AI, Change, and Trust: Stacey Jones on the Future of Corporate Communication

Brian Tomlinson: Hi there, and welcome to another episode of the Aspire to Inspire Podcast. I’m Brian Tomlinson and I am the head of content at Staffbase. And I couldn’t be more excited to have you with us today.

Joining me is someone who truly embodies leadership in communication, Stacey Jones. Stacey has over 25 years of communications experience spanning industry giants like Accenture. Today she is Honeywell’s chief communicator, where she has been crafting a strategy that is driving meaningful change and shaping the company’s brand on a global scale. In this episode, we are diving deep into the art of clear and strategic communication. Stacey is going to share her insights on establishing a North Star for a brand and why that really matters, leading change across a global team, and simplifying complex ideas into simple communication that inspires trust and action.

We’re going to explore her perspective on navigating the evolving landscape of AI and what that’s going to mean for communicators today. You don’t want to miss Stacey’s top strategies for leading with clarity and inspiring action in today’s fast-paced world. Stick around, we’ve got a ton to unpack. Let’s go. 

Stacey, welcome to the show.

Stacey Jones: Thank you. Thank you so much, Brian. It’s so lovely to be here and I’ve been looking forward to this. It’s a snow day here in Charlotte, so I can’t imagine a better way to spend it than having this conversation.

Brian Tomlinson: Yes. Keeping nice and warm and cozy, right?

Stacey Jones: Absolutely. In the Honeywell office.

Brian Tomlinson: Let’s keep that vibe then. Let’s jump right in. Look, so you have had an amazing career over the years in communications. One of the things when we spoke before you talked about was Honeywell having this North Star, right? If you had to define that North Star in one sentence, what would it be and what does that really entail for the global organization?

Stacey Jones: Having a North Star is an absolute gift as a communicator. It’s a gift for anyone. Strategy, communications, the corporate narrative, but I happened to land at Honeywell shortly before our CEO and now chairman announced a focus that we will have in three simple areas, automation, the future of aviation and the energy transition.

For those of you who know Honeywell, you may have encountered us in a thermostat, or you may think of us as a defense contractor and many, many other ways. But as we sought to redefine the modern Honeywell, these three themes really helped simplify our business. And in fact, they’re simplifying our portfolio as we have our strategic priorities laid out. Everything about our business is lining up behind these.

And it’s been an amazing year to drive that through all of our communications, but we’ve been doing it in lockstep with a business strategy. With M&A, spinning off another business, selling a third business. So the whole machine runs together and communications doesn’t happen in a silo. It happens at the center of everything, and it blankets all of our audiences with that North Star. So you nailed it in terms of that description. That’s what we think about every day, all day.

Brian Tomlinson: That’s awesome. I love how you say, you take that complex and make it simple. That’s perfect.

Stacey Jones: Yeah and this is a complex business. Boy, the people who walk these halls, engineers, they are so smart. They solve the world’s most complex problems every day. They invent things that have never existed before. We have over a billion dollars in new product innovations each year. It is absolutely mind-blowing. In fact, we refer to our people as future shapers and our positioning is the future is what we make it, and they see things that really aren’t here yet.

So the ability and the opportunity to come in and work with, and frankly, learn from these people every day, it’s unparalleled, but not only do we do that here, we do that side by side with our customers. Co-innovation, being embedded in their operations, truly partnering with them, engineers sitting beside engineers from an aviation company, an energy company and doing this together, that’s what really makes it powerful.

Brian Tomlinson: Cool. I actually love the fact that you created an identity and named it, so calling it future shapers, because I think for the employees, that that really gives them something tangible to hold on to and build an identity around and build culture. I think that’s really amazing.

Stacey Jones: It’s a rallying cry, for sure. And it is because it’s authentic and it’s meaningful because it says very simply what the 100,000 people who work all over the world at Honeywell do every day.

Brian Tomlinson: That’s great. Let me ask you, for the other executives out there watching, when this North Star was defined, are there maybe three easy steps that someone could take? I know it’s a much bigger project than that, but if you had to distill it down into just the basics of creating a North Star, what do you think those would be?

Stacey Jones: And keep in mind, the North Star is a North Star for our business. This is our business strategy. These are our priorities that run Honeywell all over the world. So if I’m talking to communicators, I would say number one is understand very deeply your business strategy. Business acumen is absolutely essential to communications if it’s going to be effective. If you’re communicating about something that’s not central to the business, that is probably time that you could spend more effectively elsewhere. So number one is embed yourself in the business.

Now, most business strategies are pretty complex and there’s a lot of moving parts to them. And they’re devised over years, they’re tested, they’re shaped. So evolving with those strategies, a point in time is simply that. And there will be moments that you want to put your story behind, but you must also, as a communicator, watch and track very closely with the business strategy as it evolves and as the context of whatever geopolitical forces form around it, you really need to keep evolving and shaping your communication strategy to make it relevant.

And then I’ll say one thing that probably everyone knows already, but for avoidance of doubt, the stories and the simple examples that bring that business strategy to life, the lives that it changes, the products that it shapes, the change that it makes, the data, the did you know facts, especially a company that has been around for 100 years. We have invented many, many things over time and it’s wonderful and inspiring to remind people of those inventions and it’s a point of pride. Very simple examples but very powerful when bringing a strategy to life.

Brian Tomlinson: Cool. And I think that will be very helpful for everyone to at least get a start, get to build that foundation, you know, to have somewhere for people to go towards at the end of the day.

Stacey Jones: Right. Because communications is a powerful thing and it is a dot connector and a glue across the company, but it is always hand in glove with what the business aspires to be and ideally is helping lead it in the minds of all your audiences to get to that aspirational point and then go to the next one that’s ahead of it. So the change factor there is significant. And I think to really enjoy a career in communications, there’s always the what’s next question, and continuing to ask yourself that, ask your teams that, and that’s half the fun of it, because if you knew what was next, it wouldn’t be putting the puzzle together. But I think as communicators, we do that every day.

Brian Tomlinson: Yes, no, absolutely. That’s our job, right, at the end of the day?

Stacey Jones: It is.

Brian Tomlinson: Maybe, because you mentioned change, and I know that you had a lot of M&As and different forms of organizational change, especially over the last year as well. What would be your quick read on ensuring that people, when I say people, mostly employees, feel informed and not feel overwhelmed by that change? Because we know that can be really a difficult time, and I’d be curious what tips and tricks or strategies that you’ve used over, let’s say, especially 2024 with a lot of change going on, to make sure that that vision, that mission is really simplified and people understand it and that they buy into it. Maybe you can talk a little bit about that for us.

Stacey Jones: Yeah, I’d be happy to. And that’s a great question and it’s something we think about a lot here. Now, the good news is, I’ll anchor back to where we started with the North Star, so all of the M&A activity that we’ve executed over the past year, and it totals up to $9 billion right now, so it is a pretty healthy portfolio, that is not a surprise because it all ladders up to our North Star.

It is building our capabilities in automation, energy transition, and the future of aviation. We actually announced to the market, this was pre-me landing, but that we were putting aside a significant sum of money to make acquisitions with. We then told all of our people, we told all of our stakeholders, the areas of focus, those three megatrends that we were going to align with on our M&A journey, and simplifying the Honeywell portfolio was broadly communicated. And each step in that journey, each acquisition reinforced that step that we were taking, so it should not have come as a surprise. And then there were things that did not align with those three areas. Our PPE business, for example, which was a wonderful growing aspect, particularly during the pandemic, as time moved on and we had that focus around the three areas, we announced recently that we were actually going to sell that business to another organization that had that as their core focus, therefore allowing our people who worked in that area to be further supported, to have a focus on the area that they brought to the table every day, and really grow and thrive in a way that they could not at Honeywell in the same capacity because of our North Star around automation, the future of aviation, and energy transition.

So there have been additions, there have been subtractions to the portfolio, but in terms of communication, making sure that we’re transparent the whole way, and we have our plan laid out, we communicate around each step in the plan, and then link that back to the North Star and the overall business strategy, which again, it drives communication strategy. These all work hand in glove, and doing it all with care and high respect for each and every person in the organization.

Making sure that we’re always transparent, having our leadership move right out in front and communicate and answer questions with everything they can tell our people. They stand up in town halls, they work with their teams. We take this very seriously. And it means a lot to our top leadership that they are doing everything that they can for people to make sure that they feel as comfortable as possible with change. And change is hard at points, and hopefully very rewarding at other points as everything matures and moves on. So that’s a little bit of a lens into how we handle these transactions.

Brian Tomlinson: Sounds good. I think for us as humans, change is that one thing that you know it’s coming, but we still don’t like it sometimes. It really makes it challenging, I think, in many ways to communicate that.

Stacey Jones: I think there is a high respect and understanding that if you are going through a change, having clear, regular, transparent communications, there’s a recognition that that’s being handled in a way by the company that we’re telling you everything we can as we move through a journey. So we do have, I think, a great relationship in that sense. And I can tell you from the very top of the house, there’s a deep caring, there’s a deep respect, and a deep understanding of what people want and need to know at every turn.

Brian Tomlinson: Super. That’s really a great way to approach that. Maybe let’s jump over because I know Honeywell is a large organization. I know you mentioned a number of roughly 100,000 people overall. You also lead a quite large comms team as well all across the globe. What’s your secret to really staying culturally connected and keeping everyone aligned on these key goals throughout the year?

Stacey Jones: That’s actually a really fun part of the job. Nothing charges me up more than having an announcement that can be embraced and tailored by our teams around the world so they can bring it to life. There is probably no more exciting feeling as a communicator than working together in a global capacity. And it’s hard to describe until you experience it, but we’ve had a couple announcements recently with partners, Google. We were at CES this week with a semiconductor partner, NXP. They’re based in the Netherlands.

And in each case, we partnered very closely with our teams around the world, but also with our partners’ teams around the world to drive news that was relevant on the ground in those markets. And relevant because they were solving problems that were unique in that culture. They were unique in that business environment. And I’m not the person who’s going to know how to do that in India, in Germany, in the UK. But I have an amazing colleagues and teams that make that happen every day. And it’s a lot of fun to cook that recipe up and bring it into the bright light of day and tell those stories, but it’s hard too because you can’t be all those places. Obviously, you haven’t lived and worked in those environments. One of the wonderful benefits that I’ve enjoyed over my career is even short times, working a few days in a market, sitting beside a colleague at a desk, really understanding how they see the world through their eyes. And it sticks with you over time.

And I know what I don’t know, and I know when I need to reach a colleague and ask questions, be curious, and really seek and let them lead with their cultural lens and their knowledge and business acumen and local market. And that’s the powerful combination. You certainly can’t sit in one geography and say, “I know the world.” You only know the world if you’re teaming with your people around the world. So that is the fun part of it.

And fortunately, we have passionate teams everywhere, and they’re super creative. They come up with ideas that I would never imagine. And we make it happen, or we figure out how to make it happen over time and that really is the magic of the job.

Brian Tomlinson: Yes, I couldn’t agree more. I think there’s a beauty in realizing that while we’re all the same, there are these nuances, especially in communication, within different cultures, different countries. It’s actually a really beautiful thing about communication as well.

Stacey Jones: It is. You’re absolutely right, and the relationships you form over time. Just getting to know people, it’s part of the job, but it’s a part of the job that if you enjoy it, the rewards are really significant.

Brian Tomlinson: Yeah, that’s true. It’s also good to know someone in another country as well, just in case, right?

Stacey Jones: Absolutely. You never know where you’ll find yourself.

Brian Tomlinson: Yes, you find yourself somewhere, and you need some tips and tricks. And that’s always perfect to have that colleague sitting in, I don’t know, in India or in Spain or wherever, right? So the beauty of a global organization.

Stacey Jones: Yeah, and the answer you may think is correct needs to go through that lens and you’ll probably find yourself in a slightly different place.

Brian Tomlinson: Yeah, no, absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. I think that’s also the most important thing about diversity for organizations as well. And especially for us as communicators, really being able to look and explore and see, “Well, okay, what are these different perspectives,” just whether that be by gender, by culture, et cetera.

Stacey Jones: And I would just add that part of actually enabling that culture is creating an environment where healthy debates are welcome and disagreement, different points of view, the ability for everyone on the team, no matter what level they’re at, to say, “Hey, I have an idea,” or, “Did you think of it this way? Here’s a suggestion.” If you don’t enable an environment where people can speak up, be heard, see their work, you’re really going to miss a lot of what’s possible out there.

I do think a lot about that, and that is certainly harder when you’re thousands and thousands of miles away. So it does take creativity, extra effort, and not just one leader, a team of leaders that can help reinforce and grow the next generation, because Honeywell will move on and Honeywell will need its next generation of communications leaders. And we certainly have a really strong bench of people who can move through that succession, but we need to really think about growing that on a regular basis and making sure that we are taking care and bringing that next generation up.

Brian Tomlinson: Absolutely. Always a key part of any organization, really, making sure that talent pool is full. Maybe let’s jump into, because you mentioned talent pool, maybe let’s talk about the future of comms a little bit. I guess the first thing I would love to touch on is something that we’ve been thrust into over the past two and a little bit years, and that’s AI. It still sparks excitement and somehow it still sparks fear because everyone’s not really on board or not sure where we are yet. Where do you see AI’s potential and where do you see us as communicators right now, just in terms of usage? Because I know what I see is 50-50. You know, you ask people, they’re all in, or some people are like, “Oh, well, I used it once.” How do you see that and what do you think 2025 is going to bring?

Stacey Jones: I’ll ask a broad question. Have you talked to a lot of communications professionals who say, “You know, I’ve got a lot more time and I’m just looking for things to do and things are very manageable. It’s very calm here”? No. Enter AI and can AI help solve that equation and help communications professionals have a tool to use to help move things faster, to ideate, to move through writer’s block, to challenge their thinking in some capacity? I think so. And I do see that.

I personally use it. I was writing a LinkedIn post last night and I needed an idea. So I threw my draft in there. I put a couple prompts in. I got something back. I edited it further, but it helped me through a little bit of a, I don’t know quite what I want to say here moment. I was alone, so there was no one to talk to, but AI helped. Now, did the post begin and end with a human? Oh, yes, it did.

And I would say that cannot change for high level communications, strategic communications, certainly financial communications, big moments. These have to be managed by humans. And the judgment, the nuances, we were just talking about the cultural aspects. This is where we must as communicators continue to initiate and finalize. There’s room for AI, I think, in the middle and probably as AI becomes sharper, as we all become more comfortable with it, we can hopefully offload some of the things that maybe take time and move that time to more strategic initiatives, a little bit more team time, whatever it is, right?

But I see it as a help, not a hindrance. And it’s up to us as a community and an industry to deploy it effectively in the right ways, and to keep each other apprised and honest, sharing best practices. I really enjoy hearing from peers, what they think works, what doesn’t work, and getting more down in the details. But I’m optimistic, not pessimistic. I know as we talk about the industrial space, so I’m flipping out communications for a second, but there is a huge, huge labor shortage in industrials.

Do people want to go work on oil rigs in the middle of the ocean when they can perhaps drive an Uber and kiss their kids goodnight? No, they’re going to opt for the Uber. So how do we keep industrial operations going when there literally is, because of population, a labor shortage, because of different industries, a labor shortage, huge baby boomer retirement? Well, guess what? AI is really going to — particularly in 2025, we’re going to see that take off and unleash many possibilities.

Everything from a co-pilot that depends on information at my factory when I’m changing a compressor, it’ll tell me the 50 mistakes I can make and the 2 ways to avoid it based on that factory. Amazing. And safety, predictive maintenance, taking new workers who may enter the field and giving them decades more of experience because they have this tool that’s really built on domain knowledge from their location. It’s exciting.

And honestly, as we think about, I didn’t say this, but I’ll repeat what our CEO has said, there is no plan B because there are no more humans in some cases in the industrial space. So across industry, I think we’re going to see more possibilities emerge and mission-critical problems be solved.

Brian Tomlinson: That’ll be an amazing day, I think, across many industries as well. So that’s definitely something to look forward to. As we’re recording this, so this is January 2025, so we still have a lot of the year left to go. If you had a crystal ball for the future of corporate communications, what’s the one shift that you see coming that comms leaders need to be ready for?

Stacey Jones: That’s a really good question. Only one? I’m kidding.

Brian Tomlinson: I’ll take more.

Stacey Jones: I’m going to go to something very basic. And I would categorize it less as a shift and more of something that I think needs a heavy focus in the industry. And it’s related to AI because I see it in my own kids, writing papers for school. There is such a heavy reliance on AI, on Grammarly, on other tools that I think as an industry we need to continue to focus on the ability to write well.

Clear writing is clear thinking and the ability to express yourself as a communicator, to organize your thoughts, to articulate them, whether it’s an email or a presentation, that core craft skill, I think is something that is essential and timeless, actually. But in this world of social media, of ChatGPT, of all the other tools, you can get more tool heavy very quickly, and maybe work less on your own skills. And I think that focus on the core craft skill of being a good communicator, of how to put a story together, it is so essential and so important.

And it will enable you to use all those other tools. But I really challenge myself personally to do that. I put a lot of emphasis on it with our team. How can we continue to sharpen our storytelling skills as communicators because that will be the core of everything that we do. So regardless of what shift you’re putting it through, new administration, geopolitical shifts, technology changes, there’s a red thread that runs through all that. And how do you tell that story, no matter what the year is, the climate, or the trends that you’re working with?

Brian Tomlinson: That’s great. I also think that for us as communicators, and just what you said earlier, it’s the human part of this whole process, the storytelling, the creation of a particular narrative that goes across. That’s something that is really truly the human side of what we do.

Stacey Jones: And having that North Star connected to the business. The strategy drives the brand, drives the corporate narrative. There is a link there that cannot be broken if it’s done well. And that should then drive your planning and every moment that you appear at the company. And it is very easy to get the cart before the horse, and I’m going to XYZ trade show, and it’s all about this show. The show is in service of your corporate narrative, of the brand that you want to show up with, and putting everything very clearly under that umbrella and into that bigger picture, but you got to know your story first. And that is the lead sled dog for everything that we think about every day.

Brian Tomlinson: Awesome. All right. I know we’re coming up on time, so I have one last question. It’s a special question, so it’s pretty short. But we are actually thinking a lot this year about what we call elephants in the room, right? And these are the things that we as communicators know are there but we don’t to talk about them. What for you would be one of those elephants? That could be just to give you an example —

Stacey Jones: What’s an elephant example?

Brian Tomlinson: An elephant example is, for example, how you measure your communications. If it’s just clicks, but clicks doesn’t tell you the story of whether something resonates or not.

Stacey Jones: I’m so glad you gave me the elephant example, because one of the things, and we didn’t talk about it, but I’d love to. One of the things over the past year that I have been most passionate about, and my team has a lot of passion for too, is measurement, because that will help shape and drive the strategy, the moments, the places, the messaging that’s working. And so what do I mean by that?

When I started looking at the measurement system, it was counting, it was clicks, it was clips, and volume trumped quality. So quality really is the metric that we have shifted to focus on, and it’s certainly volume. I’m not suggesting you get one story a year and put a flag in it and throw a party, but the ability to understand which outlets, channels, moments, and results are driving outcomes is so important, and particularly with our news media measurement and monitoring.

We went from numbers to quality clips, high impact is what we measure. We measure it around the three areas we talked about as our North Star, automation, future of aviation, and energy transition. How are we doing versus our competitors in each of those places? What are the moments that matter? What are the messages that are getting traction? And we’re actually moving on to a next frontier to build a new brand awareness tracker around this same moment, so we can do a comparison and have a full picture of everything from loyalty to preference, et cetera.

But that has been an incredible conversation starter, and not all conversations were positive, because you’re not always winning in every category, but those are the best conversations to have. Why aren’t we winning? What matters the most? Where do we want to put our investment, our time, and our focus? So it’s been an incredible journey. We’re about to do the 2024 year-end report. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

I also can’t wait to figure out, based on what it tells us, where that’s going to take us next year, because it’s feeding right into the planning cycle that we’re involved in. But even though the results may not be what you want, the ability to learn from those results, and I think that is the elephant, right? You’re not always going to say, “Oh, everything’s terrific, and we’re all good here,” which I know we all want to say, “We did a great job, we had a great outcome,” but at the same time, there is huge power and opportunity in recognizing where things aren’t running well, and then figuring out if those things are a priority, and then how you get to the place you want to be and achieve the goals that are important to the company.

Brian Tomlinson: Absolutely. I think also even admitting that some things can’t be measured. So also figuring that out, I think that’s something —

Stacey Jones: Absolutely.

Brian Tomlinson: But these are the conversations that we think really communicators should be having as well, some of these difficult conversations.

Stacey Jones: I agree, and they’re not necessarily fun at every turn. In fact, when we started this new exercise and looking at high-impact coverage in certain areas, we found out there was one area that we thought we were doing a lot better in than we were, and it wasn’t a great result. And we said, “We care a lot about it, so why aren’t we doing well?” And we did some deeper analysis, and we learned some things. Then we said, “Well, how long has this been going on?”

And we ran an analysis that went back four or five years, and it had been a slow erosion over time. And you could see and learn things that we had no idea were under the covers, but we’ve been able to take those learnings and create a recipe for the going forward future that is generating results, we’re moving the numbers in the right direction, and everything’s a process. It’s not a switch you flip overnight, but the learnings are being deployed, and they’re paying off. So now the question is, what else can we do, and what else can we learn to keep moving that ball forward?

Brian Tomlinson: Awesome. I have no doubt that you will be hitting those goals sooner rather than later, though.

Stacey Jones: Well it’s very motivating to the team, too, to see their hard work and their passion move up the scoreboard. And we report it to our CEO and his leaders. We’re very transparent, good or bad, you know, here’s how we did. It’s viewed as a partnership. It’s not, “Oh, the communications team. You folks did not perform.” It’s us. And obviously, it’s a function we’re driving, but we could not do it. We could not generate results if we were not working at every turn closely with the business to craft and deploy and amplify communications that are really meaningful to the audiences that they want to reach. So I love that about the job, and I think our team is really embedded in the business in a way that energizes them every day and makes us really proud.

Brian Tomlinson: Amazing. Well, Stacey, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. I think super insightful, and for me, I’m really impressed by what you and the team are doing at Honeywell, really managing that change, really driving things forward and simplifying. So thanks so much for joining us. And for everyone listening, I’m Brian Tomlinson. I’ve been here with Stacey Jones today from Honeywell. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see us on the next episode of the Aspire to Inspire Podcast.

Stacey Jones: Thank you so much. It’s been an absolute pleasure. And I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your interest and the great questions.Brian Tomlinson: No problem. Thanks for doing that with us.