I believe work without humanity isn’t work worth showing up for. That’s it.

Ellen Griley is a thought leader in trauma-informed communication

My work and my life are a continuous exploration of what it means to be human. Every story I write. Every fiscal year strategy I create. Every crow pose I fail at. And yes, every Fleetwood Mac song I sing in the shower. (There are several.)

They’re all part of the process.

What defines my approach can’t be found in yesterday’s playbooks. It’s in the actual moments: the triumphs, heartbreaks, and the sometimes aching work of progress.

My perspective is anchored by graduate degrees in communications and trauma-informed leadership. But it also contains the humanity of my story: navigating the loss of a sibling, discovering my own path to healing and recovery, and coping with the complexity and uncertainty of modern life.

These experiences shaped my advocacy for mental health, vulnerability, and resilience. They made compassion and trust my beacons for building both teams and communication strategies that truly support people.

As a leader at Cisco and beyond, I’ve led award-winning teams (and rebuilt them after layoffs), cultivated trust during uncertainty, and championed transparency. My mantra is, “I’m always going to assume you’re doing your best. I’m never going to assume you’re feeling your best.”

I live this every day.

I believe operational rigor and strategic vision must be balanced with a commitment to empathy and psychological safety. Celebrate the good moments, learn from the cruddy ones. Strive for continuous improvement, promote every bit of progress, and create environments where people feel seen and supported.

For me, trauma-informed communication begins with trauma-informed leadership. It’s about empowering teams to thrive, especially when the future is unclear. I design strategies that honor people’s experiences — inside and outside work — foster engagement, and deliver clarity in the face of complexity.

Curiosity is what wakes me up in the morning. Candor is my compass. I never stop asking questions or learning. And I never forget that every team member has a story.

If you’re ready to build communications where trust, clarity, and empathy drive results, let’s connect. The world doesn’t need another internal comms expert, but it does need leaders who make work worth showing up for.

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FAQs

  • The statistics don’t lie. Overall, estimates are that over 60% of the workforce has experienced one traumatic event in their lives.

    Even more to the point, every member of your workforce experienced the collective trauma of the pandemic.

    You don't need to diagnose individual trauma. But you do need to design communications that work for rewired brains.

    Think of it like accessibility compliance.

    You don't test each website visitor for visual impairments — you design for accessibility because it helps everyone and ensures you're not excluding anyone.

  • The key difference is intentionality around neurological impact. Traditional best practices focus on clarity and engagement.

    Trauma-informed practices specifically consider how chronic stress affects information processing and the fight-flight-freeze-fawn responses.

    For example, good practice suggests consistent communication.

    Trauma-informed practice specifies that consistency must extend to timing, format, and sender because trauma-affected brains scan for pattern disruptions as potential threats.

    Good practice recommends transparency.

    Trauma-informed practice requires acknowledging historical context — for instance, explicitly addressing how current changes differ from previous organizational experiences that may have created trust ruptures.

    The framework is grounded in neuroscience research about how sustained uncertainty affects decision-making, emotional regulation, and information retention.

  • AI announcements are particularly complex because they activate multiple stress responses simultaneously.

    Historical context reminds people of previous technology changes that eliminated jobs. Uncertainty about timeline and impact triggers hypervigilance. The complexity of AI itself — and the headlines about it — creates cognitive overload.

    Trauma-informed AI communications must: acknowledge explicitly that people are worried about job displacement; provide concrete details about how roles are changing; offer multiple ways to get questions answered; and give people agency over their learning.

  • Trauma-informed doesn't mean slow — it means strategic. Urgent communications can still follow trauma-informed principles: clear subject lines that indicate urgency level, consistent sender identification, immediate acknowledgment of the stressful nature of the timing, and explicit next steps.

    The key is distinguishing between genuinely urgent information that requires immediate action and information that feels urgent to leadership but doesn't require immediate employee response. Most "urgent" communications are actually "important" communications being delivered poorly.

    When something truly is urgent, trauma-informed approaches will actually improve response rates because people trust your communication patterns and know that when you say urgent, you mean it.

  • Trauma-informed communications must be your baseline approach, not your crisis protocol. It must be a fundamental strategy shift.

    Also, remember this approach is about keeping employees focused. It’s not about discussing everyone’s trauma or avoiding difficult conversations.

    It’s about building communications strategies that work with nervous systems rather than against them.

  • Let’s talk. Consider the cost of triggering fight-or-flight responses: increased sick leave, higher turnover during change periods, reduced productivity from stressed employees, and the opportunity cost when critical information gets lost in organizational noise.

    This approach could be a competitive advantage: while other organizations struggle with information overload and employee disengagement, you'll have a workforce that pays attention when you communicate because their nervous systems trust your communication patterns.

    Education, healthcare, UX design, and even architecture have all successfully integrated trauma-informed principles. We're just applying them to internal communications.

    And if you need another reason: Consider it future-proofing.

    The pace of change isn't slowing down. Organizations need communication strategies that work regardless of external chaos.