When Internal Communications Go Public: Lessons from BarkBox’s Pride Collection Crisis

In June 2025, a seemingly simple dog toy subscription service found itself at the center of a communications firestorm, exposing critical gaps between internal decision-making and external messaging. The BarkBox Pride collection crisis offers a masterclass for corporate communication professionals on how quickly internal messages can become public relations disasters—and why authentic stakeholder engagement matters […]

Building Systems That Connect

Organizations that address communication challenges effectively share common characteristics. Companies like Google, Spotify, and Patagonia don’t succeed despite investing in communication systems; they succeed because of it. In knowledge work, information flow determines value creation. This marks a shift in how leaders must think about organizational capability. In industrial environments, physical assets determined competitive advantage. […]

When Breakdown Compounds

The financial costs are only the visible portion of breakdown’s impact. Beneath the surface, fractured communication creates cascading effects that touch every aspect of organizational life. Cognitive Load and Mental Fatigue When team members cannot trust information flows, they compensate by creating redundant systems. Sarah, a project manager I interviewed, described spending three hours each […]

The Mathematics of Communication Breakdown

Research from MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory shows that communication patterns are the strongest predictor of team success, with 35% of performance variation explained simply by the number of face-to-face exchanges among team members. The math is straightforward: a team of eight people should have 28 possible communication pathways. In healthy teams, information flows across these […]

Learning from Those Who Built the Foundation

Before diving into the research, I want to acknowledge the practitioners and organizers whose work laid the groundwork for understanding how communication shapes outcomes. Ella Baker’s approach to participatory leadership taught us that sustainable change happens when we build systems that develop others rather than centralizing authority. Her work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee […]

The Hidden Cost of Communication Breakdown

Marcus thought he was running a smooth operation. His engineering team had talented people, clear deadlines, and adequate resources. What he didn’t see—until the quarterly review—was the invisible tax his organization was paying every single day. The numbers told a story he hadn’t been reading: project timelines stretched 40% beyond estimates, employee engagement scores ranked […]