30 Sep Don’t ask, Don’t tell – the inquiry

If you’re like most Australians following Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry, you’d be finding it difficult to comprehend that not a single minister, senior public servant or manager can recall who authorised the use of private security guards. It’s a case of – “there but by the grace of God go I”- for there’s not a jurisdiction in the country that can claim they’ve had the situation completely under control all along.

So, in the era of information overload, why is there still so much information missing? The answer lies in our own inboxs. Of all the messages we receive each day, how many do we actually read, digest and respond to? Communication has become lazy and undisciplined and we’re all at fault. We know that only 25% of our messages are going to be read, so we send an extra couple just to cover the full spectrum of readers who might at some stage take an interest. We’ve all become so good at filtering out non-essential information, that more and more essential communication gets filed straight in the bin.

In the case of Victoria, we can only assume everyone thought someone else had it handled. The very grumpy (former) Health Minister, Jenny Mikakos repeatedly defended her ignorance by claiming that, “no one brought that to my attention.” This only shows, she never asked. Nor did the Premier. No one asked, “How is this working, have those staff been trained, have our health services got what they need, who else has been consulted, is this the best way to manage the issue? etc.” It was clearly a case of – don’t ask, don’t tell – so then you can’t be held responsible.

Here’s a few things we can all do to help clean up our communication.

• Know why you’re sending that email. What result do you want?
• Don’t send generic, scattergun emails that everyone will ignore, ie “Who stole my lunch?”
• Ensure there’s a call to action so that the recipient knows what you want them to do, ie. “Please confirm that you are happy to use private security as recommended by X.”
• Ask thoughtful questions, ie. “Can you please clarify how the returned travellers will be monitored?”

As a culture, we all need to take responsibility for our tiny little piece of the big picture, and maybe our public representatives will follow.