Economists are real people too you know

Oddly enough, most of my best lessons about working in communication haven’t come from people who are communication professionals.

Case in point - my grandmother’s advice: “If somebody doesn’t understand what you’re telling them, don’t tell them louder. Tell them different.”

Had Grandma been more entrepreneurial she’d have printed that on t-shirts and sold them at marketing conferences.

Freakonomics brought quirky social economics into the mainstream and made, if not household names, then at least front-window-at-Waterstones names out of Stephen D. Levett and Stephen J. Dubner.

Tim Harcourt, Chief Economist at Austrade, continued the theme of accessible economic thinking with his creation of The Airport Economist.

This idea of easy economics also finds its way into the mainstream media, and this is the bit I like most because really clever people like Stephanie Flanders (UK) and Ross Gittins (Australia) go to the trouble of explaining major economic decisions that affect my daily life, in simple language that I use…in my daily life.

It’s almost like they’ve realised they hold a special kind of knowledge the rest of us don’t necessarily have, and they’re trying to share it with us. The thing is…that makes me more interested in what they’ve got to say, so I make more of an effort to keep up with what they’re saying, whether or not I’m immediately interested in the content.

To me, that’s exemplary communication, and it’s what every corporate spokesperson should be striving to achieve evey time they step up for a media interview or public speaking opportunity. It’s also what my Grandma does. I hope she doesn’t open an agency.

(PS - for all of our UK readers - make sure you call your mothers and grandmothers on Sunday)