Flyover Festival 2026 is sold out
Every seat for August 27 is claimed. The waitlist is now the only way in, and here's how it works.
The Dinner Test: Chipotle's COO Picks Leaders Over a Meal
Three or four employees, 90 minutes, one night a week. Chipotle's COO spots his next leaders over dinner, which works fine until you count everyone who never gets the invitation.
Should internal comms have an SLA?
We didn't have the answer, so we made it the question. At a recent ICology Campfire, communicators worked through whether internal comms should have an SLA. Here's the recap, the reframe that surprised us, and a prompt to build your own.
The Judgment Gap: Why AI Job Cuts Are Reversing
Half the AI-driven job cuts are already reversing, and the reason exposes what AI still can't do. Jenni and I get into the judgment gap on Episode 67.
The entrepreneurial playbook for communicators
A vendor, an agency owner and a practitioner walk into the same conversation. All three ended up running companies. On August 20, they get specific about what that teaches you about doing comms.
Rules for Thee: The Cofounder Fired by His Own RTO Mandate
A cofounder signed the return-to-office order, ignored it, and got fired for it. The office policy is the least interesting part of what this reveals about leadership.
The Empathy Tax: A Day a Week as Unofficial Therapist
Harvard says most women managers now lose a day a week to unpaid emotional labour. We get into the empathy tax, where the boundary sits, and why "care more" is bad advice.
Engaged but Trapped: Why Engagement Scores Lie
Three-quarters of your people are engaged. A third of them are quietly predicting a toxic culture. Episode 64 of Frequency digs into the engagement fallacy, the ROI of AI layoffs, and companies going quiet on LGBTQ+ support.
27% to 22%: The Manager Engagement Cliff
Engagement fell to 20% and managers are now no more engaged than their teams. Jenni and Chuck ask the question Gallup won't: what is the number even supposed to be?
Better listening or better watching? Employees can tell
The trend reports want you to measure sentiment in real time. Your employees call that being watched. Both are describing the same tool.
Why most video interviews fall flat: 10 tips to fix it
The interview is where a video lives or dies. On Lights, Camera, Communicate, filmmaker Rocky Walls broke down how he gets real answers on camera: the pre-interview that kills the talking-points request, the three things he listens for, and how to know if you even need video.
Headphones at Work: Judged for a story you didn't write
Coworkers don't judge your music. They judge the story they've written about why you're wearing headphones, and the penalty sticks even when you're focused.
Only 4% of managers can pass your message down
More than half of communicators say manager communication is their top focus this year. Only 4% think managers are any good at it. The gap isn't a manager problem.
Outsourced thought leadership isn't thought. Or leadership.
Those wise LinkedIn leadership posts? Often written by a virtual assistant making $7 an hour, applauded by fake commenters. When authenticity becomes the rarest skill at work.
Nobody wrote the AI rules your employees are breaking
Your employees are pasting company data into AI tools and guessing whether it's allowed, because nobody told them. That's not a discipline problem. It's a communication vacuum, and it has your name on it.
The layoff memo blames AI. The data doesn't.
Gartner found companies cut jobs at the same rate whether AI delivered returns or not. If you're writing the layoff memo, that data is your leverage.
Empowerment is just dependence with better branding
Job descriptions promise autonomy, leaders praise their empowered teams, and every real decision still needs a sign-off. The gap between responsibility and authorship is where ownership quietly dies.
Your intranet has a business case. Most people haven't built it yet.
Budget isn't being denied because your intranet lacks features. It's being denied because most IC teams are making the wrong argument to the wrong people. Here's what to do instead.
What your employees really think of your communications
New research from Axios HQ puts a number on something most internal communicators already suspect: leaders and employees are experiencing the organization differently. 27% of leaders believe their employees are fully aligned with organizational goals. 9% of employees agree. Chuck Gose and Jenni Field dig into what the data means — and whether "improving communication" is still the honest answer.
Your culture video might be making things worse
A culture video won't fix a culture problem. But video, done right, can surface what's real, close the gap between leadership and employees, and show culture in ways that words on a wall never will.

