Willett help or Willett hinder?
“A baying mob of imbeciles”. “Fat, stupid, greedy, classless, bastards”. “Pudgy, basement-dwelling irritants”. The infamous rant of Pete Willett about US golf fans published in National Club Golfer magazine in the lead-up to the Ryder Cup uses slightly more colourful language to that which we are used to in corporate communications.
But it can teach us a valuable lesson about the consequences of what we write or say. What Danny Willett’s brother wrote no doubt represents a turbo-boosted version of what many European (and some American) golf fans felt. And whether written in parody, or as a true reflection of the author’s feelings, words have consequences – sometimes unintended.
In this case, I very much doubt Pete Willett wanted to cause a furore, stir up the crowds any more, or cause his brother any embarrassment. His article claimed that he wanted team Europe to “silence the pudgy, basement-dwelling irritants.” The problem is that Team Europe didn’t silence the mob. In fact, the baying of the crowd was no doubt all the louder as a direct response to these pre-tournament insults.
Even though players like Rory McIlroy gamely claimed that “the more they shouted, the better we played”, the European team’s swift response in criticising and disowning the sentiments within the article most likely suggests they didn’t consider an even louder and angrier crowd helpful to their chances of success. The golfing Willett even confessed that it had been “pretty tricky to…fully focus these last few hours”.
This is why professional communicators must always consider the likely reactions of all those affected by their words. This pause for thought often leads to the (usually correct) decision to demur from saying something you want to say.
I remember a friend in the industry telling me about a press release he wrote for a client many years ago. It was apparently well-written, newsworthy, and very successful in terms of the coverage it achieved. But the author, his colleagues, and his client, had all failed to consider the consequences of what was being written and publicly issued. A major customer of the client took offence at unintended implicit criticism within the story and a multi-million pound contract was put under severe strain. The communicators had considered the consequences only as far as the media coverage it would achieve, failing to recognise the wider potential consequences of that coverage.
Benjamin Franklin understood the need to think before communicating when he said “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
My guess is that Pete Willett was simply tempted to say exactly what he wanted to say, without really considering the consequences of those words. As communicators, we should strive to avoid making the same mistake.
Written by Ian Morris, Director
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