In our quest to be proficient communicators, we dictate correspondence, write reports, host nonstop meetings, leave after-hours voice mails—all with the good intention of directing and supporting our team.

The trouble is that your team may not appreciate—and may even resent—your efforts. For as much as communication is one of the key drivers toward the optimization of organizational performance, managers need to be aware of the potential downside of information overload.

People have a limited communication-processing capability. Continually interrupting, inundating, and overwhelming employees with information will cause one of two reactions. They will either multitask in an effort to keep up, or they will modify their work standards with various coping strategies.

Either way, too much is too bad.

When people multitask, they’re trying to do two or three things at once. When driving, it’s the guy with one hand on the wheel and the other on his electric razor. At home, it’s the parent watching television while helping with his child’s school project. At work, it’s your colleague who brings her mail and memos to a meeting or is responding to text messages while on the phone.

While you might think all of this juggling enhances productivity (85 percent of us do it, and 67 percent of us think we do it well), the opposite has been found to be true. A recent study found that the average worker lost ten IQ points while trying to simultaneously perform tasks. There is also a cognitive cost in the time and energy it takes to resume the original task that was interrupted, as well as the loss of mental downtime that allows our brain to store and organize our memories. Stress is also part of the equation.

Think about this the next time you want to roll out the messages associated with Six Sigma, process re-engineering, “pay for performance,” quality circles, self-directed work teams, and the establishment of a learning organization. Inadvertently, you may be diffusing the energy that makes change happen—making your team more vulnerable, not stronger.

The alternative to multitasking involves embracing a personal coping strategy for information overload. Here, employees, at or beyond their capacity to process information, express their discontent and frustration—aimed at you for what they deem to be your irrelevance or irresponsibility—in a variety of ways. None are productive for them as well as the organization. Some minimal-effort strategies include ignoring the overload without making changes; “working to standards,” essentially by working no more or less than required; and allowing unproductive queues to form around priorities. Related activities also include only attending to prioritized work, allowing clients to self-serve, and reducing performance standards.

The results of these strategies are declining output, decreased productivity, poor judgment and decision making, and increased error rates.

In light of these factors, you need to keep organizational communication efforts, particularly those that pertain to changing strategy and tactics, as simple, focused, and digestible as possible. Coordination and priority-setting are a must.

Your best barometer for measuring the quality and quantity of your communications is the direct feedback from your team members. Listen to their words, watch their behaviors for signs of overload, and test for understanding. In the ideal world, if you’ve effectively communicated your message, the kid in the mailroom with one stamp at the end of the day will know to put it on the customer correspondence as opposed to the magazine subscription renewal notice. And he will feel good about it!