Internal comms isn’t broken, it’s the way we’re using it

I’d like to start by making something clear. Internal communications isn’t failing, it isn’t outdated, and it certainly isn’t the reason people feel overwhelmed, confused or disengaged at work. What is failing, however, is the way many of us are using internal comms, asking it to carry far more weight than it ever should, and then wondering why it buckles under the pressure.

In some organisations, internal comms has quietly become the place where unresolved decisions, unclear priorities and leadership uncertainty get passed down the line. When things feel messy, we communicate more. When strategy isn’t clear, we explain harder. When leaders don’t fully agree, another message gets sent “just to be safe”. And all this results in noise - so much noise.

Somewhere along the way, communication became a volume game. More messages, more channels, more updates, more urgency. And yet, less understanding than ever.

People are disengaged, but not because they don’t care. They’re disengaged because they’re overloaded, and we’ve trained them to skim, mute and scroll past - not through apathy, but through self-preservation.

Outside work, we’re also consuming more information than ever before. Scrolling Instagram and TikTok, exploring the possibilities AI now gives us - always on and rarely giving our brains the space or energy to take on something new.

When everything is important, nothing stands out. When everything is shared, nothing feels meaningful. This is where internal comms often gets unfairly blamed. Open rates are scrutinised, engagement metrics are debated, dashboards are built, but those numbers rarely tell us whether people actually understood what mattered - or whether anything changed as a result. We’ve become very good at measuring activity and much less good at measuring impact.

And sadly, no amount of great communication can compensate for a lack of clarity at the top. Internal comms was never meant to fix poor decision-making, smooth over uncertainty, or carry the emotional weight of organisational change. Yet too often, that’s exactly what it’s asked to do.

So if internal comms feels busy but ineffective,  the answer isn’t a new channel, a better platform or another campaign. It’s using communication more deliberately, and more honestly.

At its best, internal comms creates shared understanding - it helps people see where they’re going, why it matters, and what’s expected of them. At its worst, it’s treated like a sticking plaster - something applied after the fact, once decisions have already caused confusion or frustration. But that’s not a comms problem, it’s a leadership one.

As we head into 2026, there’s a better question leaders and comms teams can ask themselves. Not “How do we communicate this?”  but “Are we clear enough to communicate at all?”

When clarity comes first, communication stops being a chore and starts doing what it’s meant to do: which is helping people move forward together.

We don’t believe the solution to communication challenges is more noise. We help leaders and comms teams step back, get clear on what really matters, and use internal comms as a leadership tool, not a last-minute fix.

If internal comms feels like it’s struggling right now, it isn’t broken. It’s just being asked to do the wrong job. And we’d love to help you change that this year. Get in touch if you’d like a chat.