Dwight vs Michael
You can’t make people feel seen without adding a little humanity. And you can’t expect emotional engagement from a message that was written to avoid it.
If you've been following me, you've probably heard that I coach my son's Little League's team.
A big part of that role is to communicate effectively with parents and guardians using several channels, including a Little League app, email, and social media.
The other night, I had to cancel practice because of rain. I could’ve just written, “Tonight’s practice is cancelled due to rain.” It’s clear. No room for confusion. Nobody shows up. Mission accomplished.
But when I do that, I usually get… crickets. No replies. No reactions. Just silence. And that breaks my corporate communicator's heart. So this time I wrote:
“Hi, team! Unfortunately, we won’t be able to practice tonight because of rain. Please practice throwing and catching at home if you can, and we’ll see you Saturday for our next game. Let's go, team!”
And guess what happened?
“Thanks, coach!”
“Will do!”
“Go, team!!”
A flood of comments, likes, and even a GIF or two showed up in my feed.
Same basic message. Totally different tone. And a much stronger sense of connection.
That got me thinking about corporate communications.
Less > More?
In our world, we love to say “less is more." And yes, sometimes that’s absolutely true, but some people take it to the extreme.
Remember that episode of The Office where Dwight plans a birthday party for Kelly and hangs a banner that just says:
“It is your birthday.”
When Jim calls it out, he shrugs and says, “It’s a statement of fact.”
That’s what a lot of corporate comms sounds like when we strip all the tone and emotion out of it.
On the other side, we have the "Michael Scotts" of the world who start adding fluff to their messages and just hope they land in good place:
TL'DR: There’s no one-size-fits-all in comms. The magic is in choosing the right voice for the right moment.
There's no one size fits all
Don't get me wrong. I appreciate a message that follows the 7 C's of communication and I'm not encouraging you to sugar coat everything you are working on. But, there are nuances and sometimes it's better to use more words and emotion instead of just a dry "statement of fact" message.
If you’re rolling out a training requirement, announcing a policy change, or sending a legal hold, you need to be short, clear, and to the point. No emotion. No fluff. Just tell people what they need to know and do.
But if you’re sharing important news, recognizing someone’s work, or inviting people to engage, then just the facts won’t cut it. People need tone. They need context. They need emotion. They need to feel like there’s a real person behind the message, not just a corporate bot.
Humans communicate with humans. You can’t make people feel seen without adding a little humanity. And you can’t expect emotional engagement from a message that was written to avoid it.
The trick is knowing what you’re optimizing for:
Action? Be efficient.
Connection? Be human.
Both? Lead with clarity, land with care.
More importantly, don't try to add emotion and tons of sugar on something that is meant to be transactional, and vice versa. If you do so, you are going to confuse your audience and people won't appreciate it.
Trust me on that one.