I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a new café in Rotorua called Rumaki due to open at the end of July. It’s a bold concept: it will operate entirely in te reo Māori.

It’s a full-immersion environment, which might sound a bit intimidating if, like me, your reo isn’t exactly fluent. I can handle the basics and I’ve worked hard on my pronunciation, but I’m certainly no expert.
But here’s the thing, I absolutely love this idea. It’s a perfect reminder that great communication isn’t actually about having a massive vocabulary or being the smartest person in the room. It’s about intentional connection.

Stripping it back to the bones

When you step into an immersion space where you aren’t the fluent expert, something important happens. You can’t hide behind corporate jargon or flowery phrases. You’re forced to rely on the core mechanics of clarity.

I understand some might worry about making mistakes and want a “Plan B.” 

For example, when I was in a windowless basement barber in Ginza, Japan, with zero language skills, total clarity was achieved purely through pointing at a picture book. While that worked for that transactional moment, the Rumaki caféenvironment like the one planned in Rotorua isn’t about avoiding the language barrier but navigating it. 

You can’t just point at a picture of a coffee. You must try, and the café is designed to facilitate that effort. The staff might encourage you, offer a simple phrase, or gently correct your pronunciation. The goal is to keep you using the language, ensuring the connection is relational, not just transactional.

I’m going to make a point of visiting Rumaki after it opens next time I’m even close to Rotorua because I just love the idea and commitment to normalising te reo.

The problem with professional fluency

In the corporate world, we often do the opposite. We use corporate-speak or dry, dreary data to mask the fact that we haven’t quite nailed down our core message.

I remember assisting a CEO with a speech that was, to put it politely, as dry as my humour most days. We were talking in circles – he couldn’t see that his draft lacked personality, and I couldn’t seem to find the words to explain why.

In the end, I stopped talking. I grabbed some Post-it notes, drew simple pictures and words of his key points, and stuck them on the wall in a hierarchy that made sense to me. I challenged him to do the same. By stripping away the ‘fluent’ speech and looking at the bare bones of the structure, we finally landed on the same page. We moved from talking at each other to building something together.

The power of being consciously clunky

There’s a certain level of respect that comes with trying. I imagine when you walk into a space like Rumaki after it opens and give it a go, you’re saying: “I’m willing to be a bit uncomfortable to meet you where you are.”

That’s a massive lesson for anyone in business. You don’t need to be the subject matter expert to facilitate a great outcome. Sometimes, being the one who asks the simple questions or uses a basic visual is exactly what’s needed to bridge the gap between a complex idea and a real-world result.

Clarity over fluency

Communication is a two-way contract. In a café like Rumaki will hopefully become, the listener is working just as hard as the speaker to make sure the connection lands. This new place is designed to be for everyone, and not everyone who walks through the door will have a decent base of reo to draw on.

If we applied that same level of intentional connection to our emails, our meetings and our pitches – prioritising the shared understanding instead of looking like the smartest person in the room  – we’d all be a lot better off.

We don’t need to be perfect. We just need to be clear.

The plan B rule: Back to basics

If you find yourself talking in circles – whether you’re ordering a long black in a second language or trying to align a boardroom on a strategy – don’t be afraid to break the expert fourth wall. You don’t have to appear perfect. 

If all else fails, go back to the basics, like when you were first learning to read: Use a picture.

• Draw it out: A messy diagram on a whiteboard is worth a thousand ‘circling back’ emails.
• Use props: Point to the menu, the Post-it note, or the physical product.
• Simplify the syntax: If you can’t explain it in a sentence a 10-year-old would understand, you probably don’t understand the core of it yourself.

There’s no shame in being clunky if it leads to being understood. After all, the goal of communication isn’t to put on a performance – it’s to make sure the other person knows exactly what you’re trying to say.

Silence isn’t golden, it’s actually pretty noisy.

In the fast-paced world of leadership, “need to know” is a dangerous phrase. 

Many leaders hold information close to the chest, fearing that sharing unfinished plans will cause panic or distraction.

The opposite is almost always true. Information vacuums are never empty. 

When you don’t lead the narrative, your team will write its own, often multiple versions, and you’re already on the back foot and losing credibility.

I’ve seen this countless times and been called in to put out fires that could have been prevented with a bit of openness. In one case, the ownership of the small company I worked for changed, and the new boss (who was part of the broader team prior to buying it) had a grand plan to lead change in the entire landscape the business was operating in. 

What the new boss didn’t do was explain any part of the broader plan to the very critical and experienced crew who provided the product. One by one, sometimes in quick succession, we all left. One of the common reasons was not understanding the vision the new boss had so we didn’t have the opportunity to even consider buying into it.

As it turns out, that new boss is still a part of the company and his early moves have been revolutionary in the industry and clearly successful – but part of the cost was the loss of some of the best in the business to competitors.

Transparency is the engine of trust

Trust isn’t built through an email or two or a single town hall meeting. It’s built through a consistent cadence of honesty and transparency. 

When employees sense they’re in the loop, they feel valued. They’re not just cogs in a machine, you’re demonstrating they’re partners in the mission.

The results of this are always evident when I visit a workplace and soon get the sense of people understanding exactly what their function is, why they’re doing it and how it supports the strategy. Just that understanding alone helps to create solidarity between those filling different roles, or even between entire teams.

Reducing the anxiety tax

When there is a bit of uncertainty, there will always be rumours. Talk of restructure or shifts in strategy can percolate and productivity always takes a nosedive. 

That’s the anxiety tax. It’s the hidden cost of silence.

Your team members spend more time hanging around the water cooler (or lurking in Teams chats) speculating about their future rather than focusing on their work. 

Keeping them informed, even if you don’t have all the answers yet, lowers the tax and helps to keep the focus on track.

Context creates autonomy

Each member of your team is there for a reason. They were hired for their expertise. But experts can’t make good decisions in a vacuum. 

By sharing the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’, you empower your managers to make decisions that align with the broader vision without needing to check in at every turn. 

Also, if your managers are trusting your approach – at a minimum, your transparency – they will more likely deliver the messages you want their teams to receive.

Works in progress are ok

Don’t wait for a finalised plan before speaking. It could be too late for buy-in, no matter how well the messages are delivered. 

Sharing the ‘working document’ of a plan, even if you’re only 70% complete, allows for feedback if you make room for it, and helps ensure the team you rely on feel like they are building the future with you, rather than have it happen to them.

We’ve all seen this in action – even if we’d rather forget

During the Covid years, noone had all the answers. There was new material to process every day and the rules keep changing. 

But, there was at least SOME information. Leaders had to take it all in, process against their ways or working, communicate it to the team quickly and get on with it. 

In the early Covid lockdown days, the need to explain new processes or protocols to wider teams was essentially a daily task. Whichever way you did it, or experienced it, I suspect more employees felt included with those monumental shifts in ways of working than ever before.

While that was something that was forced on us, you can use it as an example of why consistent and transparent messaging to your team works.

The bottom line

You don’t need to have every answer to start a conversation.

Leadership isn’t about being the sole keeper of secrets, it’s about being the chief clarity officer. If you’re the one with all the facts, you really should want to hold that office before someone else fills in the gaps.