Communicators are part of the problem
Thanks for reading Pluck! Today, we’re talking about the growing cynicism of audiences—and how communicators can start making things right.
It’s a golden age for the communications profession:
The need for communications services has never been greater, with 84% of leaders engaging in more channels than ever before.
Communications leaders have never held more sway, with 83% of Chief Communications Officers reporting growing influence in the C-suite.
Communications teams have never had a bigger footprint, increasingly absorbing other strategic functions like HR, ESG, and Corporate Affairs.
And yet… what has all this communication produced?
Trust is plummeting in every major institution, including business, government, and media. It’s a mistrust that runs so deep, it’s actually making us less polarized—united in our skepticism of each other and the world.
Put simply… every audience is becoming a hostile audience.
This is the reality all communicators are now grappling with in some form or another. It’s undermining our ability to even effectively be communicators.
Our profession relies on audiences believing that we’re communicating sincerely—not only that we believe what we’re saying, but that we believe it’s worth sharing. Cynicism breaks this essential communicator-audience contract—and cynicism is running rampant.
But why shouldn’t it be? In our rush to create more content and exert more influence, many communicators have lost touch with the audiences we’re meant to connect with.
Those audiences are increasingly seeing the game for what it is—and they’re sick to death of being told to ignore it.
Look no further than the corporate whiplash on DEI over the past five years. After the murder of George Floyd, businesses rushed to share their commitments on combating racism, promoting diversity, and creating a more equitable society. Now, after the second election of Donald Trump, the tide is rushing out, with the Metas and Amazons of the world tripping over themselves to reverse course.
Did these businesses’ values change overnight? Of course not. Audiences know these decisions were never based in values at all. Companies were chasing trends in service of chasing profits.
And communicators helped them do it.
It may feel unfair to lay blame for this at the feet of our profession. But while these choices may have originated in the C-suite or the boardroom… we were the ones workshopping the talking points, writing the social media posts, and sending the emails about them.
We’re part of the problem. We’ve been complicit in feeding the beast that’s now eating us alive, turning audiences against our leaders, our organizations, and our very profession.
We have to own this responsibility if we have any chance at being part of the solution. And we have to commit to doing better.
First, we need to get back to advocating for our audiences. Your organization doesn’t need another cheerleader for management decisions. It has plenty of those. Communicators instead need to voice the uncomfortable truths about how decisions will be received by an organization’s most important stakeholders, including its employees. Having these conversations in advance—and letting them shape not only the communications around decisions, but the decisions themselves—will ultimately help protect organizations and their leaders.
Second, we need to prioritize the long view. Too many leaders are currently solving for short-term issues without fully considering long-term implications. Communicators should not be among them. An organization’s most valuable asset is its reputation—something that can be built over years, yet squandered in seconds. Our job, then, should be to put decisions in the context of how they will play today and how they will fit into an organization’s broader legacy—not only with existing stakeholders, but with future ones.
Third, we need to say less to communicate more. It’s time to back away from the idea that more content, more statements, and more engagement is always better—even if it shrinks our budgets. The most valuable communicators will increasingly be the ones who understand when the juice is worth the squeeze—urging restraint when an issue is outside of an organization’s sphere of influence, and fearlessly diving into the fights that are actually worth having. Being more judicious in what’s said will let people start hearing a lot more.
None of this will be easy. Digging out of the hole we’re in will require each of us to unearth our most courageous selves. We’ll need to use louder voices, take up more space, and sometimes even argue against the need for our own work.
But the trust we gain back—from audiences and our organizations—will be worth it.
Pluck: A Newsletter for Fearless Communicators is produced by Justine Adelizzi, an award-winning speechwriter and communications leader. She is the founder of FEARLESScomms, a coaching and consulting firm dedicated to creating fearless communicators.