Blog: Make me understand...Please!

(Author: Fredrik Heinonen)

Flying back from Madrid Sunday afternoon, the skies below looked heavy and grim. I naturally made the obvious association with the current economic and political turmoil going on beneath the grey blanket over Europe. Nobody knows where the current situation will end, and most probably we will all have to revisit our linear perception of economic development and growth. But the situation also has an important communications lesson hidden in it – a colossal example of how messages do not meet their targets.

In a recent survey by Miltton, only 10% of respondents indicated that they understand the economic rhetoric’s of politicians in Finland well. Actually, the 10% was the number for opposition politicians, the governing parties where considerably better in formulating their message, scoring 11%. Clearest messages were delivered by representatives of the financial institutions; some 40% find them understandable. In between we find top management representatives, they are understood by 22% of Finns placing smack in the middle between politicians and experts.

Now this is not an overly academic study, nor can we draw far flung conclusions from it. But it does pinpoint an alarming mismatch between senders and recipients of economic news and information. Somewhere along the way we lost the ability to convey simple and coherent messages. No wonder people have a hard time deciding whether to consume or not, and what to do with excess money, if they have any.

PS. If you happen to be in Madrid, do stop by Mercádo de San Miguel (http://www.mercadodesanmiguel.es/). It’s an inspiring melting pot of food, wine and friends. Order a nice Rioja and a cone (!) of jamon Iberico and sit back and observe. You’ll find that people talk a language everybody understands, the culinary language.