18 Coffees’ Caleb Gardner Featured in Forbes: Internal Comms as Value Creator
18 Coffees cofounder Caleb Gardner was featured in Forbes on February 11, 2026, contributing a key expert insight to the article “The New Role of Internal Communications: From Corporate Gatekeeper to Value Creator,” published in Forbes Communications Council. The piece examines how internal communications leaders can move beyond distributing messages to actively creating organizational value—and what happens when they fail to align their narratives during high-stakes change moments.
Caleb Gardner’s Insight: Closing the Internal Communications Gap During Change
In the Forbes article, Caleb Gardner—co-founder of 18 Coffees—highlights one of the most common and costly pitfalls in organizational change: conflicting internal narratives. His insight addresses the danger that arises when companies communicate one message externally while employees receive a different, unclear, or hedged message internally.
“The most common pitfall I’ve seen is differing narratives during high-stress change moments, stemming from operational misalignment. For example, a company brags about AI externally as an efficiency accelerant, while employees hear hedged messages with no role clarity or adoption plan—creating an instant trust gap. Internal comms leaders can take it upon themselves to set up a cross-functional sync meeting around one narrative, so the company doesn’t ship headlines it can’t operationalize.” — Caleb Gardner, 18 Coffees
This insight is especially relevant as organizations accelerate their AI adoption. When leaders communicate boldly about AI-driven transformation externally—citing efficiency gains, workforce optimization, or competitive advantage—without a corresponding, clearly operationalized internal message, they erode employee trust and slow actual adoption. Caleb’s recommendation: establish a cross-functional sync process so that external narratives are always matched by internal role clarity, adoption plans, and transparent communication.
Why This Matters: Internal Communications as a Change Management Function
The Forbes piece, authored by communications analyst Svetlana Stavreva and featuring six experts from the Forbes Communications Council, argues that internal communications has fundamentally changed. Where it once acted primarily as a “gatekeeper”—controlling and distributing approved messages from the top down—it must now function as a value creator: a cross-functional connector that helps organizations align around purpose, navigate uncertainty, and build cultures of trust.
Caleb’s contribution zeroes in on the AI change management challenge—a core area of expertise at 18 Coffees. The firm’s strategic communications and organizational change consulting work is built around exactly this problem: helping organizations develop the internal alignment, role clarity, and communication structures that enable genuine transformation rather than surface-level change announcements that fail to land.
How 18 Coffees Helps Organizations Bridge the Internal-External Narrative Gap
At 18 Coffees, we specialize in helping organizations navigate the full complexity of change—not just the strategy, but the human side of transformation. Our Strategic Communications & Marketing and Organizational Change Consulting services are designed to ensure that what leaders say externally is backed by a clear, operationalized, and believable internal narrative.
Whether you’re rolling out a new AI platform, navigating a workforce restructuring, or realigning your organization around a new strategic direction, 18 Coffees helps you build the cross-functional communication infrastructure that prevents the trust gaps Caleb describes—and turns change announcements into genuine organizational movement.
Read the Full Forbes Article
Explore Caleb Gardner’s featured contribution in the full Forbes Communications Council article: “The New Role of Internal Communications: From Corporate Gatekeeper to Value Creator.”
Ready to close the gap between what your organization says and what it does? Learn how 18 Coffees helps companies implement change that actually sticks through our Strategic Communications & Marketing and Organizational Change Consulting services.
