# Why Your Company's Communication is Failing (And It's Not What You Think) **Related Reading:** [More Insight](https://skillcoaching.bigcartel.com/blog) | [Further Reading](https://ethiofarmers.com/advice) | [Other Recommendations](https://leadershipforce.bigcartel.com/posts) --- Twenty-three years ago, I walked into my first corporate job thinking I knew how to communicate. I had a degree, decent grades, and could string together a coherent sentence. What I didn't realise was that I was about to enter a world where "circle back," "touch base," and "leverage synergies" somehow passed for meaningful conversation. Fast forward to today, and I've watched hundreds of organisations hemorrhage talent, lose customers, and tank projects—all because they've confused talking with communicating. The worst part? Most companies think they're nailing it. Here's the uncomfortable truth: Your communication isn't failing because people don't understand the message. It's failing because you're not actually saying anything worth understanding. ## The Jargon Trap That's Strangling Your Culture Let me paint you a picture. Last month, I sat through a "strategic alignment workshop" where the facilitator used the phrase "ideate solutions" fourteen times. Fourteen! When someone finally asked what that actually meant, there was an awkward pause that felt longer than a Melbourne tram delay. This is what happens when organisations mistake complexity for competence. We've created this bizarre corporate language that sounds important but communicates absolutely nothing. [More information here](https://www.alkhazana.net/2025/07/16/why-firms-ought-to-invest-in-professional-development-courses-for-employees/) about how training programs can address these fundamental communication gaps. The real kicker? While leadership teams are busy "cascading key messaging frameworks," their frontline staff are making split-second decisions with customers using completely different language. No wonder things fall apart. I once worked with a Brisbane-based logistics company where the executive team spoke exclusively in acronyms (KPIs, ROI, EOD, ASAP), while the warehouse team communicated in direct, practical terms. The disconnect was so severe that a simple inventory update took three weeks and four different meetings to implement. Three weeks! ## Why Your Open Door Policy is Actually a Revolving Door Here's an opinion that might ruffle some feathers: Open door policies are mostly performative nonsense. There, I said it. Don't get me wrong—accessibility matters. But declaring your door "open" while simultaneously creating forty-seven layers of bureaucracy around actually communicating meaningful information is like putting a welcome mat on a locked door. I've seen managers pride themselves on their open door policy while their direct reports whisper in corridors about projects going sideways. The problem isn't the door; it's what happens when people walk through it. Real communication requires psychological safety, not physical accessibility. [Here is the source](https://spaceleave.com/what-to-anticipate-from-a-communication-skills-training-course/) for understanding how to build genuine communication skills that create that safety. Your team needs to know they can bring you problems without being blamed for them. They need to understand that asking questions won't make them look incompetent. And they absolutely must trust that sharing bad news won't result in them becoming the scapegoat. ## The Email Epidemic That's Eating Your Productivity This might be controversial, but email is probably destroying more workplace relationships than it's building. We've somehow convinced ourselves that firing off rapid-response emails demonstrates efficiency and professionalism. Wrong. What it demonstrates is that we've forgotten how to have actual conversations. I regularly see email chains with fifteen people copied in, discussing issues that could be resolved with a two-minute phone call. It's madness. The average office worker receives 121 emails per day. That's one email every four minutes of an eight-hour workday. When exactly are people supposed to do their actual work? Between frantically responding to messages that probably didn't need to exist in the first place? Here's what I've observed after decades in various organisational trenches: The companies with the strongest cultures are usually the ones where people pick up the phone. Or better yet, walk over to someone's desk. Revolutionary concept, I know. [Further information here](https://diekfzgutachterwestfalen.de/why-professional-development-courses-are-essential-for-career-growth/) about how proper professional development can restore these fundamental communication skills. Now, I'm not suggesting we abandon email entirely. I'm suggesting we stop using it as a crutch for avoiding real conversations. ## The Meeting Culture That's Meeting Its Match Speaking of conversations, let's talk about meetings. Or rather, let's talk about the elaborate theatre we call "meetings" that somehow pass for communication. I recently calculated that one of my client companies spends approximately 67% of their collective work time in meetings. Sixty-seven percent! That means for every three-day work week, people spend two days talking about the work they might do during the remaining day. This is insanity. The problem isn't that meetings exist—it's that we've forgotten what they're actually for. Meetings should facilitate decisions, solve problems, or align understanding. Instead, they've become elaborate status update sessions where everyone reports what they're doing to everyone else, whether it's relevant or not. Here's a radical thought: What if we only held meetings when we actually needed to make a decision together? What if status updates happened through—wait for it—actual written status updates that people could read on their own time? I worked with a Perth-based marketing agency that implemented "meeting-free Mondays" and saw their project completion rate increase by 34% in the first quarter. Thirty-four percent! Just from giving people one uninterrupted day per week to actually work. ## The Feedback Loop That's Actually a Feedback Noose Let's address the elephant in the boardroom: feedback culture. Every organisation claims to have one. Most organisations have created elaborate feedback frameworks, 360-degree review processes, and "continuous improvement conversations." Here's the thing nobody wants to admit: Most workplace feedback is terrible. It's either so generic it's meaningless ("Great job on that project!") or so delayed it's irrelevant ("About that presentation three months ago..."). We've industrialised feedback to the point where it's lost any resemblance to actual human communication. [Personal recommendations](https://arabesqueguide.net/why-professional-development-courses-are-essential-for-career-growth/) for developing more effective feedback skills through structured training programs. The companies I've seen succeed at feedback do something radically simple: they give it immediately, specifically, and conversationally. Not through formal channels, not during scheduled review periods, but right when it matters. I remember working with a Sydney construction firm where the site supervisor would give feedback in real-time, often mid-task. "Mate, try angling that brace differently—see how it distributes the weight better?" Simple, immediate, actionable. No performance review required. ## The Digital Transformation That Forgot About Humans Here's another opinion that might be unpopular: Technology is making workplace communication worse, not better. I know, I know. We're supposed to celebrate how Slack and Teams and whatever other platform has "revolutionised" how we work. But have you actually tried to find important information in a Slack channel from three weeks ago? It's like archaeological excavation, except less organised. We've created these digital environments where information disappears into threads, conversations split across multiple platforms, and critical decisions get buried under GIF reactions and emoji responses. [More details at the website](https://www.imcosta.com.br/why-professional-development-courses-are-essential-for-career-growth/) about how traditional communication skills training can complement digital tools. Don't misunderstand me—technology can enhance communication. But it can't replace the fundamental human skills of listening, speaking clearly, and understanding context. When we use technology as a substitute for these skills, we end up with the digital equivalent of that childhood game "telephone"—messages getting progressively more distorted with each platform they pass through. ## The Cultural Disconnect That's Costing You Talent Here's something most leadership teams refuse to acknowledge: the way you communicate internally is exactly how your customers experience your brand externally. If your internal communications are confusing, delayed, and full of bureaucratic nonsense, guess what your customer experience looks like? If your team meetings are unproductive time-wasters, your customer service is probably equally frustrating. I've audited companies where the customer complaints and employee satisfaction surveys contained almost identical language. "Nobody tells us what's happening." "We get conflicting information from different departments." "It takes forever to get a straight answer." This isn't coincidence. It's cause and effect. Your communication culture cascades through everything your organisation does. Every interaction, every process, every customer touchpoint reflects the quality of your internal communication standards. The companies that understand this—really understand it—invest in communication skills the same way they invest in technical capabilities. They recognise that how people talk to each other directly impacts the bottom line. ## Where Most Communication Training Goes Wrong Now, here's where I'm going to criticise my own industry a bit. Most communication training is absolutely useless. I've sat through countless workshops that teach people to "use active listening techniques" and "employ mirroring strategies" as if human conversation were some kind of algorithmic process. This mechanical approach to communication completely misses the point. Real communication isn't about techniques—it's about genuine curiosity, authentic interest, and the willingness to be changed by what you hear. You can't workshop your way into caring about people. The training that actually works focuses on creating conditions where good communication can happen naturally. Psychological safety, clear expectations, shared purpose, and mutual respect. Everything else is just window dressing. ## The Simple Fix That Most Companies Ignore Want to know the fastest way to improve your organisation's communication? Stop communicating so much. Seriously. Most workplace communication problems stem from information overload, not information shortage. People are drowning in messages, updates, notifications, and "important announcements." In this environment, truly important information gets lost in the noise. What if instead of sending more emails, you sent fewer but better ones? What if instead of scheduling more meetings, you made the existing ones more purposeful? What if instead of creating more communication channels, you improved the ones you already have? I worked with a Melbourne-based software company that implemented "Communication Tuesdays"—one day per week when all non-urgent communication was batched and distributed together. Email volume dropped by 60%, but employee satisfaction with internal communication increased significantly. Less really can be more. ## The Bottom Line Here's what I've learned after watching hundreds of organisations struggle with communication: the problem is rarely technical, and the solution is rarely complicated. Good communication happens when people trust each other enough to be honest, care about each other enough to listen, and respect each other enough to be clear. Everything else—the platforms, the processes, the policies—should support these fundamentals, not replace them. Your communication isn't failing because you need better tools or more training. It's failing because you've forgotten that communication is fundamentally about human connection, not information transfer. Fix the human stuff first. The rest will follow. Most organisations have this backwards. They invest millions in communication technology and pennies in communication culture. Then they wonder why their expensive platforms feel like digital ghost towns and their team meetings feel like elaborate wastes of time. Start with trust. Build from there. Everything else is just noise. --- **Sources and Further Reading:** - [Read more here](https://mentorleader.bigcartel.com/blog) - [Other blogs](https://www.floreriaparis.cl/advice)