How do you know when your communication is piss poor

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOUR COMMUNICATION IS PISS POOR?

Most communication or at least attempts at it are, if not piss poor, not a great deal better. This is an issue I have referred to over the seemingly endless weeks of the Coronavirus. You know the period I am talking about – the period that you were not listening because you were tired of long dreary speeches dominated by the words – unprecedented, pandemic, social distancing and self-isolation. 

You surely know that while there have been a lot of words spoken and even more written, there has been very little actual communication. To the extent that it might be called communication at all – most, if not all, of it has been piss poor. You know when communication is more than bad – and actually piss poor when two things are evident.

Firstly, rather than communicating, they are articulating – or talking at you. Communication is the exchange of information – which by definition involves both articulating and listening. And very little of the communication regarding the Coronavirus has involved any listening. We have had a steady stream of politicians and medical experts talking at us, with little if any empathy (a sign that they are listening). You know there is no empathy when the speaker repeats themselves three times, uses the same words over and over, has little structure to their speech and rather than being clear – says – ‘let me be clear’. 

Secondly, there is the issue of behaviour change. The principal objective of all communication should be to facilitate behaviour change. While behaviour change is certainly being sort by politicians and medical experts, there is often a lack of clarity and consistency in terms of what behaviour is sort. There is also a tendency to ignore – or at least fail to use – the power of persuasion that can be so effective in encouraging behaviour change. Emotion and not facts change behaviour and emotion requires persuasion. Instead, our politicians rely on policing and penalties to cause a behaviour.

Many still talk about the great speaking skills of John Kennedy, a man who died in 1963, but continues to impress us to this day. There was much to like about the communication skills of this US President, including his skilled use of words, pace, pause and simplicity. More than anything, however, John Kennedy was a great speaker because, like Martin Luther King, he inspired people. He made them believe in themselves and a big dream – like landing on the moon. Inspiring people in this way requires – empathy and emotion. Then people do it because they feel it is their duty.

Consider these words uttered by JFK in 1961

“I believe we should go to the moon. But I think every citizen of this country, as well as the Members of the Congress, should consider the matter carefully in making their judgment, to which we have given attention over many weeks and months because it is a heavy burden. There is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful. If we are not, we should decide today and this year.”

“But why, some say, the moon?” he posed. “Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.” 

I ask you this – ‘when is the last time you hear a politician anywhere, let alone Australia, give a speech that demonstrated so much empathy and inspired with such strength? Well, as far as Australia is concerned, I have never heard them. I have not heard an inspiring word from an Australian politician since Hawke, and that was not exactly Kennedy like. Before that, we have to go back the Whitlam and Menzies – but even they did not rise to the heights of Kennedy. 

I also ask you this – when is the last time you heard a businessperson talk like this? I never have – even though most business people I know understand the power of an inspirational speech intellectually. 

An emotion-charged inspirational speech can change behaviour without policing, without laws and without KPIs. That is not to say that we should not have policing, laws and KPIs. Still, it is to say that very few politicians and even fewer businesspeople embrace the power of effective communication.

Just a thought.