The Art of Communication

The G8 summit - a gathering of the most powerful people in the world.  Interestingly, whilst holding a position of authority, they also need to be able to communicate to people at all levels and to all cultures… at all times. 

 
Thanks to the power of the media, their most reliable form of communication is often visual.  Their words can be misquoted, misinterpreted or taken out of context but their clothing is, within reason, as they put it on that morning! 

So how interesting to see a whole article dedicated to the fact that all the men turned out tie-less for their photo call 

Am I old fashioned?  If I’m putting my trust in a leader, regardless of my personal or political opinions, ultimately I need to know that I can trust them; they demonstrate this by presenting a consistent appearance, whether formal or casual, a consistent level of quality, thought, attention to detail and style that tells me ‘they know what they’re talking about’….. If we perceive that someone knows what they are talking about in one area it is often assumed that this applies to many other areas as well.

George Osborne is quoted as responding to the request to ‘turn up in smart-casual wear’ as, “I have followed it to the letter: I got out my jacket and my blue shirt”!  Looking to the dictionary we have:

      Smart – fashionable, elegant, canny and shrewd in dealings with others

      Casual – occurring by chance, occasional, unpremeditated, relaxed, informal

 

So smart-casual is almost an oxymoron.  In simple terms, it’s absolutely possible to be smart and casual, but there is nothing unpremeditated about the way these leaders chose what to wear and how can something ‘occurring by chance and occasional’ also cover ‘fashionable and elegant’? 

Frequently people lose the ‘smart’ when they apply the casual, others keep the ‘smart’ but struggle to make it ‘casual’ – maybe fearing they’ll look like they’re there by chance and are not the world class leader on the global stage?

Removing some of the ‘armour’ is a great way to demonstrate to each other and the world that they are ‘open’ – a good premise for a summit meeting.  Maybe the formality we are familiar with and have come to expect (why else would going tie-less raise an eyebrow?) communicates immovable, entrenched thinking.  Relaxing the dress code communicates a friendly, relaxed get-together where they are open to finding compromises and solutions that work for everyone rather than a ‘bunch of businessmen on a jolly’?

Which is it for you?  And therein lies the problem, we each have our own interpretations, their visual communication needs to translate across borders and cultures to everyone…. Consistently!