Cut Through!

What can a traditional Chinese painting, an Austrian psychologist, and a Roman Emperor teach communications leaders about how to manage personal resilience?Recognising you have more power to choose your response to events than you might think can be a powerful and liberating insight that boosts personal resilience and performance. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

At one level it's straightforward. We recently invented a technology that creates language at almost zero cost. We employ people who write for us. Therefore, the new technology will replace those workers.I have no doubt that AI is going to profoundly change communication roles. But replace us altogether? The more I work with AI the more I doubt this will be the case. At least, not for a while yet.Here’s why. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

Measles is back. Not because we lack a vaccine, but because we lack immunity to misinformation.So how should we as communications leaders respond?We vaccinate against measles because prevention works better than cure. We should be applying the same logic to our information environment.Pre-bunking measurably improves people’s ability to spot misinformation and reduces their propensity to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

Most communications teams do risk management in ways that suppress candour, reward optimism and miss the things that actually bring a project down.The pre-mortem takes a different approach. Instead of asking “What could go wrong?”, it asks: “Imagine it is 12 months from today. The project has failed badly. Why?”This small shift in framing has a big effect on the conversation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

Is it the job of a communications professional to ‘persuade’ people, or is it to ‘inform’ people?In a low-trust environment, where even the appearance of self-interested persuasion can be counterproductive, this has become a false choice.When trust in politics, the media and business has declined rapidly, the winning strategy may be to be disarmingly, demonstrably and visibly trustworthy. This is the Transparency Playbook. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

The Borrow Trust strategy. If you want reach and credibility, then work with those who already have it. Build partnerships with credible voices who share your goals and values and command your audience’s attention and trust.The same media fragmentation that makes it difficult to cut through with traditional channels, has also created an opening: thousands of micro-communities with trusted messengers.By partnering with those messengers you can create great content for them, relevant messages for their audience, and increased trust, reach and attention for your brand. And that is our second Winning Strategy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

When you aren’t trusted, even your best decisions won’t cut through.This episode looks at why trust matters, why it is eroding across government, business and media, and what the evidence tells us about how trust is built.It also sets up a harder question: how do you build trust when almost every feature of today’s information environment works against you? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

Dario Amodei is the CEO and founder of the AI company Anthropic. When I was in Government Communications we chose Anthropic’s Claude large language model as our AI tool of choice, partly because we felt Anthropic took AI safety and security seriously.So I was interested to read an essay Dario has just published on confronting AI safety and risks.And having done so I want to strongly recommend it to you too. It is long, and knowing that people are time poor, I thought it might be helpful to share two short excerpts in full here. I hope they illustrate why I found the full article unsettling, even hair-raising, at times. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

The central argument of Cut Through! is that our information environment has changed more quickly than our communications practice. To catch up, we need to understand what has changed and why. In this series I have argued that our information environment has become more: Democratised, Fragmented, Abundant, Corroded, and Concentrated.Episode 3 looks at a change that was hardly noticed by social media users when it was introduced back in 2010, but which would fundamentally alter how we consume information, perhaps even how we perceive reality. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

Why does communication feel so difficult today? Our information environment has changed more quickly than our communications practice. To catch up, we need to explore what has changed and why. Over the next four weeks, Cut Through! explores how communications has changed through the stories of four technological breakthroughs that reshaped our world: Google Search; the iPhone; the Facebook News Feed; and AI.This is Part 1: The Wizards of Menlo Park This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

In my final months leading UK Government Communications, people often asked me whether Keir Starmer’s communication should be more like Donald Trump’s.So what are the lessons for government and communicators from how Donald Trump deals with the media and communicates with the American public? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

The number one rule of great communications is: know your audience. Yet most communicators still design messages for how they wish people thought, not how they actually do.Decades of behavioural science research reveal that most human decisions are fast, emotional and unconscious - so why are so many communications campaigns still written for the slow, logical brain?Here are ten behavioural science principles every communicator should know. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com

How prepared are you for a crisis? I have led the communications response to plane crashes, terrorist attacks, bankruptcies, riots and wars. Yet every time a crisis hits, I still get a sinking feeling in my stomach and a taste of adrenaline in my mouth. However prepared you think you are, you know that this is the moment when communication matters most and your skills are going to be tested to the limit.In this episode, I explore five steps for an off-the-shelf crisis plan. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonbaugh.substack.com