There’s a point where communication stops being helpful and starts becoming background noise, usually happening with the best of intentions. Leaders want to keep people informed, project teams want to be transparent, or departments want to show progress. But without a clear structure or shared strategy, the volume starts to climb and clarity fades.
People don’t ignore messages because they don’t care, they tune out because they can’t tell what matters. When updates come from every direction without coordination (email, chat, intranet, meetings) it creates a mental filter where employees begin scanning for anything urgent and quietly dismiss the rest. What was meant to increase clarity ends up creating fatigue.
Overcommunication is rarely about too much information, it’s more about a lack of prioritization. When every message is marked as important, none of them are, and when updates are too frequent, too long, or too vague, employees learn to protect their attention by disengaging.
Stronger communication discipline solves this. That means defining what each channel is for, assigning ownership to message types, and limiting repetition to only what supports shared understanding. It also means writing with purpose, naming what someone needs to know, what they need to do, and why it matters in the context of their role.
When communication starts to feel noisy, it’s not a sign to go quiet, it’s a cue to recalibrate. With a few intentional shifts, even complex organizations can return to clarity, without losing transparency.