If Vishal Garg tweaked the communal “firing squad” delivery of his message, would his video have made as big a splash?

Let me know on social.

I think the delivery could’ve been more nuanced. Or maybe tackled in a completely different way. He did, in fact, touch on this, stating that he wanted to deliver the news himself. That was a start. Maybe it wasn’t done softly enough, or with enough empathy as to what the other side could be going through, but he did also mention that doing it was difficult for him, and that he had previously cried when having to do the same thing.

We aren’t all created equally, after all, and our different personalities dictate how we share a message, or convey emotion.

Not one day ago, for instance, I saw a post about a survivor from the deadly Michigan high school shooting in which she laughed, while exiting the still-active murder scene. The footage was captured on tik-tok, and she was criticized for that response.. until, of course, someone raised their voice and explained that (and I quote):

“Mental health professionals often recognize smiles and laughter by people as normal trauma responses, a disassociation/defense mechanism to separate themselves from the trauma’s scale and depth.”

Only then did her actions appear to have taken a 180, and become “excusable” by the court of public opinion.

It’s just one example of our judging from the outside, and how that judgement is merely based on knee-jerk reaction, rather than a deep-dive on the complexity of a human being and how they respond.

The “Delivery” Industry

I feel that “delivery” (as in how we state things) is an issue I suspect will become increasingly more relevant in today’s society, given our dependence on social media for today’s communication.

Whereas we once counted on smoke signals, and then couriers, and then letters, and then the rotary phone, we now count on a simple one-second click to connect us to the other side. And because of that rapidity (and the way that social media is set up, with each of us being a reporter, posting gossip instantaneously into our social accounts where it can spread like wildfire), there’s much more time for the other side to not only receive the message we’ve sent, but also judge it, and amplify that judgement to the rest of the world.

Add into this the fact that many are using these spaces to vent (to air out their dirty laundry, so to speak, even if “dirty” is really a relative term and one man’s dirty could be another man’s new sweater), I suspect that a lot of people will be thrown under the bus using this medium in years to come.

I’m not sure that that’s a good thing. It could be, in certain situations. And in others, it could be bad. Very bad. It’s completely double-edged.

I also suspect that, if my hunch is true, we will all need to start taking more communication lessons (back to my #1 advice: communication is everything). Not to mention public speaking, emotional intelligence sharpening, and even lessons in poise.

So parents, listen up. If you’d like to get a head start on educating those little guys now, enroll them in a public image class. It just may come in handy one day for your buddy CEO.