The other day I found myself thinking about how differently organizations communicate.
Some teams love long, detailed proposals with every scenario mapped out. Others rely on slide decks, designed to tell a story quickly. Some live almost entirely in async threads and comment chains.
And I remembered a conversation from years ago, someone saying they found their company’s communication style ineffective, that this other way was so much better. I remember nodding along, maybe even quietly agreeing that yes, our way wasn’t great, but what could you do?
That was some years ago.
Since then, I’ve changed my mind.
I still think certain modes of communication work better for certain kinds of information. But I don’t believe any one of them is inherently better. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. When a company develops a default way of sharing ideas, that doesn’t happen by accident. It says something about what the organization values, how decisions are made, and what kind of people thrive there.
There’s a lot you can learn from that, if you’re paying attention.
And more importantly: if you want to be effective in that environment, it’s on you to get good at communicating that way. Not to surrender to it grudgingly, but to recognize that there’s a shared language here, a shorthand everyone understands, and if you can speak it fluently, you’ll get a lot farther.
That doesn’t mean you have to abandon your own preferences. If you think best in detailed docs, write the doc. But when it’s time to present your thinking, translate it into the form people expect. If your execs want slides, make good slides. If your team thrives in async threads, learn to write tight, scannable posts that keep momentum going.
The point is: communicate in the way that helps your message land.
Trying to change how an entire organization communicates is a massive undertaking. It’s tempting, especially when you’re convinced your way is more efficient or clearer, but change like that requires deep alignment, trust, and timing. Without that, it’s just friction.
And in most cases, there are bigger, more meaningful problems to solve than the format your ideas take.
So these days, I try to observe how people share information before worrying about what they’re sharing. Every organization has a communication culture, and the fastest way to be effective is to learn its language first.
Later, once you’ve earned trust and built credibility, maybe you can help evolve it. But you can’t skip the first step, learning the lay of the land.
Because ultimately, good communication isn’t about your personal preference. It’s about connection, understanding, and getting things done together.
What I like remind myself is: the onus is always on you to be understood, not on others to understand you.