, but you also get to know people from different parts of the world with different backgrounds and working in different industries. We talked about each other’s personal experiences, and the learnings that came out of these sessions were incredibly useful.
It has made me more confident in my communication style and has driven home what my strengths are. I was also able to identify the weaknesses I need to improve on. It's about trying to strike a balance—not losing the things that are good about how you communicate while also making sure that you're engaging in an effective way with whomever you interact with.
Yes, but not what you might expect! Of course, there were a myriad of learnings about communications strategies, but the technical aspect of the video conference setup was top tier for me. Observing our professors in the virtual environment and seeing how they engaged with their audience using all the tools available in the online space—that was almost a lesson in and of itself.
This was by far one of the best and most engaging virtual experiences I have had. The professors were really efficient in their use of time. While I'm also looking forward to attending an in-person program at HBS in the future to get that unique experience, I can imagine that, in a face-to-face version of the program, what we achieved in four hours would have taken the whole day to do.
Senior managers and executives working in any sector, if given the opportunity, should definitely take this program. It's not just about improving your communication and networking skills. You can apply all the program learnings into every aspect of your life. It was a really valuable experience for me, both personally and professionally.