James Brett, J. Crew Group, Inc.; Michael Mauler, Gamestop; Tom Hayes, Tyson Foods; and, John Flannery, GE, all have something in common. They abruptly ended their tenure as CEOs of major public companies in less than two years. Mauler exited after only three months. Such is the C-suite environment in today’s public companies.

While connecting digitally to employee audiences is an essential component of how to communicate with today’s workforce, there’s an “old-school” management concept that should also be considered as part of an integrated, multi-channel approach with an objective to engage and activate employees.

A more rigorous approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is a hot-button topic for Boards of Directors, CEO’s and other senior leaders of publicly traded companies.

An old English literature teacher of mine once talked to me about the fact that a story I had pulled together didn’t really have a beginning, a middle and an end – at least not in the classic sense of the word. I mean, it started and it finished, and there were likely some other words in between, but I guess my structure didn’t quite live up to the expectations that had been set by many centuries of storytellers who had come before me. Little did this person realise that I would spend the best part of my career writing and telling stories for a living.