By Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
It takes earning stakeholders’ trust for an organisation to influence their actions and dispositions. Communication isn’t measured by what you intended to say, but by what your audience actually heard. For understanding to catch up with intent, there has to be a reduction in the distance between what people need to know and what the organisation is trying to tell them.
In public relations, consistency creates credibility. Credibility creates trust. Trust creates influence. Influence creates opportunities.
One major means of instilling trust in people is through shared understanding. Communication lands when the message reaches the recipient’s doorstep, not when the sender and receiver meet each other halfway.
Going the whole hog is required of the sender because every brand is now competing for the same limited resource: audience attention. Between receiving a message and acting on it lies a process through which audiences interpret meaning, evaluate credibility, draw upon personal experiences and decide whether the message deserves their trust. When a brand builds trust, people are more likely to buy into what it is offering.
Less Is More in Today’s Information World
The UK-based Civil Service College conducted a survey that asked participants in a webinar, “Why do messages fail to land?” According to the findings, a cumulative 70 per cent blamed the failure of messaging to resonate on information overload (28 per cent), competing priorities (24 per cent) and unclear actions (18 per cent).
In a digital world where professionals are inundated with hundreds of notifications, emails, messages and social media updates every day, your messaging must be scroll-stopping at first glance. This can be achieved not by trying to answer every conceivable question, but by providing an answer to the right question first: “What is the one thing people actually need to understand?”
Paucity of information is not the issue, but the dearth of mutual meaning. There you have your culprit when civil authorities announce well-designed policies that struggle to gain public acceptance; development agencies invest heavily in awareness campaigns but achieve limited behavioural change; or companies communicate strategic decisions, yet doubts and resistance persist.
These limitations necessitate the question: Are we informing people, or are we overwhelming them?
In the face of pressure that comes with change, uncertainty or public scrutiny, most organisations instinctively resort to saying more. Apart from press releases, they publish FAQs, hold town hall meetings, engage talking heads, send more emails and make more presentations. These may only increase the decibel of noise. Effective communication isn’t about piling on more information or repetition, but reducing friction.
Audiences aren’t comparing your newsletter only with that of your competitors. Your message is competing with LinkedIn, Substack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram channels, Slack, WhatsApp, podcast episodes, webinars and industry blogs. There are also ubiquitous AI-generated summaries that allow people to consume more information in less time.
This highlights the need for brevity and crisp messaging. Adding more slides to a presentation deck can bury the key message, causing people to walk away with different interpretations of the same conversation.
Go Beyond Informing People to Influencing Outcomes
Communication is not consummated with the delivery of a message. It is complete when understanding is established, trust is strengthened and people are empowered to make informed decisions.
Today’s digital platforms make it easier than ever to publish content, but publishing more does not automatically create influence. It is therefore imperative for organisations to be more concerned about providing insight rather than merely supplying information.
That’s the way to go because institutions routinely convey policies that are misunderstood. Public health initiatives struggle for traction despite widespread campaigns with huge budget outlays. Communities reject projects supposedly designed for their benefit. Organisations invest heavily in communication strategies and tactics, yet remain deficient in stakeholder trust.
It’s counterintuitive to assume that people will understand the value of what you’re proposing simply because it’s obvious to you. Communication isn’t just about expressing yourself, but meeting people of interest at their level.
A policy update may sound simple to executives but become convoluted once it reaches a store team trying to apply it to customers in front of them. Sustainable outcomes are achieved when people feel both informed and involved.
If citizens understand a policy, they are more likely to support it. If communities can see the benefits of a development initiative, they are more likely to take ownership of it. If employees understand the purpose behind organisational change, they are better positioned to drive it.
Clarity Chaos Clothed in Communication
Communication isn’t ignored merely because of a lack of access, but because people often can’t readily identify the kernel of the message and what is expected of them.
Communication tactics are bound to stall when caught in a web of contradictions. If people leave a meeting with ten different interpretations of the same message, communication has occurred, but understanding has not.
Imagine a company telling employees to embrace a new modus operandi, yet their managers continue rewarding the old way of performing their duties. That amounts to issuing two conflicting messages at once. One is contained in the training manual, while the other is cast in behaviour. You can be sure the unspoken code will be more audible than the spoken message.
When employees are required to change their mode of working while old reward standards are left intact, company culture, not avowed values, will carry the day. People often interpret what an organisation actually rewards faster than they process what it says in a memo. In such circumstances, the memo becomes noise.
Clarity will always triumph over chaos.
Here are other scenarios where communication is made the scapegoat when clarity is taken for granted:
- Priorities change without explanation.
- Two leaders operate from different assumptions about the same priority.
- Ownership isn’t clearly defined.
- A decision is assumed rather than actually made.
- Five leaders leave the same meeting with five different interpretations of the resolution.
- People aren’t aligned on expectations because business objectives were set once and never revisited.
Whether developing a narrative arc or content pillar, writing a press release, advising executives or preparing a presentation, the communicator must begin with purpose, not content.
Be sure to uncover that one idea the reader needs to understand, and everything else should flow from the answer. Determine the desired outcome so you can articulate what matters most.
Clarity is also achieved when communicators answer five important questions:
- What belongs in the message?
- What information should be left out?
- How much context is needed?
- What do we want the audience to do, the Call to Action (CTA)?
- What tone best serves the objective?
Final Thoughts
Communication is often viewed as a process of transmitting information when, in reality, it is about creating mutual meaning. Messaging lands when people understand it, trust it and act on it.
Trust will always be the fulcrum for information that influences stakeholders. When audiences understand the purpose, communication moves from information to influence. This is why communicators should think about outcomes rather than merely the amount of information they distribute.
Stakeholders generate momentum from the clarity created by an organisation. Every communication should have one clear idea that audiences can remember long after they have been exposed to the copy or content. That central idea, encapsulated in a single sentence, becomes the signal the public can trust without having to wrestle with unnecessary intricacies.
The compelling message isn’t necessarily the most comprehensive or polished. It is the one that decisively dispels doubts, dissonance and dilly-dallying.
Editor’s Note
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Mirror African Diaspora. Articles published in our Opinion and Business & Communications sections are intended to encourage informed discussion, critical reflection and the exchange of ideas. They are published following editorial review for clarity, style and journalistic standards while preserving the author’s voice and perspective.
About the Author
Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi is a branding specialist, storyteller and media trainer. He can be reached at nmiringwu@gmail.com.
