You jump off the tube, scale the escalators, and step out into the biting cold London air. In fact it’s so cold you rush the whole way into work, even though you’re not late, and you don’t particularly want to be there any longer than necessary. But a warm cup of coffee has your name on it. You make it to your desk for your morning email check. Five need urgent attention, two of which are left over from the day before as you just couldn’t fit them in… and now it’s today’s problem.

Oh and there’s:

one from IT about the new intranet with your login details

one from your manager wanting to nominate you for some group activity

….and a company wide email about the new values and purpose and an invite for a full day conference about what this means for the company and your team.

☑Delete. ☑Delete. ☑Delete….

There’s only so much new information the human brain can take in, and it’s very good at quickly prioritising things in order of importance and breaking things down into groups. So unfortunately, that comms is going to fall by the wayside, because it’s not nearly as pressing as the client that’s about to jump down your throat for not getting back to them.

Consider methods of dispersal – is it really necessary to send an email, or post it all around the office? Can it be said in five minutes during a weekly catch up? Keep messaging as concise as possible, and plan ahead so employees aren’t getting three pieces of comms on different subjects in one day. Can a certain piece of comms wait another week or so to avoid people switching off?

Speaking of keeping it short, here is the TLDR version:

1. Plan ahead – ensure employees aren’t getting too many messages at once

2. Streamline channels – eg cutting back to one news blast a fortnight and managers to give verbal updates weekly

3. Short simple messaging: what do they need to know, what actions do they need to take? For the love of comms don’t write a page long description – it’s overwhelming! You can always provide a link to further information 

4. Feedback – ask for feedback on how people are engaging with your content (but again, make sure this is short and quick!)