Too scared to connect?

One question we are asking ourselves more and more as we engage with new clients;

Do you even have the culture for effective internal comms?

Looking for bright effective approaches to internal comms is all very well but cultures vary wildly. From the Verizons to the Virgins.  Both are valid - but some are too risk- averse to ever be authentic with their employee communications in any real way. Unlike this excellent example by John Brown Communications: We wish everyone could simply allow this level of intimacy and familiarity...

Diverse culture is awesome in geographic terms, but problematic when we deal with a corporate culture. This culture is artificial. Still handed down from the elders but driven by artificial forces nonetheless. 

And this is where the trouble starts.

An employee video for Verizon will possibly be more conservative than one for Virgin Group. And most likely less effective in getting noticed.

So what happens when the art required to make comms effective runs counter to the corporate culture? I believe that this is the case in most medium to large firms. The larger a firm gets, the safer it feels it needs to be. Perhaps they feel there's more at stake? I would argue that it's a bigger risk to bury the message in corporate-speak and highlight it with a picture of a globe, or a handshake.

Does your company culture run counter to effective communications?