Communicating Coronavirus #3

Yesterday I got two emails - one from my daughter's principal and one from my son's. If you're a parent with kids you'll know exactly the emails I mean - the ones we were all waiting for with bated breath, the ones that directed us whether or not to send our kids to school today.

I'm sharing both emails with you to demonstrate how important it is to avoid jargon when communicating about COVID-19.

My son's principal did a brilliant job. My daughter's principal failed.

Here's the message from my daughter's school (blackening out the name):

I read it and was thoroughly confused. What is a supervision model? What's the Learning from Home hub? What's a Framework for Teaching? Why did the email mention some taskforce - was that important?

What I needed to know was, if I sent my daughter to school, what would school actually look like for her? And, was the school recommending that I send her, or not?

Truthfully, I was so appalled by the jargon that I contacted the President of the P&C and suggested that she get in the ear of the principal and get her to send out another, much clearer email.

A couple of hours later came this email from my son's school:

Finally, here was message I could understand. My son's principal drew a clear picture for me of what would be happening at the school, should my boy attend: teachers would be there, but in a supervisory role only as all students - whether at home or at school - would be working online.

There was no jargon. Just simple, everyday language that someone with no connection to the education sector could easily understand.

What did the emails look like from your school?

And if you're sending out emails to your clients, employees or other stakeholders, put yourself in their shoes by thinking if I was them, what would I want to know? Don't confuse your message by using words and phrases that only your colleagues will understand.

Lastly, you may be asking, what did I decide in the end?

Well, my son is doing his schoolwork from home today - and managing just fine. My daughter will remain at school until I get further clarification about the alternative.

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Looking for my other Communicating Coronavirus posts? Read #1 here and #2 here

Christine Heard is a Media Skills Network accredited trainer and runs Heard Communication, a media and crisis training consultancy that works with big business, SMEs, start ups and no-for-profits.

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