Internal communications not what they should be? You often hear staff in businesses complain about being left out of the loop. The larger the business, the more the expectation is that, depending on where you are in the food chain, you may or may not be privy to information.
This is the reality facing organisations across Australia and globally. When internal communications break down, the consequences ripple through every aspect of business performance. Teams become disconnected, innovation stalls, and the collective potential of your people remains locked away behind artificial barriers that have nothing to do with protecting genuine business secrets.
The Hidden Crisis in Internal Communications
The assumption most make here is that, well, there are secrets that are necessary within any business, and privileged information is not for all. This assumption drives how we structure our internal communications strategies, how we determine who gets access to what information, and ultimately, how we limit the potential of our greatest asset – our people.
Traditional internal communications approaches focus on protecting strategic information, financial data, and operational plans. While this protective instinct makes sense for genuinely sensitive information, it creates an unintended consequence that most business leaders fail to recognise. In our efforts to protect traditional business secrets, we simultaneously bury our most powerful competitive advantages.
The real crisis isn’t about what information we’re protecting. It’s about what information we’re failing to share – the human stories, unique insights, and hidden expertise that exist within our own teams. These aren’t strategic plans or financial projections. They’re the lived experiences, diverse backgrounds, and individual brilliance that make each team member valuable beyond their job description.
The People Paradox: Your Biggest Secrets Shouldn’t Be Secret
Here’s where the paradox becomes clear. The biggest secrets in your business aren’t locked away in boardroom discussions or encrypted files. They’re sitting in plain sight, carried by every person who walks through your doors each day. Yet these are the very secrets we keep most effectively, often without realising we’re doing it.
It’s all about the people; they are too often the secrets that are kept, that bring up the barriers and create problems. This isn’t about intentional withholding of information. It’s about the systematic failure to create platforms where these human stories can be shared, where connections can be made, and where the full value of each individual can be realised by the broader organisation.
Whether a team member is new or they have been there for decades, we need (not want) to know:
Who are they? Not just their name and job title, but their journey, their experiences, the path that led them to this moment in your organisation.
Where did they come from? What industries, roles, countries, or life experiences have shaped their perspective and built their unique approach to problem-solving?
What is their unique insight and power of brilliance? What knowledge, skills, or perspectives do they possess that could benefit the entire organisation if only the right people knew to ask?
The Scale Problem in Modern Organisations
When you have a business with 100+ employees (or perhaps you will be running an event with 100s or 1000s attending), not everyone likely knows each other. This isn’t a criticism of organisational design – it’s a mathematical reality. As businesses grow, the natural connections that form in smaller teams become harder to maintain. The informal conversations that once revealed surprising connections between team members become less frequent. The casual insights that sparked innovative solutions become isolated within departments.
The traditional response to this challenge has been to create more structured internal communications – regular team meetings, company-wide updates, digital collaboration platforms. While these tools serve important functions, they rarely address the fundamental need to understand the human beings behind the job titles.
Once you create the platform to share stories, values and insights, the broader team see what the individual brings, and that opens up lots of possibilities. This isn’t about forced team-building exercises or artificial connection activities. It’s about creating genuine opportunities for authentic sharing that reveals the hidden value within your existing team.
The Independent Host Solution: Why Internal Resources Fail
In a recent episode of Podcasts Done For You The Show, I spoke about the value of an independent person hosting a podcast for your business to unlock the secrets that will drive your business forward. This isn’t a theoretical concept – it’s a practical solution to a real problem that affects organisations of all sizes and industries.
The challenge with using internal resources for this type of storytelling initiative is fundamental and unavoidable. Internal team members, regardless of their communication skills or intentions, carry inherent biases based on their position within the organisation. They know the office politics, the historical conflicts, the unspoken hierarchies, and the sensitive topics that shape how information flows through the business.
Using an internal resource means they are restricted before they begin, combined with a bias based on where they sit in the organisation, you have a recipe for failure. The internal host might avoid certain topics because they know it will upset a particular manager. They might steer conversations away from certain individuals because of past conflicts. They might unconsciously reinforce existing hierarchies by focusing only on stories from senior team members.
An independent host brings neutrality that cannot be replicated internally. They don’t carry the baggage of office politics or historical conflicts. They can ask questions that internal team members might avoid. They can create a safe space where team members feel comfortable sharing authentic stories without worrying about professional repercussions.
The Hidden Gems Within Your Organisation
There are so many hidden gems in a business, best kept secrets, that have the power to unlock not only a more harmonious business, but they can also create new opportunities. These hidden gems aren’t buried treasure – they’re the untapped potential that exists within your existing team.
Consider the sales representative who spent years working in a completely different industry before joining your organisation. Their previous experience might provide insights into customer behaviour that your marketing team has never considered. Or the administrative assistant whose volunteer work has given them deep understanding of community engagement that could transform your customer service approach.
These aren’t hypothetical examples – they’re the reality that exists within every organisation. The question isn’t whether these hidden gems exist in your business. The question is whether you’re creating the right conditions to discover and leverage them.
When you know more about someone, you are more willing to share, and who knows what possibilities could be unearthed. This creates a positive feedback loop where initial sharing leads to deeper connections, which leads to more sharing, which leads to unexpected discoveries and innovations.
The Cost of Inaction
Every day you choose not to act is a day when the team effort is not what it should be, and the idea that improves team performance is left behind. This isn’t about dramatic overnight transformations or revolutionary new strategies. It’s about the gradual accumulation of missed opportunities, unexplored connections, and untapped potential.
The cost of maintaining current internal communications approaches isn’t measured in failed projects or missed targets – it’s measured in the quiet erosion of team cohesion, the gradual decline in innovation, and the slow but steady loss of the human connections that make organisations truly great.
Moving Forward: The Simple Next Step
The solution isn’t complex. It doesn’t require new software, extensive training programs, or disruptive organisational changes. It requires only the recognition that your team’s stories are your most valuable untapped resource, and the decision to create a platform where those stories can be shared authentically.
The biggest business secret isn’t what you think. It’s not locked away in strategic plans or financial projections. It’s sitting in the experiences, insights, and stories of the people who make your organisation possible. And it shouldn’t be secret at all.
Every day you choose not to act is a day when the team effort is not what it should be, and the idea that improves team performance is left behind.
