The continuing student protests about fees are an example of what goes wrong when a significant change programme does not take account of the need to communicate with those who are affected. The coalition have really not got the message across, a recent discussion it was said that a significant number of those protesting do not even know they will be due to pay fees now when they go to Uni, something I find hard to believe.
However, I do not find it hard to believe that the reason that there are a lot of protests on this subject and that it is energising the young people in particular, is that they do not understand what the changes are about. That is a fundamental mistake that is made in business change programmes, which is essentially what this government is about over the next 5 years.
So, they need to up the effort on communications and get the message across that
1. With these changes immediate fees actually reduce
2. It is about increasing tax, not fees. So they should talk about increasing Higher Rate Tax for those who have benefited, which is what it is
3. They should remember that the listener is in charge of the communication
If they do not address these points the protests will continue and continue to be exploited.
No comments:
Post a Comment