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Hey Reader,

Each week in this newsletter I tackle a question from a reader. This week’s question comes from an internal comms manager in Manchester who asks:

Hey good question. And this is super important because what you’ve identified one of the biggest threats to effective internal communication: training people to ignore you.

I see this happening in tons of organisations I work with, often with very talented and very busy comms professionals who seem to have found themselves stuck as a kind of organisational spam folder, churning out constant updates, notifications and “quick announcements” until employees simply tune out. Simply because stakeholders demand it and they can't seem to find a way to say no.

But here's what I think: when you send everything, people read nothing.

No one wants to be bombarded with information and updates, and let's be real, no one comes to work to read the content coming out from the comms team. They come to work to do their job, and our content should help them to do that. Not be an extra job on top.

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The attention crisis

Let’s talk about what’s really happening when you're in an organisation with a very high volume of internal comms. Every time you hit send on another “quick update” or “just a reminder” email, you’re demanding audience attention.

But attention is finite. There's only so much of it to go around. This makes it precious and worth protecting.

Think about your own inbox for a moment. How do you decide what to read and what to delete? You probably scan the subject lines and make split-second decisions about what deserves your time. Your employees are doing exactly the same thing with your communications.

When you overload them with updates, they begin to ignore you. They start deleting without reading. They tune out.

This is risky for you and for the business. Because when something genuinely important happens and you need people to listen, they won't. Your message will get lost because people are ignoring you. Nobody’s paying attention anymore because you’ve trained them not to.

The bodyguard principle

This is why smart communications teams act as their audience’s bodyguard. They stand between employees and the endless stream of “could you just send this out quickly?” requests.

I made this meme last year and I think it's such a great visual for the power of our role in protecting our people:

Just like a bodyguard decides which people get access to their client, you need to decide which messages get access to your audience. Not everyone who wants to communicate deserves a direct line to employees’ inboxes.

Your job is to be selective, to be protective, to be fierce about what you allow through.

What to say no to

So how do you decide what’s worth your audience’s attention? Here are the kind of things you could consider saying no to:

• Non-essential updates. Does your audience really need to know that the office coffee machine is being serviced next Tuesday? Or that the car park will be resurfaced in three months? Ask yourself: will this information help them do their job better or make an important decision? If not, it probably doesn’t need an all-staff email.
• Anything that lacks a clear objective. If someone can’t articulate why they want to send a communication or what they want employees to do as a result of reading it, then it’s not ready to go out. Every communication should have a clear purpose. “We just want to keep people informed” is not a clear objective, nor is "We want to create awareness".
• Irrelevant content. Just because something is important to one department doesn’t mean it’s important to the whole organisation. That detailed update about new HR policies for managers? Maybe it only needs to go to managers. That technical change to the finance system? Maybe it only affects the finance team. That great project that Marketing delivered? Maybe they need to celebrate that as a team rather than tell the whole company about it.

Remember: relevance is everything. If the information doesn’t apply to someone or help them do their job, why are they receiving it?

Use your curiosity

Here’s some simple questions you can use to decide what’s worth communicating. Your curiosity will help you here. Try questions like:

1. Is this information helpful? Will it help employees do their job better, make better decisions or understand something important about the business?
2. Is this information actionable? Is there something specific employees need to do as a result of receiving this information?
3. Is this information timely? Does the audience need to know this now, or could it wait for a weekly digest or quarterly update?

If the answer to all three questions isn’t a clear “yes,” then you are right to question whether it needs to be communicated right now.

So here’s what I'd be thinking on this topic: we need to stop being the organisational spam folder and start being your audience’s bodyguard.

The next time someone asks you to “just quickly send this out,” pause. Ask yourself those three questions. Consider whether this truly deserves precious space in your employees’ already-overflowing inboxes.

Your audience will thank you for it. And when you do have something genuinely important to communicate, they’ll actually read it.

Protect your employees' attention. They'll thank you for it - and you'll be more effective at your job because of it.

Thanks for reading and stay curious,

Joanna

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Find me on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn and check out my book​

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