We live in an era where communication skills are considered as an essential tool in all fields of human endeavour. From the cradle to the grave, we learn how to engage with those around us through speech. Good communication has evolved from being a refined art to a science.
But the way we speak is not always conducive to building trust with those around us.
The COVID-19 pandemic has given us a multitude of examples of figures of speech including hyperbole, understatement, euphemism, metaphors, paradox and antithesis together with platitudes and unadulterated gibberish. Faced with a global catastrophe that no one has experienced before, we all seek to understand how this pandemic is likely to affect our health, our wealth and our chances of survival.
The media has engaged medical, political, economics and a multitude of other experts to address people’s concerns. Not surprisingly, many feel more confused after hearing contradictory interpretations of what is happening around us and how our lives will change when this is all over.
I do not blame medical experts for coming up with conflicting advice on whether wearing face masks is a good thing or not. Neither do I feel upset if one doctor says we should continue to take a daily walk while another doctor advises us not to do so. The truth of the matter is that no one has empirical evidence of what is best since this is a new epidemic that has not been experienced before.
What many expect is to be told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We need to understand what we know and do not know about this pandemic.
The narrative of the evolution of this crisis should best be left to medical experts
However, in the last several weeks, the world has been exposed to happy talk by politicians who, like Donald Trump, see their role as that of ‘cheerleaders’ for their citizens. Admittedly, after some initial bouts of denial by most global leaders, many politicians came to the only reasonable conclusion. The narrative of the evolution of this crisis should best be left to medical experts who do not depend on the feel-good factor of the electorate to survive in their career.
There were, of course, some medical experts who made a fool of themselves as much as some politicians.
Scotland’s chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, had no option but to resign when it was revealed that she did not follow her advice to people to stay at home. She decided to visit her holiday home twice with her family when people were told to stay at home. Yet David Clark will continue as New Zealand’s health minister despite labelling himself an ‘idiot’ and offering to resign his position for a second blunder during the country’s lockdown when he was seen mountain biking near his home.
Some religious interpretations of why this pandemic has devastated humanity often bordered on the absurd. Landon Spradlin, a Virginia pastor, in his sermons, told his parishioners that ‘Jesus loved them’. He criticised the “mass hysteria” surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. According to US media reports, Spradlin has now died of the illness. Luckily, many true Christians preferred to speak less and do more to help the most vulnerable in this global tragedy.
The number of self-appointed experts advising people on TV screens and online media must have been bewildering for many.
We have seen projections of falls in global GDP ranging from three to 40 per cent sending shivers down the spine of many who live from paycheque to paycheque. While there is no doubt that the economic effects of this pandemic will last for years, we need to sift well what some experts tell us.
Employers using workers as a target to extract as much support from governments is not the best way to ensure that normality returns as early as possible and does not sacrifice the weak on the altar of economic growth.
Communication helps to build trust between people. But to do this effectively, public leaders need to engage in straight talk and not manipulate information, however good their intentions may be. I am sure that convalescing Boris Johnson is giving more importance to what his expert St Thomas Hospital clinician Dr Richard Leach has to say than the advice of the US president.
Spin doctors, public relations officers and influencers are a new breed of communications professionals in a world obsessed with image building. One just hopes that straight talk remains the gold standard of good communication.