Communicator of the Week

We live in a world where everything happens quickly. Instant success and overnight fame, micro-blogging and quick sharing, shorter news cycles and a never-ending conversation which we dip in or out of at our leisure means, according to scientists, that the human attention span is decreasing at an alarming rate. In this environment a reputation can be built and destroyed in record time. Fame and celebrity has replaced achievement, endeavour and entrepreneurship as the goal for today’s children.     

Many now go through life building remote networks and communicating via communities with people they may never meet. These connections can be erased in one click, ‘friends’ removed instantly, a new community entered into at a whim. This virtual world has so many opportunities but fails to provide the depth of fellowship that real human interaction brings.

Then we turn to HM The Queen. An individual who spends her life connecting with people, meeting and inspiring others, talking and communicating face-to-face, providing consistency in an increasingly fast-paced world. Some, including former Australian prime minister Paul Keating, claim The Queen and the institution of the monarchy to be an anachronism. Critics believe her to be nothing more than a wealthy great-grandmother who has no right to be in her position.

Then there are the majority of those, not just in the UK, but in all her realms, who recognise that she is a force for the good and an anchor of stability. For example, only 34 per cent would like to see an Australian president. The Queen has no hidden agenda, through her patronage she inspires great deeds, charity, and joy in the thousands upon thousands she shakes hands with each year. She connects people and connects with people in a way instant fame celebrities will never be able to. People want to meet her or only catch a glimpse of her.

Never the world’s best public speaker, an event featuring The Queen still becomes an occasion; she has an ability to communicate to people through merely being in the same room. She has done this consistently for 59 years. Consistency, that isn’t a word we hear much of these days. All of this makes HM The Queen my Communicator of the Week.