Ben Trounson

I help Fortune 500 organizations build unshakeable stakeholder trust through strategic communications that turn complexity into clarity. As a VP of Global Corporate Communications with 20+ years of experience, I specialize in guiding companies through the reputation opportunities and challenges that come with transformation, crisis, and growth.

My career spans leadership roles at technology, energy, and pharmaceutical giants including Tata Consultancy Services, National Grid, Verizon, and Bristol Myers Squibb. At TCS, I helped transform the company's reputation from a lesser-known IT services provider into a globally recognized digital transformation partner for Fortune 500 clients, contributing to brand value growth from $5B to $14B over my seven-year tenure. This transformation required rebuilding narratives, executive
positioning, and stakeholder relationships across multiple markets.

I've built and led global communications teams ranging from 20 to 50+ members across North America, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM regions. My approach focuses on three core elements: authentic narrative development that aligns with business strategy, internal capability building that empowers teams to execute consistently, and external relationship management that builds lasting credibility with key stakeholders including media, investors, regulators, and employees.

Whether navigating CEO transitions, major acquisitions, regulatory scrutiny, or market repositioning, I ensure corporate communications delivers measurable impact on reputation and business outcomes.

Vice President of Communications, Verizon Business

Over a month into my new role at Arizona Public Service - APS, and I'm embracing life as an Arizonan.

A few early impressions:
- A welcoming and thriving culture across the company.
- The CX & Communications team: incredible passion for serving customers across AZ .
- Climbing Piestewa Peak; what a view of Phoenix and the valley!
- Seeing firsthand the growth in AZ and the key enabling role of APS.

And I clearly need to work on my local look! Perhaps slowly work my way in with some cowboy boots. 😀

VP, Global Corporate Communications | Reputation & Stakeholder Trust Builder | 20+ Years Transforming Fortune 500 Narratives | Former Verizon, National Grid, TCS | $5B-$14B Brand Value Growth

Is your company growing and undergoing a business transformation (technology implementation, mergers & acquisitions) and needs a communication strategy?

I work with my clients to develop and implement communication strategies to help your key stakeholders understand, accept and remain productive during and after the change. 

Who am I? 
In my 20+ year career, I have worked with business leaders on more than 40 acquisitions and the resulting business transformation projects.  

Who do I work with? 
I work with businesses that are going through companywide change. I develop strategic communication plans to help employees and other key stakeholders understand and prepare for the transition and remain productive throughout the change process. 

Contact me
Connect with me on LinkedIn
www.swingstrategiccomm.com
lynn@swingstrategiccomm.com

Lynn Zimmerman

When you post a meme about internal comms pros hiding in the bushes outside a project kickoff and it gets more than 1,200 reactions, 54 shares and more than 30,000 impressions…you know your experience is universal.

If you’ve worked in internal communication for more than five minutes, you’ve probably experienced it.

You find out about a major initiative after the decisions are made.

Or a few days (or hours!) before the launch.

Or when someone forwards you a draft email and says, “Can you send this out today?”

It’s rarely malicious. More often, leaders simply don’t understand what they’re missing. They see communication as the final step. Not a strategic input.
If we want a seat at the kickoff, we have to make it obvious why we belong there.

Here are five things that have helped me get invited to the kickoffs and a seat at the table:

1. Build deeper relationships with leaders.
If your only interaction with leaders is taking orders, that’s how they’ll define your role. Meet with them regularly. Ask about their priorities. Understand their pressures. When they trust you as a thinking partner, they start adding you to invites without being prompted.

2. Pay attention to the signals.
Internal comms pros have a sixth sense. We can feel when something is brewing. Use it. Ask questions. “I’ve been hearing some themes around X. Is there a project coming that I should know about?” Curiosity earns access.

3. Educate partners on how you work.
Don’t wait for a project to explain your process. Share how comms planning, stakeholder analysis, message development and timeline alignment across multiple projects reduce risk. When people understand the value of strategic planning, they’re more willing to invest the time.

4. Ask for the invite.
Sometimes you simply have to say, “Send me the kickoff meeting invite.” And once you’re in the room, demonstrate value. Ask thoughtful questions. Surface stakeholder considerations. Connect dots across initiatives. You don’t have to dominate the meeting. You just need to find ways to contribute strategically.

5. Prove it in practice.
When I partnered with a PMO overseeing more than 70 IT change projects, we requested two-hour strategic planning sessions with each project manager. Many initially offered 30 minutes.

Almost every time, the 30-minute meeting turned into an hour. Then we’d look at calendars to find another hour or two to continue the discussion. Once they experienced the clarity that came from a detailed stakeholder analysis, discussions about success and objectives along with insights into the timing from a corporate perspective, they started building communication into their timelines by default. They also told their peers to make the time to meet with me. 

That’s how you move from “Can you send this?” to “We need comms in the kickoff.”

What have you done to make sure you’re in the room early?

Lynn Zimmerman, ABC, SCMP®

Have you ever seen anyone who was truly excited about using a new ERP system?

Yesterday, I had the chance to talk with Joanna Parsons’ Internal Comms community, The Curious Tribe, about change communication. There’s a point I make every time I talk about change comms that always sparks discussion.
Change teams often want employees to be excited about a change. It makes sense…we all want others to be as excited about the work that we’re doing as we are.

But excitement isn’t the goal.

Acceptance is.

Too often, project teams want employees to be just as invested in a change as they are. In reality, most people are too busy focused on their jobs to do much more than acknowledge that it’s happening. The change you’re working on is the biggest thing happening in your world. For your stakeholders, it’s one more thing on an already full plate.

Creating excitement about learning a new ERP system or implementing a new process is a tall order and not a great use of time or resources for the project team.

Success in change communication usually looks much simpler when you look at it through the lens of acceptance:
- People take the time to learn about what’s changing
- They attend the training
- They understand what they need to do differently and start doing it the new way when you ask them to
- They make the shift from the old way to the new way with minimal disruption to the business

That’s a successful change.

When we focus on acceptance and preparedness instead of excitement (or any emotion), our work tends to shift too. We spend less time on vanity efforts designed to prove people are enthusiastic about the change and spend more time on the things that actually make change work.

Working toward acceptance is not lowering the bar. It’s setting the bar at the right level to ensure the change is a success.

You know me, Workshop! You really know me!  

I can never pass up a personality test, so when I saw Yanni Pappas' post that Workshop had created a personality test just for internal comms pros, I couldn't click Take the Test button fast enough.   

And I think it gets me. I'm an Architect...here's what means: 

The Architect
You don't send a message without knowing what business outcome it's driving. Every comms plan you touch has a clear objective, a measurable result, and a reason for existing.

⚡ Your Superpower
Aligns communications to business goals in a way that makes leadership trust comms as a strategic function, not a service desk.

👀 Watch Out For
Not everything can be a funnel. Sometimes people need to feel something before they do something — don't skip the emotional step in your rush to the metric.

If you’re an internal comms pro who also loves true crime, this one’s for you. 🕵‍♀️ 

Last week, Alyssa Towns and I presented a Speakap webinar called Your Frontline Comms Starter Kit. During the session, I talked about content mapping as a part of my Pulse Audit framework and compared it to that classic detective board — photos, notes and red string connecting the dots.

Alyssa took that analogy and turned it into the visual you see below. It's an internal comms “crime board” without the crime...just solid insights into what is working, what isn't working and the communication gaps you might have missed. She captured the vision I have had in my brain perfectly!    

The link to the replay of the webinar is in Alyssa’s post below. In the webinar, we talk about how frontline comms is different, five frontline framework principles to keep in mind as you build your strategy, and we cover the templates and frameworks we use with clients to strengthen frontline communication. If you work with frontline teams, it's one you don't want to miss!

Writer for brands building better workplaces ✍🏻 Internal communications advocate 🏛️ Creative content with a human touch 🧠 Also writing Time Intentional in honor of my grandparents 🕰️

During our Your Frontline Comms Starter Kit webinar with Speakap, Lynn Zimmerman, ABC, SCMP®, compared the content mapping process during a pulse audit to those large, true crime pushpin boards you see on television. 

You know the ones, right? Sometimes people don't even use designated pushpin boards, but an entire wall inside a dark room covered with newspaper clippings, articles, and photos of potential suspects. Strips of red yarn connect pieces of information and clues until they have it all figured out. 

Frankly, it is one of my favorite analogies I've heard recently, and I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I brought the visual to life.

Too many organizations treat frontline workers as unknown mysteries and then wonder why they struggle to communicate with them. And yet, the crime leads to the same place every time: You need to get to know your frontline workers better to improve your internal comms and engagement with them. (Basic psychology principles here!)

If you aren't sure where to start, in our webinar with Speakap, we covered: why frontline communications miss the mark, what's actually different about the frontline, 5 frontline framework principles to help you build your strategy, and a 4-part frontline toolkit with ready-to-use templates. 

Catch the full recording and grab your templates: https://lnkd.in/gRcsEzsQ

Things I learned from sitting on a plane waiting in line on the tarmac to take off from the one open runway at the Denver airport because it’s really windy…




…Even Blucifer can’t save us from the bumpy flight ahead. 

See you soon Kansas City! I hope my green complexion 🤢 has faded by the time I make it to the CommsConsultants.com Kansas City meetup.

The Blue Mustang statue at the entrance to the Denver airport is affectionately known as Blucifer.  It is a 65’ statue of a blue mustang that has glowing red eyes. The statue has a fascinating history and everyone in Denver has an opinion about it. 

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