NOWADAYS, we are talking too much and saying very little that matters.
In many corporate corridors, communication has become a performance.
Everyday, organisations churn out Press releases, flood social media, circulate glossy newsletters and deliver carefully worded speeches. The machinery is busy. The channels are full.
But here is the uncomfortable truth: most of this communication is noise. It creates the illusion of activity without delivering impact. It looks productive, but it rarely changes anything. This is what I call “puppy” communication. It is energetic, visible and constantly in motion, but ultimately lacking bite.
The real question is no longer whether organisations are communicating. They are. The real question is: are they influencing anything?
Puppy communication dominates today’s professional landscape. It is safe, predictable and easy to produce. It ticks boxes, satisfies reporting templates, and keeps communication departments busy. But it does not challenge thinking, shift behaviour or drive decisions. It fills channels without shaping outcomes.
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And in an era where content is infinitely easy to produce, this kind of communication is not just ineffective. Leaders begin to believe that because something has been said, something has been done. It has not.
In contrast, what organisations desperately need is “bulldog” communication. This kind bites, holds on and refuses to let go until something changes.
Bulldog communication is not about volume; it is about impact. It is deliberate, strategic, and often uncomfortable. It cuts through the noise and forces clarity. It aligns people around what truly matters. It influences how decisions are made, how priorities are set and how organisations behave.
This is communication that shapes culture, not just campaigns.
Yet many communication practitioners remain trapped in the comfort of “puppy” work. Why? Because bulldog communication is harder. It demands more than writing skills and media placement. It requires strategic thinking, courage and proximity to power.
It requires communicators to move from being message distributors to becoming advisors and shapers of organisational direction.
It also requires asking difficult questions.
Not “What content should we produce today?” but “What outcome are we trying to achieve?”
Not “How many people did we reach?” but “What changed because we spoke?”
Too often, communication is treated as something that comes in at the end to package decisions already made. By then, its power has already been diminished. Real communication influence happens upstream, where ideas are formed, strategies are shaped and decisions are contested. That is where bulldogs belong.
There is also a deeper issue at play: the confusion between visibility and value. Just because an organisation is constantly seen does not mean it is understood. Just because it is active does not mean it is effective.
Clarity, not volume, is the new currency of communication. And clarity is rare.
Communication for change demands intention. It demands that every message, every platform and every engagement is tied to a clear purpose.
Real communication does not just celebrate success; it confronts failure. It does not just amplify comfortable narratives; it challenges them. It does not just inform, it provokes, persuades, and sometimes unsettles.
This is particularly critical in times of crisis or transformation. When uncertainty is high, stakeholders do not need noise; they need direction. They need communication that is honest, empathetic and forward-looking. Communication that helps them to make sense of change and understand their place within it.
At the end, if communication is not shaping decisions, influencing behaviour or driving results, then it is simply noise. In the end, communication that does not influence is not communication at all.