Is your messaging positive or negative?
I took an Easyjet flight earlier this year. Once we had boarded, an announcement told us ‘Your phone cannot be used at any time unless flight mode is switched on.’
Not long after that I took a flight with Emirates, their message was the same, yet it was delivered differently, ‘Phones may be used at all times, providing that flight mode is switched on.’
Which message do you prefer?
Many organisations and leaders make this mistake. The messages they deliver are important, they need to be heard, yet they don’t think about how they’re framed such that they are received positively. Instead they blame staff for not being open to change.
Here’s a great example. I had the pleasure of working with a start-up in Switzerland last week. They have just received further investment and, recognising the need to scale their culture, their leadership team is introducing systems to achieve consistency in the way things are done, whilst maintaining its entrepreneurial spirit.
One such system is performance management. Their messaging was ‘It’s how we build a culture where brilliant people thrive; how we reward, promote and how we make tough calls when our standards aren’t maintained.’
A similar client three years ago introduced something similar and called it ‘A necessary evil to ensure that we don’t let one bad egg spoil our culture for everyone else.’
Again, similar messaging, but the former promotes the change in a positive way, whilst the latter is more blunt.
Your preference will likely link to your communication style. However, research shows that positive messaging leads to better engagement, stronger commitment and more favourable behavioural responses.
Studies demonstrate that positively framed messages are more persuasive than negatively framed ones, particularly when people are focused on achieving goals rather than avoiding problems.
Nobel Prize-winning research by Kahneman and Tversky on Prospect theory revealed that people evaluate decisions based on how information is framed. The same message can produce entirely different reactions depending on whether it emphasises what's gained or what's lost.
The startup company understood this. Positioning performance management as how brilliant people thrive creates psychological buy-in. Whilst the 'necessary evil' framing generated resistance before they'd even started.
So the next time you're crafting a message to your team, ask yourself: am I telling them what's possible, or what's prohibited? The answer might determine whether your message lands or falls flat.
