"We may not be able to unlearn what we know, but there's still time to relearn," says AHC's Peter Nicholas as he discusses member communication in the world of pensions.

Seek first to understand, then and only then, seek to be understood. Be it a teenager, a spouse or even a pension fund member. But we have a big problem. An absolute blockage of the communication channel and it's all our own doing - we just can't unlearn what we know. Even worse, knowing what we know it's almost impossible to accept that others don't know more than they do. As a result member communication is often woeful.

What qualifies us to know what a pension fund members want to hear? It's a question I have asked myself, time and time again throughout my career. I've chaired countless meetings on how to get this message or that through to members; what we want them to know, what we want them to think and what we want them to do. Time and time again it's people like us trying to deliver messages to people who were nothing like us. They don't know what we know, they don't think what we think. Their tomorrow is not our tomorrow. Their longer term is not our longer term.

I had a real moment of truth shortly after my dad passed away – I sat down with my mother and a brochure on an allocated annuity. I had chaired the sign-off committee for the brochure and it was beautiful – A4, lots of colour, 100% compliant, 100% correct … but utterly useless in communicating to my mother how it worked and what she needed to know.

So how can we communicate to the unengaged but demanding audience of the pension member? How can we explain complex concepts in a way that will interest and engage members?

It's simple - stop using words!

Have you ever thought what your members' reading comprehension might be? Some members will be functionally illiterate. How do they currently consume information, how do they communicate with each other? An age old formula of pictures but delivered digitally. Things are a changing at an amazing pace – today even the functionally illiterate have a smartphone in their pocket – thanks to YouTube and social media members are consuming vast amounts of information daily.

The magic of communicating effectively with members – telling the right story with the right pictures – stories and pictures engage the brain and enhance retention of information.

We may not be able to unlearn what we know, but there's still time to relearn.

Next time this will be a video blog!!!

Written by Peter Nicholas, managing director/CEO, AHC

peter.nicholas@ahc.com