Stop broadcasting.
Start connecting. 

Why ‘old-school’ internal comms has to die
Lee Smith

Minutes
12th August 2025
People-First Internal Comms
Human centred
Employee experience

IC Pros...do you recognise this?

You’re in a meeting about an upcoming project, policy change, or looming transformation programme. The conversation’s nearly over when someone turns to you and says those dreaded words:

“Can you send an email about it?”

Not:
👥 “How can we get people genuinely on board with this?”
✨“What can we do so people feel part of this, not just told about it?”
💡 “How can we make this resonate with people?”

Just: “Send an email.”  

You know how the story goes.
The email gets sent.
Open rates are… meh.
Employees still don’t understand, care, or act.
Leaders say “We told them.”

Somehow, that’s on you.
The real problem isn’t the email
An email is just a channel.
The fact you’re still being asked for one — as the primary solution — is a symptom of a much deeper issue:

  • We’re being seen as a tactical delivery service, not a strategic partner.
  • Internal communication is treated as a distribution function, not a driver of understanding or change.
  • All too often we’re brought in at the end of the process, not the beginning — when it’s too late to influence thinking or approach.


This isn’t just frustrating. It’s exhausting.
Because no matter how brilliantly crafted your words, you can’t make up for a lack of clarity, alignment, or planning upstream.

Why this keeps happening
It’s not because leaders don’t value communication. It’s because of how they’ve been taught to see it. 

For years, IC has been positioned around channels and outputs: newsletters, intranets, all-staff emails. We’ve quietly become the SOS function – all about ‘sending stuff out’ – and today it’s more common to be measured on how much we produce, rather than what changes as a result.

So when a leader thinks “we need to tell people”, their mental shortcut is: email.

The result? We become human mail merges. The ones who “get the word out” — without ever being asked if the word should go out in the first place.

Enter People-First Internal Communication (PFIC)
People-First Internal Communication flips this on its head. Instead of starting with “what do we want to tell them?”, PFIC starts with:

  • Who needs to know, feel or do something differently?
  • What is their reality right now?
  • How can we design the experience so it resonates, sticks, and prompts action?


It’s a shift from output to outcome. From “announce and hope” to “design and deliver with purpose”.

When you work this way:

  • You stop being the email person.
  • You become the trusted advisor leaders seek out early.
  • You create communication that works — because it’s built around people, not just information.

What changes with PFIC
Here's how the shift plays out in practice:

Old School IC
"Send an email"
One-size-fits-all broadcasts
Success = clicks and opens
Comms as an afterthought

People-First IC
"Help us design a conversation"
Targeted, relevant experiences
Success = behaviour change & impact
Comms as a strategic enabler

This is about more than comms
PFIC isn’t just a set of tactics — it’s a mindset and a professional identity shift. It’s about moving from messenger to meaning-maker.

You’re no longer just passing on decisions — you’re informing them and shaping how they’re experienced. You’re helping leaders think differently about their people, building understanding and trust, and creating the conditions for change to succeed.

Ready to stop being the “email person”?

With PFIC, you can:

✅ Shift from delivering messages to designing meaningful experiences.
✅ Be invited into the conversation at the start — not tagged in at the end.
✅ Earn the credibility and influence to shape decisions, not just announce them.

This isn’t about rejecting email — it’s about rejecting the idea that email is communication done and dusted.

Join the People-First IC Movement

We’re on a mission to help communicators break free from the outdated, broadcast-first mindset that reduces our work to a stream of announcements.

  • People-First Internal Communication is about:
  • Understanding people deeply.
  • Designing communication that moves them.
  • Measuring success by real-world change, not message volume.


Read the upcoming Kogan Page book (landing December 2025 – available for pre-orders now via Kogan Page.  Use the tools. 🌍 Join the community. 👉 Be part of the PFIC Movement