Defeat the Distortion Field

When you speak…does anyone really hear you?

You’ve seen it happen.

An executive team comes up with an important change to address a challenge. They make a decision about how to move forward. They announce it confidently, maybe even with a polished slide deck and all-hands town hall. But as the message drifts from the C-suite to the broader organization…something strange happens.

The words are repeated—but their meaning gets warped.
The context disappears.
The why fades into a whisper.

The Invisible Force That Kills Change

This is the Change Distortion Field—a space thick with noise, stress, assumptions, and unfinished conversations. It’s a noisy, overloaded space between leadership and the rest of the organization where clarity goes to die and change efforts stall. And the reality is most leaders don’t even know it exists.

This isn’t just frustrating; it’s costly. A McKinsey study found that 70% of change efforts fail, largely due to poor communication and employee resistance—often symptoms of a broken message pipeline.

Why Messages Don’t Land (even when you’re crystal clear)

Your brain is a prediction machine—it craves clarity, pattern, and safety. So when it hears a vague or incomplete message during change, it fills in the gaps with fear, resistance, or flat-out fiction.

Uncertainty and ambiguity trigger threat responses that shut down engagement and open the door to misunderstanding. In other words: if your people feel uncertain, they won’t hear you—they’ll protect themselves from you.

And it’s not because they don’t care.

It’s because they’re trying to make sense of the chaos.

The Change Distortion Field is filled with these threats to your message:

• Competing priorities
• Ambiguous messaging
• Leadership jargon or acronyms
• Overwhelmed middle managers
• Information overload
• The FUD Factor (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt)

Leaders often suffer from the curse of knowledge—they assume others know what they know. But what’s obvious to you isn’t obvious to them. Sending the message isn’t the same as landing the message.  Communication isn’t one-and-done. It’s a journey, not a memo or an email blast.

Effective communication requires translation—not just transmission. Leaders must repeat, reframe, and reinforce the message through multiple channels and voices.

Your 3-Point Plan to Break Through the Distortion Field

1. Deploy Your Middle Managers as Translators

Frontline managers are the “nervous system” of the organization. They’re your most under-leveraged asset. Equip them to not just repeat the message—but translate it. They bridge the gap between strategy and execution. When they get it, their teams get it. Period.

2. Repeat. Reframe. Reinforce.

People need to hear things seven times in seven ways. The brain learns through repetition and emotion. Don’t be afraid to tell the story behind the decision—why it matters and how it affects people. Use storytelling, metaphors, visuals, and emotion. Messages don’t stick through logic—they stick through feeling. Our mentor always said, “logic makes you think but emotion makes you act.”

3. Feedback Loops Are the New Microphones

Don’t just broadcast—listen back.
Ask: “What did you hear about this change, and what does it mean for you?”
When you check for understanding, you check for alignment. Regular pulse checks and two-way communication beat one-and-done announcements every time. We’ve created CAN’s (change advisory networks or change champion networks) which formalize the informal grapevine. Email us if you want more information on how to put this into place.

Even the most brilliant strategy fails if no one knows what it means or how to act on it. As leaders, our job isn’t done when we speak—it’s only done when people understand and act with clarity and confidence.

You’ve got this. Clear the static, close the gap, and communicate for change that sticks. It’s time to destroy the distortion field!

ACTION:

Run a “Message Echo Check.”

Pick one recent change you communicated (a new policy, strategic shift, or even a change to priorities). Then ask three people in different parts of your organization:

“What did you hear about this change, and what does it mean for you?”

Listen without correcting. What they repeat back will reveal the clarity—or distortion—of your message.

• If what they say aligns with your intention, you’re landing your message.
• If not, you’ve just found your first opportunity to clear the distortion field!