The story of spaghetti Bolognese highlights how careless communication leads to misunderstanding and mistakes.

Italian chefs have launched a campaign to restore the reputation of one of the country’s most famous culinary exports, because the recipe has changed beyond all recognition.

Apparently the most common mistake is serving spaghetti with a Bolognese sauce – a 1972 recipe stipulates egg-noodle pasta tagliatelle (8mm wide) instead. Cooks also overload sauces with tomato sauce or butter.

These variations or deviations (depending on your point of view) stem from casual communication. Cooks have changed the recipe because they have failed to understand its essence and because they have not picked up on the detail.

Readers and listeners rarely focus on detail because they have to – they focus on it because the speaker or the writer makes the detail attractive. To continue with the food theme the communicator has to whet the listener or reader’s appetite and make them desire the detail.

The chefs behind the campaign managed this with reporters who followed the story. Their message: “You might think you are eating Bolognese sauce but you’re not.” It prompts the question: “OK, what’s in the real recipe?”

"Along with lasagne, spaghetti bolognese is the most abused Italian dish," restaurateur Massimo Bottura told Corriere della Sera.

Next time you need to communicate complexity ask yourself. “Am I enticing people to make the effort to focus on detail?”

And a second lesson – don’t think you can communicate a complex message in one shot. It seems the chefs will have to get in touch with Britain’s The Daily Telegraph and The Times, which printed different “definitive” recipes.

(jadams@ecdinsight.com)