There’s something strange in the workplace… and it’s not just that unidentified lunch lurking at the back of the office fridge.
This Halloween, we’re shining a torch into the darkest corners of internal comms.
Because, hiding among the abandoned intranet pages and cobweb-covered campaign plans, some seriously spooky myths are still roaming free.
You know the ones – they appear in meetings, possess perfectly sensible strategies and send a chill down the spine of communicators everywhere.
- ‘We sent an email, so everyone knows.’
- ‘People don’t read long-form content.’
- ‘Let’s put it on every channel.’
Terrifying!
Fortunately, you don’t need proton packs, beige jumpsuits or a converted hearse to deal with them. You just need a little evidence, a lot of empathy and the courage to cross out a few tired assumptions.
Strap on your myth-busting backpack. We’re going in.
Myth one: ‘We sent an email, so everyone knows’
The oldest ghost in the comms graveyard.
The message was written and the button was pressed. The email left the building without bouncing back.
So that’s job done… right? Not quite.
Sending something is not the same as communicating it. Your email may have landed while someone was wrestling with a deadline, working away from a desk or staring into the abyss of 147 unread messages.
And even if they opened it, that doesn’t mean they understood it, remembered it or knew what to do next.
Busted!
Good communication needs more than delivery. It needs clarity, relevance and reinforcement.
Start with the outcome you need, then consider when and where your audience is most likely to pay attention. Use line managers, team conversations, visual prompts and timely reminders to support important messages.
Don’t ask, ‘Did we send it?’ Ask, ‘Did it land?’
Myth two: ‘More channels mean more engagement’
You’ve got an email, an intranet story, a Teams post, a digital screen, a newsletter, even carrier pigeon wearing a branded lanyard.
So surely one of them will work?
Republishing the same message everywhere can feel reassuringly busy, but activity isn’t the same as impact. When every channel carries everything, audiences stop knowing where to look and important messages become background noise.
Congratulations. You’ve created a content poltergeist. BOO!
Busted!
Each channel should have a job.
Perhaps your intranet is the home of detailed information, managers provide context and conversations, and chat platforms deliver quick prompts or updates.
Choose channels because they suit the audience and the message, not because they happen to exist.
Let’s stick to less haunting and more helping.
Myth three: ‘Professional communication has to sound serious’
Somewhere along the way, ‘professional’ became confused with boring.
We’ve all encountered copy like this:
‘Colleagues are hereby advised that the implementation of the aforementioned initiative will commence in due course.’
No human has ever said this out loud, not even during a séance.
Formal language can create distance, bury the point and make straightforward information feel horribly complicated.
Busted!
Professional communication can still sound warm, clear and human.
Use familiar words. Keep sentences manageable. Address people directly. And if there’s a simpler way to say something, use it.
This doesn’t mean treating serious subjects lightly. It means removing unnecessary fog so people can understand what matters.
Clarity isn’t unprofessional – confusion is.
Myth four: ‘People don’t read’
Really?
People devour group chats, news stories, reviews, football analysis, recipes and 3,000-word arguments about whether a film ending made sense.
People do read. They simply make choices about what deserves their attention.
If content feels irrelevant, confusing or suspiciously like three announcements stitched together beneath the headline ‘Important update’, they’ll drift away faster than a ghost through a locked door.
Busted!
People read content that rewards them for reading.
Give them a reason to care and make the value clear early. Break information into useful sections and remove anything that doesn’t serve the central message.
Long isn’t automatically bad, and short isn’t automatically good.
The right length is the length that helps your audience understand – and not one paragraph more.
Don’t be afraid of the myths
Comms myths survive because they’re convenient. They turn complicated human behaviour into reassuringly simple rules.
But people are busy, curious, distracted, emotional and gloriously unpredictable. Reaching them takes more than folklore.
So, the next time a spooky assumption floats into your planning meeting, don’t panic.
- Pause.
- Ask for evidence.
- Listen to your audience.
- Test your thinking.
And if someone says, ‘One email should be enough’…
Well, you know who to call. The comms myth-busters.
