What's Lego got to do with internal communications?

How are you keeping it simple?

Hi there, I hope you’re all well. I still can’t believe that it’s nearly December… (although listening to the radio, and the number of times I’ve heard Mariah Carey letting me know that all she wants for Christmas is me, you’d never have guessed it!). With only five weeks to go, this is one of the most exciting times of the year for Internal Communications.

The end of an era…

Last Friday, I ‘officially’ stepped back from my role as chair at the local swimming club, something I’ve been involved with for well over six years now. In November, we hold our AGM and presentation evening, where we celebrate the swimmers and their successes in the year. It's so rewarding to give something back to the community, and as I look back on my time as chair, while it was hard work (managing pool closures, local councils and covid to name a few) the benefits of helping out far outweighed the negatives!

Anyway, enough about me, let’s get onto this week’s focus… (which was something I mentioned in a previous newsletter)… how are you simplifying your internal communications?

Keep it simple!

I think it’d be fair to say that we live in a world that is overflowing with information, different sources of truth, and so many ways to consume information. It’s all too easy for messages to get lost when being shared amongst the ‘noise’ of other information that’s flowing around – so how do you make sure your message is getting through?  

Simplicity is your friend…

Putting it bluntly, if your most important message is going to succeed, it needs to cut through the noise and land - simple will always win.

I’m not saying that simplicity is about dumbing a message down, not at all. Simplicity is about refining your message and making it impactful so it can land in the right way (and ultimately so people know what action they need to take).

So, let’s get down to this week’s focus – how do can you simplify your message? 

Here are my three tips that can help you on your way…

1: Cut out the noise:

When I speak to some organisations, they are confused as to why the really important message didn’t land in the right way. When delving a little deeper, while on paper they may have done all the right things… one thing they’ve not done is kept the other noise down!

When getting to the bottom of why the message didn’t land, I found out that the key message was sat in amongst another 15 messages that week, with many of them vying for attention too.  

While I know this may not be possible, keep your important message (the one that really needs to land) separate… give it space, and explain why it’s going out separately, so people understand that this is a big deal.

“Give your message space, and explain why it’s going out separately”

2: Give it the Lego treatment…

It’s been a while since I built a Lego set (stay with me here), but I believe that Lego do a fantastic job of sharing a complex message.

A spaceship, castle or (my personal favourite) the Ewok village – if you’ve ever had a Lego set, it’s 99.9% likely that you followed their step-by-step instructions.

Keep it visual:

Lego relies on images instead of lengthy explanations about how to make the set. 

Why not use a video to share your message?

Easy to follow:  

Each step builds on the previous one, going slowly and avoiding too much detail, the message is broken down.

How can you create a quick guide that explains things in a little more detail, and takes things one step at a time?

Accessible to all:

Their instructions transcend language barriers, there is no need for words – because they are so easy to follow. (Did you know that Lego also provide audio and Braille instructions too?)

Can you hold a Q&A session for colleagues to ask questions and understand more?

It’d be fair to say that Lego make what can be a very complex task (have you tried to make the Millennium Falcon out of Lego?) into a simple, and enjoyable experience.

That’s the power of simplicity.

3: Check you’ve hit the spot:

Stepping away from the Lego example for one moment… how do you check for understanding?

Where possible share your message with someone who has never seen or heard about your message. This is a sure-fire way to see if it works. If they can’t understand it, then there’s more work to do.

Fancy saving some money? – read on…

Years ago, I was part of a communication team that did some work on simplifying key messages for colleagues in retail. Without going into too much detail, simplicity was key, and it all came back to saving money…

While at first it meant spending much more time to finesse the message, boy was it worth it… it led to some big wins:

Fast decision making (people didn’t need to read pages and pages of notes - things were clear)

More engagement, people were not spending hours trying to understand a complex document, instead they got it, and could engage with that they needed to do far quicker.

Clarity means less errors: if it’s clear, there can be no misunderstandings, and the job gets done right first time.

All of this means that you’re not spending hours trying to read a document and make sense of it, which ultimately leads to a saving in time (especially in retail where a three minute saving in 300+ stores adds up to a lot of money!)

In summary:

Simplification can be difficult, but the benefits are huge!

Next time you create a communication, ask yourself:

• Is this as simple as it can be? 
• How can I get the message over in a visual way?
• Will everyone I need to communicate to understand this?

Want to know more?

While it’s getting close to the festive period, there’s still time to work on your internal communication plans for 2025… If you're still struggling to get it sorted get in touch, it’d be great to hear from you.

Thanks, and speak next week

Dave