Why are your messages ignored? A free four-barrier check
Sixteen statements, four barriers, about five minutes. Find out whether your audience doesn’t know, doesn’t like, doesn’t want or can’t — and what to change before the next send.
Start the check
Four quick questions about the message, then sixteen statements. Answer for most of the audience, as things are today.
To see your result, you leave your name and work email. We save them with your answers to send you the report and to follow up about it.
Sixteen statements
How true is each one for most of the audience? 1 is not true, 5 is completely true.
Choose who it is for, the channel and the action, and rate all sixteen statements, to see your result.
A message nobody acts on was not ignored for one reason. It was ignored for one of four. This free check asks you to rate sixteen statements your audience would say about a message, and shows which barrier stands in the way — so the next send fixes the right thing.
The obvious answer, and why it fails
When a message lands flat, the first fix that comes to mind is to send it again, louder: a second email, a bigger banner, a reminder from the top. Sometimes that works. Mostly it does not, because volume only touches one of the four barriers — and often not the one in the way. Repeating a message to people who could not act on it does not help them act. It only tells them again that they did not.
Sent is not received. Read is not done.
The four barriers
GoldinKollar's four-barrier model sorts every reason people give for not acting into four short statements. Each has a different fix.
| Barrier | What people say | What it is about | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| I don't know | "I heard about it after it happened." | Awareness: the message did not reach them, or they did not notice it | Timing, channels, senders — and fewer messages competing for the same attention |
| I don't like | "It was in English and I read Arabic." | Engagement: it reached them but did not hold them | Language, length, tone, a way to take part |
| I don't want | "It is not worth my time." | Motivation: they saw it and decided not to | Sell, don't tell: a reason that is theirs, and colleagues who go first |
| I can't | "I could not do it during my shift." | Ability: they wanted to and could not | Make the action easy: the time, the device, the steps |
The order matters. A message nobody heard cannot be liked, and a message nobody can act on is not fixed by making it more persuasive. When two barriers score the same, the check reads them in this order.
How the check works
- Describe the message. What it is (optional, a few words), who it is for — office, frontline or mixed — the main channel, and what you want people to do: read, attend, respond, or change a behaviour.
- Rate sixteen statements, four for each barrier, from 1 (not true) to 5 (completely true) for most of the audience. They are written the way employees would say them, not the way a plan would.
- See the result: a strength from 0 to 100 for each barrier with the reason printed next to every number, the barrier that leads, and the fixes that match it.
Answer for the audience as it is, not as you hope it is. If you are not sure, ask two or three people from the audience before you rate. That is already part of the diagnosis.
How the result is calculated
Each barrier's strength is the average of its four answers on a scale from 0 to 100: an average of 1 is 0, an average of 5 is 100. Next to each number, the result names the statements you rated 4 or 5, so you can see why it is high — and argue with it.
One answer can outweigh the rest. If the audience is frontline and the main channel is email or the intranet, "I can't" is set to at least 70: a desk channel cannot carry an action for people who are not at a desk during their shift. The result says when this rule was applied.
The bands are design thresholds, not a benchmark. Below 35 a barrier is weak, from 35 it is present, from 60 it is strong. A barrier leads when it is at least 10 points ahead of the next one. When the top two are closer than that, you get two barriers together, and both need work.
When the audience is not the problem
If all four barriers are below 35, the check says so: your audience is not the problem — check whether the ask itself is clear and worth doing. That is a real result, not a failed one. An ask that is vague, that changes every week, or whose reason nobody can explain will not be rescued by a better channel.
What you get
- Your barrier profile, with the reason for every number.
- The barrier that leads, explained in human terms: why it is hard.
- Three to five fixes for each barrier at 35 or above, drawn from the model: break the norm on timing, frequency, channels, senders and style; sell, don't tell; make the action easy; and turn each barrier into its opposite.
- A plan for the next send: before, during and after.
- How to measure it next time: reach, understanding and action.
- A GoldinKollar certificate with your name, as the first page of your PDF and as an image you can share. The image shows the barrier — never the message, and never the numbers.
Measure the next send, not the last one
A self-check tells you where to look. It does not tell you what employees did. After the next send, measure three things — who it reached, who understood it, and who acted — then run this check again with the same audience. The guide on how to measure internal communication shows how, and which channels actually reach your employees helps with "I don't know" in particular. To look at your practices across the whole function, the internal communication self-check covers reach, comprehension, retention, relevance and channel load. For how we work on this with organisations, see internal communication.
Frequently asked questions
Why do employees ignore internal messages?
For one of four reasons: they did not know about it, they did not like how it came, they did not want to act, or they could not. Each one has a different fix, which is why sending the same message again rarely works.
Is this check an audit?
No. It is a self-assessment based on the answers you give, on the day you give them. It shows where to look. Only evidence from employees — who it reached, who understood it, who acted — shows what actually happened.
Who should fill it in?
The person who owns the message or the campaign, ideally after asking two or three people from the audience. Answer for most of the audience, not for the keenest people or the hardest to reach.
What if two barriers come out close?
Then both are in the way, and fixing one will not be enough. The check names both when the top two are less than 10 points apart, and the plan for the next send covers both.
Why is "I can't" set to at least 70 for a frontline audience on email?
Because a channel people do not sit in front of during their shift cannot carry the action, whatever else is true. It is a design rule, and the report says when it was applied. If your frontline staff do read work email on shift, rate the statements as you see them and treat the rule as a question to check.
Does the share image show my message or my scores?
No. The image shows your name, your photo if you add one, and the barrier that leads. The message, the numbers and the plan stay in your PDF.
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