Are you are putting your kids under more stress during lockdown by ignoring the picture superiority

Hi, Jim here, and I'd just like to say, ugh, it's back to homeschooling. And it's not just the kids who have got stress, it's the parents who've got stress because we have to understand all the rules and the regulations shared to us by teachers. I'm going to talk to you today about how that could be done better. And it's not just teachers who are sharing information, especially now we're entering another lockdown, it's companies. It's politicians. We're sharing information, and yet we're all falling into Weo's Law trap. Weo's Law says that what can be misunderstood will be misunderstood, and there's kind of a simple way that we can help to alleviate some of this misunderstanding. We're going to talk about that today in the context of the information that my 11-year-old daughter has been sent, and for us to interpret and to follow so that she can get through the next 6 weeks of lockdown. Now, Weir's Law, which I've talked about on the Speak PR program before, talks about how there are a number of filters between the person that sends information and the person that receives the information. And Weir's Law says that only some 20% of what is intended will finally be understood because there are a number of filters And the numbers, for example, include language ability, age, culture, health, cultural disposition, understanding of a particular topic, for example. And each one of these different factors will degrade the message in the mind of the recipient. We saw this especially in the earlier pronouncements here in the UK by Boris Johnson talking about certain kinds of standards in an English language way from a very upper-class attitude, and those were not necessarily going to be listened to and understood by people, most of whom don't come from his background. Now today I'm thinking about the importance of format in terms of WIO's Law, because the information that we share is impacted by the format of the information as much as the content itself. Now, I'm thinking of this because we've recently received the instructions for our 11-year-old daughter today on how she's going to carry on during lockdown using Microsoft Teams. Now, be fair to say that the children need help, but the adults, us parents, need help. And I think that probably the teachers may need some help as well. So this isn't a criticism of anybody, it's an observation with a view to making some constructive ideas of what could be done differently. If we look here at the information that we've been sent, the content has been sent to discuss, for example, guided home learning protocol. And now it's all one long bullet-pointed document. Actually, there are 12 sentences with 5 sub-bullet points. Now, next, we have no images nor reference to what might have been before or afterwards. We're being told, for example, that This is all for the children to read, and yet it says that the children have to read this. But if the children were to read it, frankly, I can't imagine them making head nor tail of it. Now it says, for example, all in capital underline, that all tasks set by your teachers on Firefly, the software platform which is not Microsoft Teams but is another management document workflow place the kids have to learn about. All these tasks are to be completed, but it doesn't necessarily state where those tasks may be, or if those tasks will be separated from the workbooks and the course timeline which the children are spending with their teachers online. So in other words, with one simple instruction, which is to complete All the tasks that are set on another location, which is an unspecified directory on a very large platform. They've fallen into Weo's law already because they're talking about information which is going to be shared because the person is giving instructions in a vague way. You'll do all information, but. With a specific kind of command. So it's creating a tension between the command, which is specific, and the ability to deliver it, which is not specific. So it's already creating some degree of tension and stress. We know we've got to complete everything, but we don't necessarily know exactly where it all is. Now we also have been told, or at least our 11-year-old has, that all work will be monitored and teachers will be collating results throughout the term in order to assess their overall progress and learning. And then later on it says that all work completed throughout the term should be stuck into your spring theme book in the usual way, which is not on Firefly, this is offline, so that it can be reviewed. So we shall have testing of that offline work as well, but at the end. So the teachers are saying that the children are going to be reviewed both at the time of the work they're doing, but also they're going to be tested at the end. The question is, which one is most important? Are they both equally important? And which one is most important for us to focus on? Another tip here has been about keeping the documents on Microsoft Teams. So the children are being told that they need to complete all the documentation required. It's only number 3 after turning up on time. Which is their number one thing that they need to do. And the other, of course, is that they need to be prepared. So as a child, they've already been given a great deal of instruction, but it's all really listed out in a way that appeals to the teachers in terms of, here are the rules that we want you to follow. Now, anyone that's got children knows that following the rules when they get to the— about the age of 11 becomes the last thing on their mind. And anyone trying to put in discipline at home during the second bout of homeschooling knows that, try as we might, our main goal is to look after the child's mental health, because frankly, the learning For us right now is second to their sanity. So what I have talked about earlier on in earlier podcasts as part of the Speak PR program, which is storify, personalize, engage, and amplify, is the picture superiority effect. And what's amazing to me is that none of the instructions to the 11-year-old children, and I imagine for younger and older. Has any pictures in it. Now, the picture superiority effect refers to the phenomenon which pictures and images are really much more likely to be remembered than words. So it's been demonstrated that the human memory is very receptive to symbols, and it understands symbols, and especially moving symbols. And there's a British chap called Alan Palvio who has talked about a theory called dual encoding theory, and I have talked about that at length in earlier podcasts. But basically, the dual coding theory says that the brain processes moving video in 2 parts of the brain and connects them together again. So it makes coding and retrieval much faster than simple text. So I'm kind of amazed that for a school, and a very good school at that, they're sending information in the format really that the teachers would like to send it. They're giving instructions largely about discipline and results, and these are not really where the children's heads are at right now. They are confused, they are scared, but also we've now created a whole bunch of anxiety about All of these bullet points that they should turn up on time, they should be organized, that they should know where things are on Firefly or is it on Teams, and that they must be on time, and they're going to be tested all the time and at the end. Now, we all know that children are motivated by having fun, and. Stress-free, in fact, facilitates learning not just in children but in adults as well. So here we have a case where children during this lockdown are being sent information in formats that are appealing, and I suggest easy to create for the teachers and for the school, and in formats that we understand because we may become an from a text-based background, but for the children that come, especially for this digital generation, come from a pictures, an animated pictures generation, the instructions are possibly going to be less than 20% understood, and I think this is a cause of great stress. Now of course it's not just children who have been given instructions either. I was interested to watch Boris Johnson talk. He'd perhaps read my earlier post about why so many people had misunderstood him and noticed, for example, that his hand gestures were much different this time. He had his hands clasped firmly together, still slightly white-knuckle, and just burst out just a little bit at the final few minutes where one hand, his right hand, wanted to kind of reach out and be more expressive. But again, here they are talking to the country about a lockdown, and there are no pictures, there's no video. This time they had someone doing the sign language, which obviously is a great improvement, and animated things a little bit more. But again, we're using what the person who's sending the information feels comfortable as doing— sitting down, talking to a camera in the way that they would like to be heard. Not necessarily thinking about all those people out there for whom that model isn't appropriate. So for children or people of ethnic groups or different languages, this may or may not be the way they're going to receive the information and take action on it. And of course, we've seen with the lockdown that many people ignored the instructions. But even more people just didn't really understand the instructions. So I think now we've got the case where during another lockdown, all of us that are sending messages, whether it's the teachers, the politicians, entrepreneurs, everybody needs to look at Weo's Law and think about not just what we want to say, but the format that we're sending that information in. Let's think about the format. Is it an image? Is it an audio? Is it a piece of text? Is it an infographic? I encourage you to use some of the tools that I talk about on the Speak PR program and also that I have on our website on the Technology Applications Directory. And also that if you follow us on our newsletter, every week we write about these different tools that are available, ones that can enable you, for example, to have audio on your website, ones that enable you to take text and it will create an audio script for you. So all of these things now are possible, and most of them have a free version. So if you have a message worth sharing, something that's compelling enough to articulate and send to somebody else, if it's, for example, children, or if it's employees or partners or customers, can I just encourage you to think about the state of mind they're going to be in when they receive your message, and what's going to be the best format for them to receive your message? It may not be sitting down and reading an email. They may be out, or they may be like me trying to balance homeschooling, understanding my daughter's school instructions, and trying to run my own business. So speaking about PR on the Speak PR program, we talk about Storify— personalize, engage, amplify, and to know. I'm encouraging you to think about the person at the other end of your message. And when you create content that is engaging, it doesn't just mean that you use content and images and graphics that you find engaging in a format that you like and find easy to use. It's about what they would find easy, what they would find engaging. And think about our children at this time. That's going to be one of the main audiences that we all need to address. So that we can reduce the stress levels for them and help them get through this nest lockdown. So my homework is to try and take some of these bullet points and instructions, and I'm going to try and make some explainer videos that I can share with my children and with other children, in the same way that my sister Dr. Shelley James is making some explainer videos for children on the impact of light and how they really need to try and get outside, put their head out the window just to get some natural light. So thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you'd like to talk with me about any of these matters, like to check out any of our videos, come to me on LinkedIn. I'm at Jim James, easy to find, East West Public Relations. Or come to speakpr.co. If you like this, uh, podcast, please do subscribe, share it. And if you're interested in getting a weekly update where we consolidate the best of all of the information that we find, do come to eastwestpr.com and subscribe to our newsletter. So with that, I say thank you so much, and I hope that wherever you are, you are healthy, that your business is profitable or at least sustainable, and that if you're going to be communicating, think about who you're sending it to. And good luck with making it so that it's not real homework, it's great fun for them to receive it. Thank you so much for listening.