Many organizations approach communication campaigns from the inside out.

Leadership identifies a business priority, defines the solution, and then focuses on communicating it to employees.

But what happens when the solution makes sense to leadership-but not to employees?

Airbnb took a different approach when many organizations began bringing employees back to the office after the pandemic.

Instead of building a policy around traditional workplace expectations, the company first sought to understand what employees valued most about the way they worked.

The result was a flexible work model that allowed employees to live and work from almost anywhere while maintaining alignment with business needs.

What made the approach noteworthy was not the policy itself.

It was the thinking behind it.

Rather than starting with assumptions, Airbnb started with employee reality.

The company recognized that employees were evaluating work through a different lens than leadership had in the past. Flexibility, autonomy, and work-life integration had become increasingly important factors shaping employee expectations.

By understanding these realities first, Airbnb was able to build a solution that employees were more willing to embrace and support.

For communication professionals, the lesson extends far beyond workplace policies.

Communication campaigns often fail when organizations focus only on what they want employees to know, without understanding what employees are experiencing, questioning, or resisting.

The most effective campaigns begin by asking:

●      What matters to employees?

●      What concerns might they have?

●      What assumptions are they making?

●      What reality are they operating within?

Because communication becomes more effective when it is designed around employee reality-not organizational assumptions.

The Lesson

If communication only makes sense from the organization's perspective, employees will create their own interpretation.

The strongest campaigns start by understanding the people they are trying to influence.