The importance of sending messages
to others came up in several ways over the past few days. Last week we remembered the
passing of Dr Kate Granger. She died on the 23rd July 2016 after a
five year battle against cancer. She was an inspirational woman, who founded
the very successful ‘my name is’ campaign. Her campaign encouraged health care
staff to introduce themselves to their patients. Kate had the news of her
incurable cancer communicated to her by someone she didn’t know and who didn’t
introduce himself, and who without any warning told her ‘her cancer had spread’.
Kate didn’t use bottles to get her message across, but the modern equivalent,
Twitter. It was a simple message, #mynameis - but it was hugely effective, and the
impact it had for patients and staff is her legacy.
When he was Secretary of State
for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Hunt was a strong supporter of Kates work.
Last Tuesday he chaired the Parliamentary Health Select Committee. You can watch the work of these committees as they are broadcast live. Last
weeks session is well worth watching, you can do so here. The committee,
through some very eminent ‘witnesses’, explored how the Covid-19 pandemic had been
managed. You can judge for yourself, although many readers of this blog probably
could guess at my thoughts.
One of the strong themes to come
from the various witness accounts was the need for more effective
communications. Many cited the mixed messages from government as being
unhelpful in the way the pandemic had been managed. For example, think of the dithering
there was over whether wearing face coverings was beneficial, and if so to
whom, and where should we be wearing them. Indeed, the way in which the
introduction of compulsory face coverings was communicated has left many folk
confused about where and when they should be wearing a face covering. I have
had several social media chats with folk who honestly believed the wearing
of face coverings is advisory and not compulsory. Some people are simply defiant
and are protesting (by not wearing a face covering), mainly on the basis of not
wanting to be told what to do by the Government. Unbelievable, but probably
partly due to poor messaging as to what and why wearing a face covering is a
good thing. The message is quite simple: wear a mask and protect others,
and stop the spread of the virus.
Living with someone who is a
communications expert, my attention is constantly drawn to examples of ineffective
communication and messaging. Just last week it appears B&Q had put an apostrophe
in the wrong place, and Salford City Council had got it completely wrong with their
use of an apostrophe and shortening of words. And I won’t tell you how many
times I get shouted at because of my poor use of the apostrophe. No, it has to be
said, effective messaging is a skill. When I was a Dean of a School, I would steadfastly
avoid blaming anyone for failing to achieve what I might have asked them to do.
Their failure was ultimately my failure to communicate effectively. It was a
simple approach and one that kept me alive to the fact that not everyone saw
the world as I might have done.
The importance of keeping this
thought in mind has been brilliantly set out in the recent NHS Leadership Academy’s
guide: Compassionate Leadership in Crisis (that is their title, which perhaps suffers
in meaning from a missing ‘a’). Don’t be put off by the simple messaging, it’s
a guide for folk to use in reflecting on their own practice and approach. It is worth a look. Also worth a read,
although it’s a much longer document, is the Radix report Localise, Equalise, and Untick: The future of health care post Covid. It is my new ‘go-to’ reading for
inspiration and reflection. Reading it last week, one of the things that struck
a chord was the notion of why organisations like the NHS prefer numbers rather
than words when conveying messages or seeking to give reassurance. Targets and
key performance indicators feel objective when numbers are used. But as we saw
in the daily Covid -19 briefings, using numbers to provide assurance and reassurance
can often be even more unreliable than words.
And for many of us understanding
what numbers might be telling us can be a difficult. Like many people I
suspect, hearing that the founder and owner of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, already the worlds
richest man, saw a £13 billion rise in his fortune last week probably didn't mean
too much. Yes it’s a lot of money, but its difficult to comprehend just how
much it is and what difference it makes. However, if you use both words and
numbers and change the context slightly, a glimpse of understanding becomes possible.
Think about how long a million seconds is. Its just over 11 days. I billion
seconds is just over 31 years!
Now I think it will take more
than 11 days (and I hope less than 34 years) to get the NHS back on track. The
Radix report sets out some powerful messages as to how we might do this and
think very differently about tackling the root causes of ill health across
society in so doing. I might put a copy of the report into a bottle and send it
to Matt Hancock to read and consider!
Ps: and don’t even get me started
on the recent Brexit messaging of ‘Let's Get Going’ – I’m thinking New Zealand
looks good, book me a ticket and let’s get going!
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