Last week I was collaborating with a client about how to increase employee participation during town halls. I had suggested some ideas, we had brainstormed others—and she thought one method seemed especially promising.

“Well, we’ve never done that before,” my client mused. “But we’ll never know if it works unless we give it a shot.

 “Let’s try it.”

Eureka! If I could have leaped through the Zoom meeting, I would have hugged her. My client understood that “Let’s try it” are the most important words in employee communication.

Why? Because too much of internal communication seems set in stone:

• Organizational announcements occur every time a vice president gets a promotion.
• Town halls are always held quarterly.
• Every headline is written in a formal press release style.
• All articles about initiatives have to include a quote from the executive sponsor.

Who made these rules? Nobody! Usually I ask why a common practice exists, I get this response: A pause. A shrug. And a reply: “I guess we’ve always done it this way.”

Even if that’s true, it doesn’t mean you have to keep doing anything the same way. The fun thing about internal communication is that it’s fluid. New methods emerge. Things constantly change.

Today’s your chance to try something new. You can start small, but even a tiny change can make a big difference.

So play. Practice. Pilot. Experiment!