How to Improve Understanding and Empathy with an Organisation Communication Plan
How often have you seen something 'important' shared once and never heard about again? To achieve change, you must communicate intentionally and not be afraid to repeat the message.

It can be easy to fall into the trap of doing something, communicating it once, and then mentally crossing ‘communication’ off your mental checklist for that piece of work. The trouble is, this is seldom enough communication. I often observe people at all levels of an organisation struggling with a lack of support and alignment resulting from insufficient communication. They might say ‘they don’t have time’ to do more if you ask them about it. And yet they struggle, wasting weeks, months, or even longer because of resistance or apathy in getting the support needed to make progress.
What does it take for a message to be understood and paid attention?
It's important to empathise and put yourself in your audience's shoes. How often have you experienced a communique, such as reading an email newsletter or attending an all-hands meeting, and successfully digested and comprehended everything communicated?
We collect different levels of detail based on our interests, degree of focus, distractions, and whatever else is happening with us. We may take away a completely different message than the one intended.
My experience over my career in communicating effectively:
A message repeated five times in various channels across a time window will successfully convey its meaning to 80% of the audience.
Why will a message not reach everyone, even with repetition?
First, for transparency, the choice of ‘5 times’ is arbitrary — although from experience, more than that appears to have diminishing returns, and less often is inadequate — my reasoning for choosing 5 was also to support repeating multiple times in a primary channel (the primary channel being whatever channel was best fit for that message - I share examples of channels and what sorts of messages they best suit further down) and a few more times in other channels that might reach people who responded better to different formats of receiving information. Some people prefer aural, others prefer reading, etc.
Furthermore, this approach encourages repetition, allowing individuals to hear the same message at various times and in different contexts. Repetition can enhance understanding and bolster its credibility. When we hear something only once, we naturally question its authenticity and momentum; it may simply be a statement that fades away, stifled by its own lack of support.
Why only 80% of the audience? Well, for starters, it’s a punchline, i.e. we’d do all that effort, and it only reached 80% of the people! But it also highlights an important point. In modern organisations where there are a lot of communication channels and a lot of communication, the proportion of messages that reach the relevant audience and are understood by that audience in a way that inspires action is often far less. In part, it is related to how people’s attention naturally works. People assess and filter information based on relevance and perceived legitimacy to avoid being overwhelmed by the noise. It reminds us that we do not entirely control how messages are received. We can only control the message we put out, how often we repeat it and the form it takes.
A message repeated five times in various channels across a time window will successfully convey its meaning to 80% of the audience. You can read more on why this may be here:
What you need to know… about The Curve of Forgetting
What is it?medium.com
Another strength of repetition is that it aids legitimacy. People's belief that something is concrete and reflects a change that could affect them positively or negatively is influenced by how concrete they deem something to be.
Unfortunately, it's too common in organisations for people to hear about something with grand claims only for it to fall short of expectations or never be heard of again! If you are making a significant investment in an effort to make a positive change, then match this with a significant investment in communication.
But how can everyone understand my message if I can’t reach all, even with repetition?
It’s helpful to acknowledge the complexity of communication and acknowledge comprehension is never a faithful facsimile. This can inform how you approach communications. Understanding is complex and is influenced by what each individual brings to the table. This is particularly true at the point of communication, even when repeating a key message. Still, there is always a point where further repetition in the near term may not be worth the effort because of diminishing returns.
Of course, there may be a need to repeat a message further in the future as essential information slips from the forefront of the group’s thinking. Not all is lost, though. If you reach most of the group, the message will likely land with the remainder over time via their peers as ideas become actions and through their own repetition.
Using Communication planning to improve communication effectiveness
An approach I used, which I called ‘Communication Planning’, was designed to be more intentional about the required communication activities. This helped to ensure we were investing enough time and consideration in our communications efforts to be adequate for broad understanding across the organisation. To achieve this, we strived to ensure:
The organisation’s communication infrastructure makes it easier for everyone responsible for creating a change to communicate it successfully.
Each change we are responsible for is communicated clearly and thoughtfully and is repeated in multiple channels.
Those responsible for leading change know the communication infrastructure and are disciplined in using it.
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