How to extract meaning from words, with Professor Rob Ford

In this episode of Future-Proof Your Career, we speak to professor of politics at the University of Manchester and frequent contributor to the BBC and other media, Rob Ford. Rob is the co-author of Brexitland with Professor Maria Sobolewska, and the author of The British General Election of 2019. 

We spoke to Rob about how you extract meaning from people’s words, even if they don’t always say what they mean. Here’s what we learned.

Think of leaders as politicians

Business leaders and politicians have a lot of the same pressures, particularly when they are trying to satisfy multiple audiences. It’s one thing leading - and championing - a single team. You can be absolutely partisan. But when you have to satisfy people across the company, customers, and shareholders, and deal with lots more information, it’s a very different situation. So people in senior positions are likely to be more conservative, more political. 

Who is the audience?

Think about the speaker’s audiences. Who do they need to impress or please? This will shape a lot of their message. If you don’t like it, you might not be their intended - or most important - audience.

Social desirability bias

People moderate their language because they’re trying to appeal to you or because they don’t think you will like what they really think. This might disguise negative feedback, people’s real opinions or positions.

We all have a hidden motive

We’re human beings with lots going on, both inside and outside the workplace. Accept that everyone has multiple motivations for their actions.

Sincerity is powerful - even when it’s faked

While we can’t recommend lying, the lesson from politics seems to be that we believe people who can perform sincerity. So try to be sincere in your message. But keep an eye out for those who might not be quite so sincere as they appear.

Separate the message from the packaging

Flowery language can disguise different intent. Take time to look behind the words and see the meaning.

Repetition, repetition, repetition

If you think you’re missing something, or you want someone to reveal a potentially hidden motive, get people to repeat the message until you get clarity. Use variations on a question to extract all the missing pieces of the story.

Foghorns, dog whistles, dead cats

We talked about some of the terminology of political communication, much of which can be applied to the business world. A ‘dog whistle’ is language designed to appeal to a particular group without making explicit statements that might attract public scrutiny - often where a policy might be deemed racist or otherwise offensive. Business leaders might signal to the markets that they want to downsize a business without explicitly talking about job cuts, though most people recognise what ‘rationalisation’ really means now. 

Sometimes there is no dog whistle and it’s an outright foghorn instead, and the message comes through loud and clear. Some leaders are incapable of subtlety or just choose to avoid it.

‘Dead cats’ are stories designed to distract from the bad news. And we see these in business all the time.

CYA

Often people will be motivated by CYA: Cover Your Ass. They will try to ensure that they are not left responsible if something goes wrong. Be particularly cautious about this if you are an external supplier - I speak from experience!

Personality not policy

Ultimately, remember you’re dealing with a human being and in most cases, you will want to maintain a civil working relationship. You may not like what they’re saying, but they may not like it either. In the long term, it’s the relationship that will count.