Comment: clarity and government communication

Tuesday 04 September 2018

Communication, communication, communication...With hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' cash having been injected into a new States PR team, outnumbering Jersey's paramedics or Brexit officials, the government ought to be rather good at this.

But, according to local marketing expert Chris Journeaux, new States Chief Charlie Parker and his Comms right-hand man Stephen Hardwick are yet to get the message across to islanders that the group of non-Jersey recruits shipped in to consultant and Director General roles as part of Mr Parker's reformed public sector are worth their weight in gold.

In his most recent column for Connect magazine, he analyses the way the government speaks to us and how they can do it better...

"Government makes for an easy target in so many spheres of life in Jersey perhaps, at least in part, because it is so large. Governments are by their nature sprawling and we don’t have to live in the tortuous imbecility of a socialist state to experience the challenges that presents.

"Having said that, too often our government seems to be the generator of its own problems. This column cannot offer enough space to dissect all the possible causes of this, but it can explore the elements dominated by external communication. Here, it so often finds itself wanting, and in particular around the more strategic decisions: the big stuff.

"Consider, if you haven’t already, the changes happening within the structure of government and the Civil Service right now. The new, imported faces just keep coming, each one smiling if not at their reportedly large wages, then likely at the prospect of educating little Jersey about the reality of effective government.

"It is not that I begrudge them their smiles; I would be smiling with their suggested terms and conditions. No, it is that in my mid-forties I have seen this before; many times: ‘big change is coming to rescue us from ourselves, from our small-town thinking.’ This all leads to a level of scepticism that needs challenging, before those smiles start to look just a little bit too smug.

Pictured: Christopher Journaux writes that when it comes to government communication, we need to look past the 'big change is coming' rhetoric.

"It is not that people with a wealth of experience from the outside are not welcome; they are. But with all the experience they carry, there must be a desire to demonstrate their value and vision to the islanders to whom they are accountable.

"So, what do we seek from government communication? Explanation and clarity. Simple as that. What is going to be different this time, which makes the importation of a big chunk of the senior civil service necessary? At this point I am not swamped with doubt. Most of these ‘new’ people appear to come with a pedigree that will help us move forward in our structure and planning.

"So, explain what is planned. This is what open government is meant to be: an explicit explanation as to what is changing; what are the benefits and what are the metrics by which we will measure success – ever noticed how the metrics in government too often go missing?

Pictured: Good government communication boils down to two things: explanation and clarity.

"Get this right and we can set aside our concerns about the apparent woeful lack of succession planning, or the indecision that appears to bedevil government. We can all turn our ire to the politicians at the next election, assuming we finally get an exceptional crop of choices one day in the future, and let the imported team do their much-heralded work.

"It all sounds very easy and of course it is not. Government’s reputation for not delivering, whether always justified or not, means that it is rightly nervous. Communication is actually quite tough, and takes confidence; ask any marketing professional trying to sell a questionable product. But government must lead. Some of what needs to be said will be unpopular, but that is not a reason to avoid it being said.

"If this new team can lead by example, find a collective spine that appears to have been missing for a while, we might even get a new hospital for example. The message, buried in the many reports and findings, seem clearly to argue for building on People’s Park. I am one of the few regular users of the Park, and I would miss it.

Pictured: People's Park was shortlisted as a potential site for the Future Hospital in 2015, before being removed from the list by the Council of Ministers.

"However, the message, uncomfortable though it is, should surely be that the healthcare of future generations must take precedence over the individual regarding this green space. Especially one that will be replaced by the proposed project. What we get, however, is a void of communication into which barely 8,000 signatories can pour their anger in order to ‘save’ our ‘park of the people.’

"Where we have reached, though, is a misunderstood definition of communication; that of spin. Spin too often means putting a false gloss to the decisions and events less likely to be popular, and relies heavily on the audience being largely made up of morons. If spin is the driver, then Charlie Parker and Stephen Hardwick have their work cut out because there are some uncomfortable truths for us to swallow, as progress happens.

Pictured: "If spin is the driver, then Charlie Parker and Stephen Hardwick have their work cut out", writes marketing expert Christopher Journeaux.

"We can take it of course. Our finance industry was built on the back on imported expertise. We are a trading port by nature, and have regarded new ideas, fresh ways of thinking brought in to our country as the lifeblood of it. We understand the benefits of change.

"We simply want one of the basics of marketing: clear, unadulterated and honest communication. We may not like all the content, but I suspect we are old enough, and experienced enough, to deal with it. That, and finally, some government succession planning."

This article originally appeared in Connect magazine. You can read it by clicking here.