
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
Employee communications teams face several barriers that hold them back from making decisions on how to effectively reach their employees. Many of these barriers can be tied back to human behavior, the expectations of employees today, uncertainty in business, limited resources, and the fear of messing up. And often, these barriers prevent communicators from making the right decisions about communications strategy—or even making any decision at all.
But a greater understanding of the barriers blocking comms strategy and the impact that human behavior can have on communications effectiveness can help communicators shape their comms strategy accordingly and add value to the business.
We explored the strategies to overcome these key barriers and behaviors in a webinar with Lindsay Kohler, Lead Behavioral Scientist at scarlettabbott, Sarah Meurer, VP Global Internal Communications at Elsevier, and Joss Mathieson, Chief Encouragement Officer at Change Oasis.
During the webinar, the panelists shared the top challenges and barriers that they’ve faced in their experience as internal communicators, the strategies they’ve used to overcome these barriers and drive communications forward, real-world success stories and best practices for transforming your approach to communication, and insights gleaned from the Poppulo Communications Maturity Model. Check out the webinar on-demand here.
This guide delves into the key insights and takeaways from the panel discussion, plus shares some resources and approaches to help inform your communications strategy.

Joss Mathieson
Founder and Chief Encouragement Officer, Change Oasis

Lindsay Kohler
Lead Behavioral Scientist at scarlettabbott, scarlettabbott

Christine Kendall
Content Marketing Manager
Poppulo enables airlines and airports to operate a single, scalable digital signage platform targeted to deliver critical communications to a variety of audiences. By integrating real-time operational systems with centralized content management and governance, Poppulo supports a wide range of use cases—from passenger information and wayfinding to operational visibility and employee communications—within a unified architecture. This approach allows airlines and airports to extend digital signage beyond isolated deployments, creating a coordinated network that can support evolving requirements without adding system complexity or fragmentation. In this whitepaper, you’ll learn how airlines and airports can unify passenger, employee, and operational communications on a single platform—supporting use cases like flight information displays, wayfinding, and real-time operational visibility. You’ll also see how integrating live data with governed content delivery enables more accurate, coordinated messaging at scale.
In this Digital Signage Power Hour, our panel of experts explores the pros and cons of media players versus built-in apps for digital signage and elaborates on how each option impacts content delivery, performance, and flexibility in various environments. A comparison of the compare ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and scalability, will help you make informed decisions tailored to your specific needs. The group also investigates how media players can provide robust, customizable solutions, while built-in apps offer streamlined convenience. Whether you're managing a single display or a complex network, this session equips you with the insights needed to optimize your digital signage strategy effectively. Attend this Power Hour Webinar to lean to Identify the key differences between media players and built-in apps used in digital signage systems, including core features and deployment approaches. Describe how media players and built-in apps affect content delivery, system performance, scalability, and operational flexibility across different environments. Recognize key decision-making factors when selecting between media players and built-in apps, including cost, ease of use, and long-term management considerations.
Internal communication is under real pressure. IC teams are expected to support leaders, shape culture, and deliver relevant, personalized communication to an increasingly diverse audience—all while operating at greater speed and scale than ever before. AI arrives at the right moment. It doesn’t replace communicators; it elevates them. Applied well, AI sharpens the fundamentals of effective communication: diagnosing issues, shaping the narrative, guiding leaders, and delivering messages that connect people to purpose and progress. At its best, AI accelerates drafting, adapts content for different formats, improves accessibility, and surfaces insights about what’s landing. Without governance, though, it can create noise or risk. The opportunity for IC teams is to bring AI in thoughtfully, with governance and human judgment at the center. This guide shows how to do exactly that. Inside, you’ll find practical guidance on when to use AI, where humans remain essential, how to establish guardrails, how to prompt effectively, and how to scale AI responsibly across channels and teams.