Internal Communication vs COVID-19 government communications: 10 ways in which they’re similar

As the pandemic rages on and the U.K. moves into a third national lockdown, I was struck by the comparisons between government communications and corporate Internal Communication – and how getting communication right in this day and age is more important than ever.

1. People don’t read everything.

• If people don’t read everything that’s published, it leads to confusion.
• Worst still, if people either haven’t read/heard a message or have heard an older message that is no longer valid while a new message is being pushed out, there’s noise in the system and lots of frowning faces.

2. People don’t understand everything.

• If you’re not clear, there will be a ton of questions and a drop in trust. We have many intelligent people in our countries and companies, but that doesn’t count for anything when worrying and disruptive announcements are made.
• This goes back to the Average Grade Level minus 4 (AGL-4) principle from Dr. Vincent Covello: “When people are stressed and upset, they typically process information at four grade levels below their average grade level.” (From: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1015/ML101590283.pdf, slide 40)
• See point 4 below.

3. People want perfect clarity and specific information related to them as individuals, rather than having to fill in the blanks themselves

• If you’re going to release information, make sure you have a ton of FAQs – and as many answers as possible.
• Arm your managers, leaders and senior politicians with the answers to the questions, not just the key messages for them to fall back on when they’re under pressure from employees/journalists.
• “They don’t have a clue what they’re doing” – as soon as there’s a lack of information or clarity, your reputation and credibility are damaged.

4. The simpler, the better.

• Too many ever-changing and confusing instructions lead to more confusion, apathy and mistrust.
• In the U.K., we’ve had three slogans, each one slightly simpler than the previous one. It’s now just three words: hands, face, space.
• But the ever-simpler slogan wasn’t backed up with simple instructions and clear, directive guidance, so many people relied on media outlets and social media to interpret and summarise with varying accuracy and success.

5. People don’t listen.

• Similar to my son, who hears without listening, you can tell people something, but they often won’t listen to what you’re saying and will perhaps claim they didn’t know at a later date.
• If you want to make sure they’ve listened, you need to find out if they understood what you said. “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place,” said George Bernard Shaw.
• Communication is the transfer of understanding from one party to another, so you need to make sure that transfer has happened.

6. People don’t follow guidance – they need clear, unambiguous direction.

• In the same way that people don’t always obey road signs and speed limits, they’ll do what they want at the end of the day and claim that the guidance doesn’t apply to them or push the boundaries of what they’re allowed to do.
• If you want something to happen in a particular way, say it straight.
• Rather than “You’re advised not to…” say “You must not…”

7. People don’t accept what they neither like nor trust.

• If they read something they don’t trust – or the herd tells them it’s untrustworthy – they’ll invariably ignore it.
• At the start of the pandemic, people tended to be quite compliant as the situation was new and the impact of the virus was largely unknown; later on, as more scientific evidence came to light, conflicting opinions from experts were rife on social media and conspiracy theories grew online, the compliance with government instructions waned.
• Similarly, in business, unless you’re concrete with your communication and consistent in what you say, standing by every decision made and having clarity at every turn, your people will lose trust in what you’re trying to do and you’ll see a drop in morale and productivity – and perhaps a spike in attrition.
• It also didn’t help that senior officials flouted the rules with no immediate consequences; woe betide business leaders who say one thing and do something different.

8. People make up their own conclusions.

• If you’re not clear about what you’re saying and what it means to people, they’ll come up with their own conclusions… and humans often jump to negative reasoning if the facts are missing.

9. People get bored of messages pretty quickly.

• We’ve seen the messages change in the U.K. a few times, but the way in which they’re delivered stays pretty standard. Are people listening to everything anymore?
• In an organisation, you need to get creative and keep developing your channel mix to keep people interested, while keeping the core messages simple and consistent.

10. Leaders can sometimes run off and do their own thing which damages trust.

• In the U.K., the Prime Minister and the leaders of the devolved parliaments of the U.K. have too often gone off and delivered their own similar but distinct messages: the tiered system in 2020 differed between England and Scotland; the lockdowns in Wales and Northern Ireland happened at different times to the rest of the U.K.; the slogans have differed. This hasn’t done anything to show a united front in which people can trust the decisions being made.
• To what extent does this happen in a company? Do your leaders go off and say their own thing or do they stay consistent with the corporate messaging?
• Furthermore, the confusion of leaders running off and doing their own thing produces anarchy, rebellion and maverick, independent actions, which may or may not be helpful overall.

Have you seen any parallels between government and corporate communications? Let me know in the comments.