You’re not the delivery department

4 November 2025 Reading Time: 4 minutes

Dr. Michael Gerharz:

After any big announcement, there’s this one question that always comes and that immediately brings up the defenses. It’s this:

“Did they get it?”

Sounds rather harmless. But everyone in the room knows why it isn’t. 

Because the answer is almost always “yes” while the truth, just as often, is “no”. 

On the surface, it’s a very simple matter. Did the message land? Was it clear? Did people follow along?

And technically, the answer is, of course, yes.

• The slides were clear (of course).
• The talking points made sense (of course).
• People were able to understand it (of course).

So by that measure, yes, they got it. (You’ve even got the survey to prove it.)

But at the same time, you know the other truth. No, they didn’t really get it. 

Nothing shifted. The room didn’t spark. The conversations afterwards didn’t carry the urgency that’s needed. Nobody walked out thinking, this is ours, this matters, we need to act.

So what do you do? Do you say yes or no?

Saying yes keeps everyone comfortable. Let’s move on to the next thing. Saying no risks being the “difficult” person. You’ve just spoiled the party.

So again: what do you reply?

Why “Delivery” Isn’t Enough

To me, the trouble starts with the sloppy use of “getting it.”

For most leaders, “getting it” is simply about comprehension. The message was clear. The delivery worked. People understood.

And for many comms teams, that’s exactly what’s expected. You’re asked to manage the slides, tighten the phrasing, prep the Q&A, and make sure the livestream doesn’t break.

That is delivery.

But delivery is the wrong metaphor for communication. It treats the message like a parcel: as long as the package arrives undamaged, we call it success.

The problem is, a message isn’t a parcel. It’s a spark. The point isn’t that it arrived. The point is whether it caught fire.

That’s why you shouldn’t let leadership get away with this soft version of getting it.

The Double Meaning of “Get It”

“Getting it” is not limited to the head. 

It can also mean you felt it, you believed it, you wanted to act on it. That’s the heart and the gut.

Clarity in the head is like handing someone a map. They can see the route. They understand the path. But unless they also feel why the journey matters, the map stays folded in the drawer.

Conviction is when they pick it up and start walking.

Most executive communication never makes it that far. And too often, comms plays along. Accept the brief, polish, deliver. Safer to send the map than to ask if anyone’s ready to travel.

But the best comms work insists on more. It refuses to let “Did they get it?” stop at head-level. It pushes until people not only understand, but start walking.

We’ve all seen the other version too often.

The flawless town hall where every line was meticulously choreographed but the hallways went quiet the moment it ended.

The strategy rollout that made perfect sense on paper but six months later hadn’t changed a single decision.

The values campaign that everyone recalled in the survey but nobody lived.

Messages like these are echoes. You speak, the sound comes back mostly clear, and you think it landed. But an echo is empty. It fades as quickly as it returns.

Resonance is something else. Resonance is when the words don’t come back to you but keep traveling, carried forward in other people’s voices.

That’s when you know they truly got it.

The Broader Role of Comms

What comes before is deciding to stand up for this, whether to say it out loud when the leader asks, “Did they get it?”

Do you nod and keep the peace, or do you tell the uncomfortable truth? I know many comms pros who have wrestled with that moment.

But then again, this is exactly the kind of question that allows you to step up the game and become the strategic partner so many comms teams want to be.

No, you’re not here just to deliver parcels. You’re here to light the path.

Not to hand out maps that get folded away, but to inspire people to start walking.

Not to settle for echoes, but to create resonance.

“Did they get it?” is about more than understanding. A better version of the question would be “Did they get it in their head, their heart, and their gut?”

Head only gives you nods.

Head and heart gives you applause.

But all three – head, heart, and gut – drives action.

A Challenge

If you’ve been pushing for this broader definition all along, you know the difference it makes.

You’ve seen the room change when a leader stops sounding corporate and starts sounding human.

You’ve felt the goosebumps when a phrase feels so true it becomes shorthand in the corridors.

You’ve watched a strategy take root because people didn’t just understand it, but believed in it.

For everyone else, I encourage you to risk asking for more. To insist that delivery is not the goal. 

The next time someone casually asks “Did they get it?”, don’t stop at the easy yes.

Ask instead: In their head? In their heart? In their gut?

And then provide an honest answer.

It changes everything. It reframes success. It elevates the role of comms from messenger to catalyst. It forces leaders to see that delivery is never enough, the spark is what counts.

You’ll never again want to settle for anything less.

+++

Dr. Michael Gerharz helps leaders worldwide find the right words. He’s the author of “The PATH to Strategic Impact”, host of the “Irresistible Communication” podcast and shares daily thoughts on “The Art of Communicating”. You can reach him on LinkedIn.

Written by: Editor