Less Chatter, More Matter: The Communications Podcast

#93 The 5 ways you're scaring your employees away from engaging with your communications

• Season 1 • Episode 93

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In this episode of Less Chatter, More Matter, we jump headfirst into the five common communication mistakes that often scare off audiences, particularly in internal communications.

Whether it’s townhalls that cause you to have a quick nap, or comms that you see minimal engagement on and maximum deletes - there are a tonne of mistakes we, as communicators, can make that often do the opposite of communicating to our audience: we scare them off.

With overly long messages, vague communication, corporate jargon, pointless communication, and boring content, we’ve got some practical tips on how to mitigate these issues. 

So, if you’ve ever seen a comms hit your inbox that made you want to quickly jump back into bed, you should listen in to learn how to keep your audience engaged and your messages effective.

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Mel:

Have you ever opened an email and involuntarily shrinked? Maybe rolled your eyes and thought, not today, and immediately ignored an email or snoozed your way through a town hall meeting. If any of this sounds familiar, sadly you are not alone. In the world of comms, there's five common mistakes being made that scare off your audience. And when that audience is your employees, that's not helpful for anyone. So! What are these five scare tactics and how do we avoid them? That's what today's episode is all about. Hi, friends, and welcome to another episode of Less Chatter, More Matter, the communications podcast. I'm your host, Mel Loy, and I'm recording this on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people here in Meanjin also known as Brisbane. Today's episode, well, we're going to tackle some of the ways communications failed to hit the mark, particularly with internal comms. And the reason we're having this chat is that, unfortunately, these mistakes keep happening. For some of us, we've simply gotten into bad habits. It happens after working in a role or profession for some time, or when you haven't got a fresh set of eyes or new blood on the team who can help you snap out of it. So this episode might be a refresher for you, or it could be an episode you want to gently pass on to someone else. There's no harm in trying, right? So let's get into it. The first way people tend to scare off their audiences through their comms is by those comms being way too long. Think about it. You've got an inbox that is already overflowing and you open up one of those unread emails and you have to scroll and scroll to get to the point. What's the chance that you will actually read it, if at all? I'd wager that chance is close to zero. And if it's close to zero for you, then the chances are probably close to zero for your audience too. It's not just the emails though, events like town halls or offsite meetings that go on for way too long without any real value in the content happen all the time. Or presentations that drone on and on before getting to the point or a podcast episode where they crap on for ages in the introduction before actually talking about the topic. The truth is we live in a world of information overload and not only do we lead Very busy lives, but layered on top of that is comms are coming at us relentlessly all day, every day from different angles, text messages, DMs in your socials, teams, messages, zoom meetings, newsletters, emails, et cetera, et cetera. Just think about a standard day in your work life. For me, I've got a few email accounts. I'm monitoring so I am writing and responding to messages. Then there's all the text messages, the DMS in my social media accounts, LinkedIn content, Teams messages, WhatsApp messages, zoom calls, teams meetings. And that's just one day. So a really long comms is going to be really unwelcome, if not completely unhelpful. So how do you make it shorter? I've covered a few tips in a previous episode where we talk about concise communication, but at a high level, here's a few ideas. Number one, have a structure. So for example, what, so what, now what? Because using a structure helps you get to the point more quickly and effectively. Number two, do not send the first thing you write. It is just a draft. Let it percolate, then come back later and you'll be able to hack it back to the core message. And on that, the third tip is to be very clear in your key message, put it up front, in short, get to the point. Okay. The next one that scares off anyone, especially anyone with a whiff of anxiety, which is pretty much everyone is being too vague. So imagine this, you're sitting at your desk, doing your work, minding your own business. And you get an email from your boss that just says, Do you have time for a quick chat today? Now for many, that innocuous statement sets off the panic button. Is this just a good, simple catch up to find out where everybody's up to? They need to ask you a question, or is this a performance management thing? What have I done wrong? And after politely replying that, yes, you do have five minutes, you then have to wait hours for that five minutes. And in the meantime, your anxiety has reached fever pitch and you've absolutely gotten no work done. Sound familiar? Or, maybe you've received an email from the CEO with some vague reference of how it's been a tough quarter so they'll be making some strategic changes. And that's it. Here comes old man anxiety again, rearing his ugly head and unleashing thoughts like, Does this mean a restructure? Am I going to lose my job? And it's not just the anxiety inducing vague comms that are the issue. It's also those comms where they're so vague, you're not sure if you're meant to do something or not - where the action isn't clear or the purpose of the comms isn't clear either. And oftentimes these are just thoughtless mistakes people make because like the audience, communicators are busy. They tend to just fire off emails and messages just to get them done off their plate without really thinking about how they're going to be received. So how do we combat this one? Well, number one, take a breath before you hit send, reread the

message and ask yourself:

if I were the person receiving this email or this message, how would I feel? Number two, test it with somebody else before you send it. Does it make sense to them? Number three, think of the context. What's in your head that nobody else knows. So for example, if you want to have a quick chat with someone, let them know why. Most of the time, it's usually something pretty mundane. Okay. So number three, and I know I bang on about this all the time, but there's a good reason for it. Corporate jargon is the worst. When you open an email and it is full of crap, like optimising our value or leveraging the synergies or programmatic specificity - of course you're going to be scaring people off! Because using that kind of language is just corporate fluff and people see right through it. Related to this is weasel words, which is when people use words or phrases that are intentionally ambiguous. So they use phrases like we believe that or there will possibly be. Or even the old experts say or research says, but they don't actually cite any research. And these words are used when communicators are fearful of getting it wrong. So they try to cover themselves by using less concrete language and avoiding specifics. Language like this is also used simply because it's become a habit. After years of working in corporates and being indoctrinated by jargon monoxide. So how do we combat it? Like any troubling behavior, the first step is self awareness. After you've written something, whether it's speaking notes, a presentation, or an email, go back through it with a highlighter and highlight all the jargon, corporate speak, and weasel words. And often that can be enough to get you thinking differently. Another tip, simply pop it into Google Gemini or Chat GPT if it's not confidential, of course, and ask it to rewrite it in plain English. See what comes back. It won't be perfect, but it will give you an idea of what you can change to make it clearer. And finally, imagine you're a 14 year old reading the same thing. Would they have any idea what you're on about because that's the level we should be writing to in order to reach 83 percent of our audience and jargon and corporate speak ain't going to cut it. Okay. Have you ever been included on an email and you don't know why? Or maybe you're sat in a meeting you've been invited to and thought it was a complete waste of your time. Or maybe you've received the fortnightly company newsletter, and there's nothing in there remotely of interest to you. Welcome to the fourth of the scare tactics, pointless communication. When things are not relevant, people do not see the value and they tune out. They stop reading that weekly email from the CEO, listening to that internal podcast, attending events. Reading the intranet news, et cetera, et cetera. And it's because, A, as we've already said, people are busy and they are overwhelmed with comms, so they have to decide where to best direct their attention. And B, it hasn't satisfied the WIIFM principle. What's in it for me? And unfortunately I see this a lot. Um, just recently I was asked if we could start a newsletter for a project in a client's business. And my answer was a flat no. Apart from the fact that it wasn't going to fill the gap of stakeholder engagement, which is really where the attention should be directed, it was also just going to be a pointless exercise because there is nothing to say. The project hasn't made any tangible progress that means anything to anyone outside of the project. Side note, the thing about newsletters is that you always have to have something interesting and relevant to say. You have to go through the reviews and approvals every time, and they're extremely time intensive for usually very little reward. Just don't do it if you can't commit to being relevant every single time, and if it's not reaching people effectively. Anyway, back to this, which is pointless comms. How do we mitigate this scary beast? Well, number one, be clear upfront, whether that's an email or a meeting invite, explain to people why they're receiving the comms or why they're being invited to an event or meeting. Be clear on the role you need them to play. Number two, personalize your comms for different audience segments. Jenny in finance doesn't need to know about the new contact center roster, and she probably doesn't care. And number three, if you're sending comms for the sake of comms, don't send the comms. Just rubbing a bit of comms on it isn't going to solve challenges like poor project management, lack of stakeholder engagement by the project's stream leads, lack of leadership capability. Often our efforts are best directed away from comms to other activity. Rounding out our top five scare tactics is the big one, Comms that are just plain boring. Examples include, but are not limited to, the talking head videos from executives where they just drone on and on for five minutes. Long presentations delivered in monotone or where the content is nothing new, just a rehash of previous statements or long webinars with zero interaction. And it's death by PowerPoint. Sound familiar? We've probably all snoozed our way through experiences like these at some point. And again, they fail to work as communication tactics because they don't cut through. People tune out. So it's unlikely they take away the key messages you're trying to get across. And if they've had a poor experience with that particular comms, they're unlikely to ever engage with it again. So how do we stop being boring? Well, number one, switch it up. If it's a video or a presentation or a webinar, change things up throughout. Add images, animations or interactive elements. Caution. Don't go too overboard. You don't want it to be chaotic. Number two, include interesting facts and figures and deliver them in interesting ways. You want people to have that light bulb moment or that aha moment that helps things stick. And number three, most importantly, use stories. Our brains are wired for it. Stories suck people in and keep them engaged. So rather than rattling off your five strategic goals or our vision statement, Tell a story that exemplifies those in action. At the end of the day, there's one core component that solves all of these scare tactics. And that is. Putting the audience at the centre of your communication. Every single one of these problems happens because the communicator hasn't put their audience hat on. They're not seeing it from their perspective, only their own. Okay, so it's time for your episode recap. So if you tuned out, time to come back in. Because today we tackled five ways your comms are scaring off your audience and how to mitigate some of those issues. The first scare tactic was too long and we fix it by keeping it short. And a good structure can help with that and make sure your key points are right up front. The second scare tactic was too vague. Vague language not only causes anxiety, but it creates a lack of clarity, meaning you're not getting your point across. So provide context where it's needed and be clear and specific. The third scare tactic was too many weasel words and corporate buzzwords and jargon. Nobody really speaks like that in real life. So start with recognizing where you're using this language and that can help you get out of the habit of using it. Also, try using AI to rewrite the comms in plain English. The fourth tactic was, it's too pointless. If it's not relevant, then why should people care? And if they don't care, they won't engage now or in the future. So don't communicate for the sake of communicating. Communicate when there's something to say. Be clear on why it's relevant for the audience and tailor the comms for different audience segments. There is no one size fits all approach. And the fifth scare tactic was, it's too boring. Our time is precious and our attention spans are limited. So if you bore us to death, we are out, we've got better things to do. Keep it interesting by using different media, including interactive elements and using storytelling. Okay. So that's all we've got time for on today's episode. Thanks so much for tuning in for another week. And of course you can always stay up to date with the latest of what's happening in the comms news by signing up for our fortnightly newsletter. It is a newsletter that actually works unlike many others. We currently have more than 1, 600 people on the mailing list and it has a really high open rate, so that tells me you guys are seeing value in it. So if you're up for what's the latest news, free resources, events that are coming up in the comms world, definitely sign up. That link is in the show notes. Other than that, keep doing amazing things and bye for now.