Hey there, I'm Devin!
Most of the time you can catch me deep in the world of internal comms at Workshop (yes, the Happy Mondays folks!), and while I love AI, there are just some comms questions that need a human who really gets it… that’s me!
Hey Devin — I’m the internal communications person for our Customer Experience department, and I’m trying to figure out how to effectively communicate to our leaders. They’re already receiving so many communications outside of what I send — from their associates, general leadership messages, you name it. I want to find a way to condense things into “here’s what you need to know.”
Right now we have a weekly Monday newsletter for all CX associates (product updates, process changes, compliance, etc.), a weekly Thursday newsletter focused on strategy and culture, a monthly manager enablement meeting, and a company-wide Leadership Corner email. The feedback I’ve gotten is that the newsletters aren’t condensed enough for leaders to get a quick snapshot of what matters most. These leaders move fast.
I’m not sure if the answer is adding another newsletter, creating a channel in WebEx, or something else entirely. We’re also 100% remote, so I’m trying to balance meeting leaders where they are without doing all the work and spreading myself too thin. Would love any insight you have!
Woo! There is a lot going on here, and I mean that in the best way. You clearly have a solid foundation of communications already in place, and the fact that you’re hearing direct feedback from leaders about what’s working (and what’s not) is honestly a really great sign. That means they’re paying attention — they just need it delivered differently.
So here’s where I’d start: don’t add another newsletter. I know that might feel counterintuitive, but if the feedback is that things aren’t condensed enough, the answer probably isn’t more — it’s sharper. What I’d focus on instead is rethinking the format of what you’re already sending, specifically for leaders.
One thing I’ve been really into lately is thinking about how people actually consume emails — which has changed so much with AI. A lot of tools now offer AI summaries at the top of emails, and people are scanning faster than ever. So I’d lean hard into skimmability. Start with a TL;DR at the very top — the two or three things leaders absolutely need to know this week, with links to dig deeper if they want to. Think of it as the “here’s what you need to know” section they’re asking for, just built right into what you already have.
And since these leaders are moving fast and you’re fully remote, I’d also think about your multichannel strategy. That newsletter is a great anchor, but where else can that message show up so it actually lands? If you’re using WebEx, that could be a place to drop a quick summary or pin key updates. At Workshop, anytime I send an email I also cross-post to Slack — and sometimes even push to SMS — so the same message meets people wherever they are without me recreating it from scratch. If you’re not using a tool that does that automatically, you can still do it manually by scheduling a quick summary to go out in your messaging platform alongside the email.
Now here’s the part that I think will make the biggest difference: get in sync with the other senders. You mentioned the Monday newsletter, the Thursday newsletter, the monthly meeting, and the Leadership Corner. That’s four touch points — and if they’re not coordinated on an editorial calendar, there’s a real chance leaders are getting hit with overlapping or competing messages on the same day. I’d map out when everything goes out and look for opportunities to spread things more evenly across the week. And if you find that everyone’s sending on Monday at 9 AM… that’s your cue to shift.
It’s also worth asking your leaders directly: when do they actually want this information? Some leaders prefer a Monday morning rundown to set the week. Others would rather get a Friday recap so they can prep and plan. A quick pulse on timing can go a long way — and it signals that you’re listening, which builds trust.
One more thing — and this is about protecting you. You mentioned not wanting to spread yourself too thin, and I really respect that. Templating is your best friend here. If you can create a consistent format where leaders know that the top section is always the TL;DR, followed by their schedule or key dates, followed by a learning resource or culture moment — they’ll start to build muscle memory around how to read it. And for you, it means you’re not redesigning the wheel every single send. You’re just plugging in new content to a structure that works.
You’ve got a lot of the pieces already. I think the move here is less about building something new and more about tightening what exists, getting strategic about timing, and making it really easy for leaders to find what they need in the first five seconds. You’ve got this!!
