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.
How to read the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Workplace Experience Applications if you're a communicator
The 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Workplace Experience Applications lives in facilities and IT. But as companies rewrite return-to-office policies, the physical office experience is landing squarely in communicators' laps — and several vendors on this report will already look familiar.
Howe To: Win the Strategic Global Awards
Greg Howe won Internal Engagement Campaign of the Year at the inaugural Strategic Global Awards in Brussels. Judges called it "a masterclass in translating strategic intent into measurable business impact." Here's his full nomination submission, word for word, plus the planning framework he used to pull it off.
94% say internal comms is respected; only 30% can prove its working
Oak Engage surveyed 250 IC and HR professionals. 94% feel respected. Only 30% can prove their work is making a difference. Those numbers don't point to a measurement problem — they point to a positioning one.
Stop calling us strategic advisors
The 40-point performance gap between organizations that invested in communication tools and training and those that didn't isn't a culture story. It's an execution story — and it has an org chart problem at its center.
Better Signals, Less Noise: Join the Expert Panel on June 23
The Korbyt + Reworked research is in: employees aren't overwhelmed by volume, they're disengaged by irrelevance. A live expert panel on June 23 breaks down what the data means and what communicators should do next.
The room block for Flyover Festival is open
The room block for Flyover Festival is open. Here's where to stay and how to book before the July 27 cutoff.
Unscripted culture: why your values video isn't working (and what to do instead)
Culture storytelling is one of the hardest things to get right on camera. Not because it's technically difficult, but because most of us are filming the wrong thing.

