Neil Butler
30 March 2026
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We’ve all been there – a program of work is being completed and there are email messages being sent as part of the “comms plan” to ensure that everyone knows how they will be impacted.
As someone wise, once said “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”.
In our context, this might be better stated as “you can send as many email messages as you like but you can’t guarantee they’ll be read”.
This is why in our world, we don’t have a comms team. We have an engagement team.
What’s the difference, I hear you ask.
Communication should be a two-way activity but, regrettably, in most corporate / organisational circumstances, it translates to sending emails or posting information on the intranet. That is one-way messaging and doesn’t guarantee that a message has been received much less read and understood. This is the equivalent of printing a whole lot of brochures and sticking in letterboxes with the other junk mail, hoping someone might read it.
Engagement, on the other hand, is about a relationship. Engagement is building channels that not only impart knowledge but provide opportunities for the recipient of that knowledge to respond and participate in a relationship.
This is such a fundamental distinction – and a critical component of a successful change / transformation program – and yet, it seems, that “sending out the comms” is seen as acceptable.
If you would like to engage with us, then you have plenty of options – follow us on social media, send us an email via our contact page, message us via LinkedIn, invite us in for coffee … we love engagement and hope you will too!
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