I couldn't help but feel sorry for Andrew Lansley, forced to stand up in parliament and defend his controversial NHS reforms earlier today because he's failed to explain the need for change, or for the changes he wants to make.
It's a lose/lose situation. Unless you can clearly articulate the case for what you want to do as well as the 'where, when, who and why', very few people will support you. So big ideas flounder for want of a clear exposition. Good communicators know this instinctively, and it's not hard to get right.
It's been said that Lansley knows everything, but can't say it in three sentences. I saw the same inability to make a compelling case - or indeed any kind of case - for a key policy when Lord Wei told a Conservative party conference fringe meeting that Big Society 'stops you feeling small'. Really?? Who knew?
So regardless of what you think about the proposed NHS reforms, Lansley's experience today should remind us all that we ignore the message at our peril.
My mother often says "if you buy a bunch of roses, do you smell the wrapping?". Fair point, but every now and then, it really helps if you know how to wrap. Write yourown hip hop joke here ;-)
