Effective Communication is a Myth That’s Costing You Money and Time

"The problem with this company is a lack of communication," they said in the meeting. "If we communicated better, everything would flow," they insisted.

And what happened next?

More meetings. More emails. More WhatsApp messages. More people explaining the same thing over and over again.

And in the end, the same mistakes.

Because here’s the truth no one talks about: effective communication is a myth.

It doesn’t matter how many times you explain something. If there are no clear processes, defined indicators, and established rules, nothing will change.

And if your company still believes that talking more will solve its problems, you're wasting money, time, and energy on something that was never the real issue.

The Real Problem is NOT Communication

Let’s be honest: how many times have you had this conversation?

?? "But I told you it was due Tuesday." ?? "Oh, I understood it was for Thursday." ?? "But the email said only if the budget was approved." ?? "Ah, but in the meeting, they said to go ahead and do it now."

PURE NOISE. This isn’t a communication problem. It’s a structure problem.

When a team works based on assumptions and verbal explanations, each person interprets things their own way.

And that’s where chaos begins.

Talking More Does NOT Solve Anything

Companies believe they need to “improve communication,” so they do what any company would do:

?? More meetings (because, of course, another meeting will fix what the last one didn’t). ?? More emails (because rewriting what was already said twice will surely help, right?). ?? More WhatsApp group messages (because bombarding everyone with random notifications without context is always a great idea).

And the result?

?? Employees overloaded with irrelevant information. ?? Decisions made based on misinterpretations. ?? Tasks duplicated because no one knew who was responsible for what.

Communication is NOT the solution. Clarity in processes and systems IS.

What Companies Actually Need

If your business depends on verbal or written communication for things to work, sooner or later, everything will fall apart.

Instead of trying to make people talk better, you need to do this:

1?? Replace Meetings with Clear Processes If you have to explain something more than once, the problem isn’t communication—it’s a lack of structure.

?? Create checklists, workflows, and procedures so people know what to do without constant explanations.

2?? Define Responsibilities Without Room for Misinterpretation Stop giving vague instructions like: “We need to improve this” or “Review it when you have time.”

?? Be specific: “This report needs to be ready by Monday at noon with these three key points.” ?? Assign clear responsibilities: “Pedro handles analysis, Maria handles design, and Juan takes care of the presentation.”

3?? Use Metrics Instead of Assumptions If the only way to know if a task was done correctly is by asking, something is wrong.

?? Use objective metrics: How do we measure if the strategy worked? What number indicates progress?

Without indicators, everything is up for interpretation. And when everything is open to interpretation, mistakes are inevitable.

The Most Productive Companies DO NOT Rely on Constant Communication

?? Amazon has a rule: If a team can’t be fed with two pizzas, it’s too big.

Why? Because small teams with clear processes need fewer meetings and less communication.

?? Google eliminated most of its weekly meetings and replaced them with OKRs (Objectives & Key Results).

That way, every person knows what they need to do, what’s expected of them, and how their performance is measured without endless explanations.

?? Toyota implemented the Kanban system so that any worker knows exactly what task comes next without needing to ask.

The difference between these companies and the rest is that they don’t try to communicate better—they try to structure better.

Real Leadership Isn’t About Talking More, It’s About Designing Systems That Work Without Constant Communication

If you have to repeat the same thing over and over again, you don’t have a team—you have a group of people trying to guess what to do.

If every time someone new joins your company, they need full explanations from scratch, you have a structure problem, not a communication problem.

And if you still believe that the solution to errors is “better communication,” you’re ignoring the real issue: your company lacks clear processes and metrics.

Stop wasting time in unnecessary meetings. Stop explaining the same thing a thousand times. Stop thinking that talking more is the solution.

Success is not built with more words but with systems that work without having to explain them.

Conclusion: Talk Less, Structure More

Next time someone in your company says, "We need to improve communication," ask them this:

?? What process is failing? ?? Where is the manual or workflow that prevents this error? ?? How can we measure the result with numbers instead of interpretations?

If there’s no clear answer, the problem was never communication.

"If this article made you think, share it with someone who still believes ‘better communication’ fixes everything. And tell me in the comments… Have you ever struggled with a team because everything was open to interpretation?"

Let’s Make a Difference, Together!

Ernesto Flores García Aspira Brilla Crece México (ABCMéxico)

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