Minister of Communication Donna Cox delivered a masterful stroke when she responded to Media inquiries about her health.  In less than 30 seconds, she was concise, clear, complete and achieved the objective of closing the communications loop.  Her response shut down any thoughts or attempts to explore the matter any further. Well done Minister Cox!

As a communications exercise, contrast such mastery with the Prime Minister’s facebook rant about head of the Chamber of Commerce Gabriel Faria and you see an attack on someone in a position of leadership who is simply speaking his truth about the business community and the government’s lack of action.  Faria has consistently spoken and written about outstanding VAT and how it negatively impacts the business community. The Prime Minister’s “Trumpian” rant reminded me of the “bullishness” he was accused of by the late former Prime Minister, Mr. Patrick Manning.

Let’s examine this rant based on the rules of communication.  In one concise missive he accused the Chamber head of: trying to influence voters; being very disrespectful to the country’s leadership; disdainful of all the people who offer themselves for office and having a disrespectful mouth.   It was concise.  On the rule of clarity, the reader is left wondering about what caused this!  What was motivating the Prime Minister?  On the rule of completeness, the rant is incomplete.  I have to concede that he may have achieved his objective but that was not apparent.

The Prime Minister would do well to embrace the counsel of his Minister of Communications while pausing any inclinations to revive the “raging bull, wagang or rottweiler” behaviors of which he has been rightfully accused in the past.