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Andrea Greenhous is the founder of Vision2Voice, an internal communications agency that helps global organizations grow, navigate change and improve performance.
Across Canada, business leaders face immense pressure to meet revenue and growth targets amid economic uncertainty, rising costs and geopolitical instability. Boards are demanding results and investors expect higher returns. Leaders are focused on artificial intelligence, automation, technology and capital investment as the path to greater performance, and rightly so. These investments have the potential to transform how work gets done.
But amid all of this responsibility they often overlook a critical aspect of the performance equation: people. And right now, people are being held back by information overload, which is taxing productivity and performance.
I recently spent a day with a leadership team at their executive summit. They invited me to lead a workshop as they prepared for a period of significant transformation. What struck me was the weight these leaders were carrying. Their days were filled with back-to-back meetings, overflowing inboxes and competing priorities. They were trying to solve complex engineering problems, respond to market pressures, support their teams and somehow find time to think strategically. Every conversation seemed to end with the same phrase: “There just isn’t enough time.”
After the workshop, I began thinking about how much productive capacity organizations might be losing simply because people are overwhelmed.
Sadly, it was easy to come up with the data to quantify this problem:
- The world creates 403 million terabytes of data every day. (Statista)
- Thirty-eight per cent of employees say they receive an excessive volume of information. (Gartner)
- An employee wastes three hours and 27 minutes a week dealing with information burden (Harvard Business Review)
In my work as a communication professional, I see many organizations respond to this challenge by decreasing and even eliminating communication – fewer all-hands meetings, the newsletter reduced from monthly to quarterly and emails only sent on a need-to-know basis.
But the problem isn’t the amount of information. In fact, when we conduct internal communications audits for organizations, we often hear that while employees are overwhelmed with messages, they are starved for information and meaning. This is the paradox leaders need to understand: employees aren’t receiving too much information; they are overwhelmed by communication that lacks clarity, relevance and purpose.
Reducing information overload and cutting the productivity tax requires communication expertise. It takes skilled communication professionals to help employees cut through the noise and focus on what matters most. It takes communication that is grounded in an understanding of human attention and the neuroscience of how people process information.
Here are five ways to start:
Establish communication norms: Our brains perform best when expectations are clear. We’ve helped organizations create clear guidelines around ways of working and communicating. For one tech company, we created an infographic that clarified when to use Slack, email and Zoom, with tips and best practices for each platform. These create consistency, reduce cognitive load, minimize interruptions and help employees spend more time on deep, meaningful work.
Think quality over quantity: Organizations are operating at lightning speed, and generative AI can produce content in seconds. But just because we can communicate more doesn’t mean we should. Clear, concise and meaningful communication takes thought. As Blaise Pascal famously wrote, “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” Take the time to distill your message. A few minutes spent editing for clarity can save hundreds of employee hours of confusion and unnecessary work.
Communicate for the brain: Attention has become one of the scarcest resources in today’s workplace. That’s why leaders need to understand the science of how people process information and remember information. In my workshop with the engineering leadership team, I began by sharing some of the neuroscience behind effective communication. For example, stories are up to 22 times more memorable than facts alone because they activate multiple regions of the brain.
Create clarity: One of the most valuable things leaders can do is help employees understand what matters most. When everything is important, nothing is important. Strategic communication creates clarity by reinforcing priorities, connecting day-to-day work to organizational goals and defining the mindsets and behaviours needed for success. We worked with one municipality on a journey to improve service to residents. Our strategy made sure that every communication reinforced a single idea: how each employee could contribute to delivering a better experience for residents.
Make technology your friend: Intranets play a central role in an organization’s communication ecosystem. In many cases, these critical information sources are dumping grounds for outdated files and broken links. Ownership is often unclear and employees struggle to find what they need. Yet, with the right investment in technology, governance and expertise, a modern intranet can become a personalized, AI-ready digital workplace that helps employees quickly find trusted information.
There are no easy solutions to the productivity tax created by information overload and the pressure of today’s business environment but, unlike most taxes, this is one that leaders can reduce. In the AI age, the competitive advantage won’t belong to organizations that communicate more; it will belong to those who create the greatest clarity.
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab.