Comparison is odious...

The RSPB has more members than all the three major political parties combined.

That was the earth-shattering statistic used in a debate recently by a senior Conservative peer in the House of Lords. I presume his aim was to shock his party members. This is the extent of the job they have on their hands if they are to engage properly with all 63 million of us.

As attention grabbers go, this was a really good one as far as I could evaluate. This is probably because the statistic is surprising in itself and probably also because it creates a striking and unexpected picture which sticks in the memory.

I know the remark wasn’t meant to be pored over at length and analysed from different angles but nevertheless it might be worth doing precisely that.

What makes the comparison so striking? Why shouldn’t the RSPB membership exceed that of all the major political parties? Being generous to the politician in question, let’s say it was an accident that the organisation chosen to contrast with the party membership was the RSPB and any organisation would have served the same purpose.

In this case, the comparison has inadvertently brought about other consequences – namely to suggest subtly that membership of the RSPB is a light-hearted and inconsequential thing. A comparison with membership of the CBI, for instance, probably wouldn’t have had anything like the impact. No, on reflection it seems the contrast between heavy and light was what really did the trick.

I’m not suggesting either, by the way, that this politician thus risked alienating the one million strong membership of the RSPB. What he revealed to me was perhaps the gulf between himself and the people he is trying to communicate with.

By suggesting that one group of people is in some way less relevant than another I feel he may have encapsulated the modern political dilemma. Young people, for instance, often do not engage with politicians of any stripe. Perhaps they feel pigeon-holed, undervalued or simply misunderstood. 

In business, it seems to me, similar rules apply. Any statement that makes a judgement is dangerous, especially in a global and interconnected market where many of us operate. By revealing, however obliquely, that we care more about “I” than “we”, we run the risk of disengaging the very audience we need to engage.

Modern society, like today’s business arena, is a hugely complex place and of course that variety is what makes it so interesting and valuable. In some respects the pace of change is phenomenal but in many areas of life or work the fundamental values have not changed one iota.

As another famous politician once said, say what you mean and mean what you say!