Google tells us that the human consideration span is barely eight seconds – one second lower than a goldfish. Whether or not that is reality or click on bait, it’s true that folks ‘information snack’ to filter out the periphery.
Right now, healthcare communication inhabits a fast-moving eco-system with a excessive quantity of site visitors. Now that social media and digital have opened so many extra alternatives to get our message throughout, it’s extra vital than ever to create attention-grabbing and genuine connections – and never simply add to the noise.
It’s a common reality that persons are sophisticated. Our motivations are usually not solely ruled by rational thought processes vying for management over our feelings, however a myriad of different components are at play. These embody peoples’ cultural beliefs and social context; cognitive means to completely perceive, then act on info obtained; perspective to threat and loss aversion, and unconscious biases that decide how we make sense of the world round us.
Put merely, human beings are irrational. This complexity deepens additional within the context of healthcare, the place decision-making has vital penalties.
We see rational decision-making behaviour when healthcare professionals make selections about remedies in persistent illness areas, the place even small good points should be weighed towards potential losses.
In distinction, this “norm” is much less current when persons are underneath acute healthcare stress or there’s a excessive perceived menace to survival – that is when our primal motivations take over.
In terms of crafting communication, we should take care that our message will land in the best way we count on it to. Understanding how our mind is sensible of incoming info will help form an outgoing message that makes an affect. For instance, selective consideration signifies that our means to concentrate is normally restricted to the start and the conclusion – what’s within the center could be missed. Maybe useful for avoiding confrontation when delivering dangerous information, however to take care of curiosity we have to punctuate content material with attention-grabbing hooks.
A symptom of our actuality, an excessive amount of info or cognitive overload is an issue. Most individuals can not actively retain greater than seven gadgets at anyone time and normally can spontaneously recall solely three, or at finest, 4 gadgets. The ‘rule of three’ is a great tool to simplify communication and deal with priorities.
In healthcare the stakes could be excessive, and the notion of threat can create biases and affect how individuals behave. We are able to use a gain-framing strategy to focus on a difficulty so long as the ‘threat’ is resolved instantly and the ‘acquire’ from taking a plan of action is framed in a constructive approach.
Nice communication is about individuals – not about goldfish. To mobilise your viewers to your trigger, or land compelling model or company messaging, understanding what makes them tick is a crucial start line in your journey of persuasion. Utilizing shortcuts like these will help us make sense of the human psyche and are important elements in any healthcare communicator’s storytelling armoury.
