One size doesn’t fit all.

So why should your internal communications? 

Tailoring communication to your audience is one of the first things you learn in communications. Probably module one, lesson one. 

And yet, inside organisations, we still see a surprising amount of “one size fits all”: one townhall, one group email, one leadership slide deck. 

That may be enough for simple updates. But it rarely works when the topic is complex, strategic or linked to behaviour change: a new strategy, a major transformation, technology adoption, a change programme - anything that asks people to work differently. 

These are not messages people simply need to receive. They need to understand them, believe them, connect them to their own reality and, ideally, act differently because of them. 

That is where one-size-fits-all communication starts to struggle. 

We expect personalisation everywhere else

Outside work, personalisation is everywhere. The news we see, the recommendations we get, the emails we open, the ads we are served, the apps that nudge us, remind us and adapt to us. Whether we like all of it or not, we have become used to communication that feels at least somewhat relevant to who we are, where we are and what we care about. 

We then show up to work and are often met with a 48-slide global presentation explaining a strategic transformation in a language that is technically correct, but hard to connect to everyday working life. 

A regional leader in APAC, a frontline manager in Germany, a specialist in finance, a commercial team in the US and an employee in a support function may all need to understand the same overall direction, but they probably do not need the exact same story. 

Most communicators know this. The harder question is how to tailor communication without losing control of the story - and without drowning in endless versions. 

Modular communication: same story, flexible modules

A modular communication approach starts with a simple idea: keep one consistent core story and build flexible modules around it, so different audiences can enter through what is most relevant to them. 

The global message remains the same. The strategic anchors remain the same. The language, narrative and direction stay connected. What changes are the examples, proof points, local context and practical implications. 

In other words, modular communication helps organisations avoid the false choice between global consistency and local relevance. 

It gives leaders and communication teams a shared framework, while still allowing enough flexibility to make the message meaningful in different contexts. 

What a modular approach can look like in practice

In a recent transformation communication project, we worked with a modular story structure. 

We started with the leadership narrative. This became the foundation for the transformation story: why the change was happening, what the organisation wanted to achieve, and which messages needed to remain consistent. 

From there, we translated the narrative into a more employee-facing format. Less leadership shorthand, more plain language. Less focus on what the organisation wanted to say and more focus on what employees needed to understand. 

Then came the modular layer. The result was a framework that balanced consistency with flexibility. Leaders didn't have to translate a generic corporate message from scratch. They could build on a common narrative while making it relevant for their teams.  

Sounds interesting? 

At Open, we help organisations make strategy, change and transformation understandable, relevant and actionable for the people who need to bring it to life. We work across internal communication, leadership communication, employee engagement and change communication —-often with exactly this kind of challenge: how to keep one clear direction while making the story land with different audiences. 

If you are working on a strategy rollout, transformation or internal change programme and want to make your communication more relevant, get in touch with our Head of Client Relations, Mariana Contreras Kristensen, or our Head of Consulting, Nathalies Rhode-Erb. 

Drafted by a human. Edited with AI. Signed off by a human.