Communicating When the World is Fighting a Disease
It’s important in today’s environment of pandemics, quarantines and disruptive (but of course meaningful, overdue, important and hopefully transformative) social unrest, to think about what’s really going on for your audience. Because there’s a very good chance they are in a totally unreceptive state to hear your message.
Just talking AT people should never be anyone’s approach to communication. But now more than ever, we need to really understand what is going on for the listener.
Lack of Touch Causing Childlike Regression
First, consider our sense of touch as humans. It’s literally the very first sense that comes online in the womb. We’ve seen some convincing evidence that all this social-distance and the lack of casual social touch (and maybe even the fear of a stranger’s touch these days) is probably regressing many people to a more childlike state.
What does this mean for you, trying to get your message across? Think of your role as a more of a parent, talking to kids. Be simple, direct and kind. When it comes to visuals, keep them playful and fun. It’s not the time for cursive writing or complex graphics. To reach today’s audience, the lighter the better.
Countering the Fight-or-Flight Instinct
Chances are your audience is also pretty triggered. As humans, we have basically two distinct nervous systems. The Sympathetic Nervous System and the Parasympathetic Nervous System. Not to oversimplify, but the Sympathetic Nervous System, which is great if you are in a true “fight-or-flight for life” scenario, is really problematic when you are trying to get through to someone.
The good news is, the Parasympathetic Nervous System works in direct opposition to the Sympathetic and can not only counter, but exponentially connect the listener to you and your message. In other words, if you can actually ACTIVATE COMPASSION in your audience, you can bring them into a much more valuable relationship with your communications.
So what does this mean for how we communicate? Well, here’s some suggestions of some simple phrases that are more likely to activate a response that can either shutdown your listener, or open them up and draw them in.
Lexicon Strategies Co-founder Brian Tolleson was previously CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, founder of renowned advertainment studio BARK BARK, and former Marketing and Creative executive at Viacom.
Brian has spent his career working at the intersection of human rights, media and social justice while managing billions in partnership marketing initiatives, multi-platform branding and content strategy for distributors like Sony, NBC Universal, and Google, as well as marketers such as P&G, Unilever, Clorox, Citigroup, Target, Microsoft, Starbucks, Mercedes Benz, Chevron and General Motors.