Credible content

Last Sunday afternoon, I was shopping in my local supermarket (oh, it's an exciting life!). It was packed but I was pleased to note that the announcements requesting shoppers to make their way to the checkouts didn't start until 3.45pm. On one occasion last year. once again on a Sunday, this announcement came just after 3.30 - and this was in mid-summer, not the crowded run-up to Christmas. Two things struck me at the time; firstly, how relieved I was not to be a shareholder in a company whose staff were not even telling their customers to complete their final purchases but actually trying to drive them to the tills nearly half an hour before closing time! And secondly, how all of us in the store simply ignored what we knew to be a quite ridiculous announcement and just carried on with our shopping!

Public Speaking Tip #91: The message and the messenger must have some credibility if they are to make any impact.

The best example I can think of regarding somebody distracting from their own message through a lack of credibility is in the building where I live. We have very few rules here, all of them perfectly reasonable, but a number of owners and tenants persistently ignore them. The Residents' Association puts up notices from time to time but to little avail. I can't help wondering if at least one or two members of the intended audience for these communications would take them a little more seriously if they weren't signed with the badly punctuated abbreviation:

'From the Residents Ass'

Oh dear!