Communication is important to develop trust, share feelings, and inform. As I shared before, communication, however, is really a tool to change one's (yours or others) behaviors. Therefore it is extremely important that you understand the person/company/media sources that are communicating and realize more often than not - there is an agenda or intent that is not for your benefit - but for the speaker. You need to be aware and mentally validate what if being communicated.
Let's have some fun and share some examples to make my point. The statement in quotations is a simulated statement and underneath the statement is what is at risk or what to consider.
"Most dentists recommend the Oral B electric toothbrush"
... what dentists, do those interviewed only sell Oral B, what others do they recommend?
"80% of new car buyers see the electric car in the future"
... where was the survey taken - could be it was taken in a Tesla showroom and the survey audience already supports electric cars?
"There are 80,000 deaths resulting from COVID-19 - we cannot return to work until a vaccine is available"
... Okay, but just a number is not sufficient. If one looks at the numbers, you may likely see that those over 70 make up the majority of deaths and many are in senior care facilities - not affecting most in the working pool.
"We have shipped 30,000 ventilators - how good"
... Yes 30,000 were shipped but how many were needed.
So what do you need to do?
1. understand if those speaking have a financial benefit from you
2. seek real or first-hand information - or at least look for comparisons
3. challenge the information (internally) by asking "what might be wrong about what I hear or see -or- how could this negatively impact me"
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