Heads of Communications SIG: What GLP-1 Drugs Can Teach Us About Information Overload at Work

What GLP-1 drugs can teach us about information overload at work

14 May 3:00 pm UK Time / 9:00 am CT

Many organisations are suffering from what could be described as infobesity a constant stream of emails, alerts, updates and messages competing for the same limited slice of employee attention.

The problem isn’t that communications teams aren’t working hard enough the problem is volume. When people are faced with hundreds of signals every day, the brain simply does what it’s designed to do: it tunes out.

In this thought-provoking session, Sharon O'Dea uses the analogy of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs to explore what organisations can learn about communication overload.

Just as GLP-1 drugs change how people experience hunger, Sharon argues that organisations need to rethink the way they “feed” employees information. Instead of constantly pushing more content, the focus should shift to information restraint  creating communication systems that prioritise relevance, quality and timing.

Please join live if your timezone permits it.  IABC members will be able to watch the recording through the OnDemand portal

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Speaker Biography: 

Sharon O'Dea is co-founder of Lithos Partners, a boutique digital workplace and internal communications consultancy based in Amsterdam. She works with major global organisations — including global banks, professional services firms and world-leading universities — on intranet strategy, digital employee experience and communications design.

Sharon is co-author of Digital Communications at Work: Designing Channels for Employee Engagement and Experience (Kogan Page, 2026), written with Jonathan Phillips. A regular writer and speaker, Sharon is a recognised voice on the future of work, communications technology and digital culture.

Before founding her consultancy, Sharon held senior leadership roles in internal communications, including Head of Digital Communications at Standard Chartered.