By Lucy Hornsby
August 26, 2026
A communications matrix (or comms plan) maps who needs to know what, through which channel, how often, and who owns sending it. It is an unglamorous document that prevents change fatigue and keeps a transformation programme from limping to go-live on Slack messages.
Hate to say it, but nobody gets excited about a comms matrix. It is not the town hall with good catering or the launch video. It is the spreadsheet with columns like “audience,” “channel,” “frequency,” and “owner,” sitting in a shared drive being ignored by everyone except the one poor soul who has to maintain it.
And yet it is usually the exact thing standing between a change programme that lands smoothly and one that limps to go-live on adrenaline, last-minute Slack messages, and a prayer.
Here is why the unglamorous stuff matters more than the glamorous stuff.
What Causes Change Fatigue?
Change fatigue is real, and it is almost always self-inflicted. Too many messages, on too many channels, saying slightly different things because three different people are drafting comms in isolation, and suddenly nobody trusts any of them. Not because the content is bad, but because the noise is deafening and the signal is nowhere to be found.
A proper comms cadence, mapped out audience by audience, stops that dead. It forces you to answer, before you send anything at all, three unglamorous but essential questions:
- Who needs to know this?
- What do they need to do with it?
- How will you know it landed?
How to Structure a Comms Cadence
This is where a bit of structure earns its keep, and no, it does not need to be fancy. Borrow from wherever works.
John Kotter, a leading voice in business leadership and change management, emphasizes communicating the vision, repeatedly, through multiple channels, because once is never enough. Or use a simple RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) applied to your comms plan, so it is clear who owns which message to which audience, instead of three people assuming someone else sent it and nobody did.
The specific method matters less than the discipline of having one, and sticking to it when the programme gets chaotic. Because it will get chaotic. That is not a risk; that is a certainty.
Why You Need a Single Source of Truth
The other unglamorous habit worth building: a single source of truth. One place people can go to check what is happening, instead of piecing it together from three different emails, a Teams message from a well-meaning colleague, or a rumour that started at the coffee machine and has grown three new limbs by the time it reaches the fourth floor.
The single source of truth does not need to be flashy. It needs to be accurate, current, and tell the same story everywhere. This sounds basic but is somehow the thing almost every programme gets wrong.
Coaching Questions to Ask Your Comms Plan
A coaching question, and this one stings a bit: if someone in your organisation only saw one piece of your comms, would it make sense on its own? Or does it only work if they have also seen the four things that came before it, none of which they read either?
A few more questions are worth answering honestly:
- Where in your comms plan does the story contradict itself, even slightly? Have you checked lately?
- Who owns the single source of truth for your programme, and would they know if you asked them right now?
- What’s the least exciting part of your comms plan, and when did you last check whether it’s working?
Why the Boring Plan Wins
The flashy launch comms get remembered, screenshotted, even entered into an internal award. But it is the boring, consistent cadence underneath that actually gets you there, without half the organisation learning about a major change from someone else’s out-of-office reply.
Glamour gets the applause. Structure gets the results.
You want both, but if you can only afford to nail one, nail the boring one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a communications matrix in change management?
A plan mapping audience, channel, frequency, and owner for every message in a change programme, so nothing is duplicated, contradicted, or missed.
Why does change fatigue happen?
Too many people send too many messages through too many channels, often with slightly inconsistent details, until the audience stops trusting any of it.
What is a single source of truth in a change programme?
How does RACI apply to a comms plan?
What three questions should every comms message answer before it is sent?
Lucy Hornsby will be presenting, “Change Management Is Lying to You (And So Am I, A Bit)” at International Project Management 2026. Register today!
Lucy Hornsby leans into the future of work, positioning herself with a diverse portfolio career across the theme of Change and Transformation. She is a consultant, qualified coach, mentor, author as well as an experienced trainer and public speaker — providing guidance and skills for groups and individuals on subjects that include (but not limited to) change management, career development and personal &/ business transformation. Lucy’s passion and purpose in life is to help other people to reimagine their possibilities.
Connect with Lucy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucyhornsby/
