I have a strong allergy to polished internal slide decks.

When I see one, my first instinct is not “great communication.” It is “how many hours went into making this look good instead of making the work better?”

That does not mean internal communication should be sloppy. It should be clear, direct, and useful. But for most internal work, a handful of bullet points in Slack, a rough doc, or an ugly slide deck is better than a beautiful deck that took hours to polish.

Polish is useful when the artifact itself is the product, when we are communicating externally, or when the audience genuinely needs a high-fidelity narrative. Internally, most of the time, I would rather we spend that energy on the actual work, clearer thinking, or faster learning.