The era of monologue communication in which most of the population had grown up was coming to an end, said Mr Andy Law (managing director of St Lukes, an advertising agency). But one of the most obvious remaining examples was that of the doctor and the patient. In the late 1970s and '80s, there had been a general move to change the prevailing form of communication to dialogue and one-to-one conversation. However, apart from family and perhaps three or four other people, few people wanted to have dialogue and another model was needed.
Mr Law suggested telelogical communication - many to many - as an appropriate model, saying that was essentially how the internet worked. Interestingly, telelogical communication tended to work best for women while monologue worked best for men. Women were good listeners, while men were happier with the "doing what you're told" approach.
In any environment, human capital was the most important - it appreciated in value more than anything else, and it was therefore important to know what people were thinking and feeling. Telelogical communication encouraged this by increasing the amount of conversation and enhancing the output from the communication. A conversation involving three people had a greater output than three conversations, simply because each person could provide added value to the other individual's conversation. In short, gossip should now be encouraged.
In health care, Mr Law suggested, there needed to be an acknowledgement that doctors might know best but that patients knew a lot too. It was therefore important to put the two sets of knowledge and ideas together to enable a creative conversation rather than war.