Stop Talking Past Each Other: Why Most Workplace Communication Training Gets It Backwards

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Three weeks ago I watched a perfectly intelligent marketing manager completely lose her marbles during a Zoom meeting because someone asked her to "circle back offline about synergies." The poor woman spent five minutes trying to decipher what that actually meant before realising the bloke just wanted to schedule another meeting to discuss shared resources.

This is workplace communication in 2025, folks. We've turned simple conversations into elaborate puzzles that would make the Enigma code look straightforward.

I've been training teams in communication skills for nearly two decades now, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that most organisations are approaching this completely wrong. They're obsessing over the mechanics—the PowerPoint slides, the meeting protocols, the email templates—while completely ignoring the fundamental issue: people have forgotten how to actually talk to each other.

The Real Problem Nobody Wants to Admit

Here's what's actually happening in Australian workplaces right now. Everyone's so terrified of saying the wrong thing that they've retreated into corporate speak that means absolutely nothing. "Leverage our core competencies." "Ideate solutions moving forward." "Touch base to align our thinking."

It's verbal quicksand.

And the worst part? Senior management loves this stuff. They think it sounds professional. Meanwhile, their teams are drowning in confusion, projects are stalling because nobody understands what anyone else actually wants, and productivity is going down faster than a lead balloon.

I was guilty of this myself about eight years back. Used to pepper my training sessions with buzzwords because I thought it made me sound more credible. Then one day a tradie from Wollongong stopped me mid-sentence and said, "Mate, I have no bloody idea what you just said, but I'm pretty sure you want me to talk to my team more. Is that right?"

He was absolutely right. And he taught me more about effective communication in that moment than most business schools manage in entire semesters.

Why Traditional Communication Training Fails

Most communication training courses focus on the wrong metrics. They measure how many people attended, whether the slides looked professional, if everyone filled out the feedback forms with happy faces.

But here's what they should be measuring: Did workplace conflicts decrease? Are projects finishing on time because teams actually understand what they're supposed to do? Can employees explain company initiatives to their families without sounding like robots?

The answer is usually no. Because traditional training treats communication like it's a technical skill you can learn from a manual, when really it's more like learning to dance. You need practice, feedback, and the willingness to look ridiculous while you figure it out.

I've seen companies spend tens of thousands on communication consultants who come in with their fancy frameworks and leave behind nothing but confusion. The DISC profiles, the Myers-Briggs interpretations, the elaborate email etiquette guides that nobody actually follows.

Meanwhile, the best communicators I know learned their skills in completely different ways. They worked in retail and learned to read customers. They coached junior football and discovered how to motivate teenagers. They grew up in big families where you had to be clear and quick if you wanted to be heard.

What Actually Works (And Why Most Companies Won't Do It)

Real communication improvement starts with admitting that most of your current practices are counterproductive. Those weekly all-hands meetings where everyone zones out? Scrap them. The email chains that go on for seventeen messages when a two-minute phone call would solve everything? Ban them.

Replace them with practical, uncomfortable activities that force people to actually engage.

Get your teams doing role-plays of difficult customer conversations. Make managers explain complex policies to new hires without using any jargon. Set up cross-department challenges where finance has to explain budget constraints to the creative team in terms they actually understand.

The magic happens when people realise that clear communication isn't about sounding smart—it's about being helpful. It's about respecting other people's time and intelligence enough to speak plainly.

Woolworths figured this out years ago with their customer service approach. Walk into any of their stores and listen to how staff communicate with customers. It's direct, friendly, and completely jargon-free. They don't try to "leverage customer touchpoints" or "optimise the retail experience." They just help people find what they need and solve their problems quickly.

Compare that to some of the big consulting firms where simple concepts get buried under layers of unnecessary complexity. I won't name names, but we've all been in those presentations where you need a translator to understand what's actually being proposed.

The Psychology of Workplace Miscommunication

Here's something most communication training completely ignores: the emotional component. People don't communicate poorly because they lack skills—they communicate poorly because they're scared, frustrated, or trying to protect themselves.

Think about the last time you sent a really complicated email when a simple message would have worked better. I bet you were trying to cover all your bases, anticipate every possible objection, and protect yourself from criticism. The result? A wall of text that nobody actually read properly.

Or consider those meetings where everyone nods along but nobody actually agrees. People aren't being deliberately obtuse—they're navigating complex social dynamics while trying to appear competent and avoid conflict.

The best communication skills training addresses these underlying issues head-on. It gives people permission to be direct, tools for managing conflict constructively, and strategies for building genuine trust with their colleagues.

This means getting comfortable with awkward conversations. It means admitting when you don't understand something instead of pretending and hoping for the best. It means being willing to have the same conversation three times if that's what it takes for everyone to get on the same page.

Technology Is Making Things Worse (Sorry, Not Sorry)

I know it's fashionable to blame everything on technology, but in this case, it's actually true. The proliferation of communication channels has made things exponentially more complicated.

Teams are now juggling emails, Slack messages, Teams chats, Zoom calls, phone calls, and face-to-face conversations, often about the same project. Important decisions get lost in message threads. Context disappears when conversations move between platforms. And everyone's constantly playing catch-up on information that's scattered across twelve different channels.

The solution isn't more technology—it's better protocols. Pick one primary channel for each type of communication and stick to it religiously. Use email for formal documentation, Slack for quick questions, and face-to-face meetings for complex discussions. Stop mixing and matching based on convenience.

I've worked with teams that have dramatically improved their communication simply by agreeing that budget discussions only happen in person, project updates only go through email, and urgent issues only get handled via phone calls. When everyone knows where to look for what type of information, half the confusion disappears immediately.

The Australian Advantage (And How We're Wasting It)

Australians have a natural communication advantage that most of us don't even recognise. Our cultural tendency toward directness, our comfort with informal interactions, and our general impatience with pretentious behaviour should make workplace communication easier, not harder.

But we're systematically training it out of ourselves in the name of "professionalism." We're teaching people to speak like they're in a corporate training video instead of like actual human beings having real conversations.

The most effective Australian business leaders I know have maintained their natural communication style while developing the skills to adapt it for different contexts. They can be direct without being rude, informal without being unprofessional, and clear without being simplistic.

This doesn't mean every workplace should sound like a pub conversation. It means recognising that authenticity and clarity are more valuable than elaborate formality.

Where Most Training Goes Wrong (And What to Do Instead)

Traditional communication training treats everyone like they're starting from zero, which is insulting and ineffective. Most people already know how to communicate—they do it successfully with friends, family, and strangers every day. The problem is that workplace environments make them forget their natural abilities.

Instead of teaching communication from scratch, focus on helping people adapt their existing skills to professional contexts. Work with their natural tendencies instead of against them.

The engineer who's brilliant at explaining complex technical concepts to their kids can learn to do the same for non-technical colleagues. The sales rep who's fantastic at reading customer emotions can help the finance team understand how budget cuts affect staff morale.

The goal isn't to create perfect corporate communicators. It's to help people become more effective versions of themselves.

Implementation That Actually Sticks

Here's the brutal truth about communication training: most of it gets forgotten within a week because it's not integrated into daily work practices. People sit through workshops, nod along enthusiastically, and then go back to doing exactly what they were doing before.

Sustainable change requires ongoing practice and reinforcement. Set up monthly communication challenges. Create peer feedback systems. Make clear communication a performance metric that actually matters.

But most importantly, make sure leadership is modeling the behaviour they want to see. If senior managers are still sending confusing emails and running ineffective meetings, no amount of training is going to change the culture.

The teams that succeed with communication improvement treat it like physical fitness—something that requires consistent effort and regular maintenance, not a one-time fix.

The Bottom Line

Effective workplace communication isn't complicated, but it is challenging. It requires courage, practice, and a willingness to prioritise clarity over cleverness.

Stop investing in elaborate training programs that teach people to sound like management consultants. Start creating environments where clear, direct, helpful communication is valued and rewarded.

The goal isn't to eliminate all miscommunication—that's impossible. The goal is to create teams that can resolve misunderstandings quickly, admit confusion without embarrassment, and prioritise getting things done over sounding impressive.

And for the love of all that's holy, please stop asking people to "circle back offline about synergies." Just say you want to schedule another meeting. Your marketing manager will thank you.

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Looking for practical communication training that actually works? Check out our workplace communication workshops designed specifically for Australian teams who are tired of talking past each other.