Presentation 4.1: Communication

Foundations

Outline

• Why bother• How to communicate effectively• Consider the sender• Engage the audience• Consider the message• Deal with misunderstandings

• Summary

Why bother?

• Public agencies need public support

• Resource management is more successful with public support

• Public support is based on understanding resource goals and techniques

• Understanding is based on communication

Challenges in the interface

• Audiences are more varied

• Issues may be contentious

• Audiences may not have

experience or background

knowledge

• Issues involve many aspects

All this makes communication challenging!

Discussion Question

What wildland-urban interface issues are particularly challenging to communicate? Why?

How to communicate effectively

What is communication?

• Communication is the successful transmission of thoughts or ideas, without significant distortion, so that understanding is achieved.

• This requires effective transmissioneffective transmission receptionreception input into mental structuresinput into mental structures

Common barriers to effectiveness

• Transmission Sender not credible or trustworthy

• Reception Message lacks clarity (language or speed)

Receiver has experience, prior knowledge Receiver beliefs and attitudes conflict

• Input to mental structures Message is irrelevant Receiver is not listening

Easy strategies to improve communication

• Choose an appropriate, well respected authority on topic as “sender”

• Create a message that is easy to understand; use appropriate language

• Make the receiver comfortable

Tips to effective communication

• Effective communication helps your audience build a mental model in their heads

• Connects new information to what they already know

• Adds detail, examples

• Increases flexibility

• Engages them

Exercise 4.1: What Went Wrong?

Exercise 4.1 Directions

• In each group, recall or develop an unsuccessful communication experience and write it on your card.

• Switch cards with another group and analyze their blooper.

• What is the problem?

• What might improve it?

• Share your ideas with the other groups.

Consider the sender

If we don’t communicate …

• Bernhard Fernow, founding figure in American forestry and Dean of Cornell’s Forestry School

• Started clearing and burning to create a demonstration forest in Adirondacks, 1899

• Neighbors complained

• Governor vetoed authorization; Cornell’s College of Forestry ceased to exist

But when we do…

• USFWS biologists joined Mississippi barge captains to better understand when and why they tie up to islands, damaging nesting habitat.

• Working together, they designed and erected concrete pilings for emergency stops.

Good communicators

• Trustworthy• Engaging• Care about what

the audience cares about

• AccessibleElementary students watch their

computer screen to learn about this turtle

Earning trust

• Agency materials should make a point of acknowledging and

addressing questions and complaints demonstrate how prior activity

supports a partnership offer to continue the conversation

• Consider using a partner that is trusted

Exercise 4.2: Perception is Reality

Exercise 4.2 Discussion Questions

• How do you think your agency is perceived?

• Which perceptions help the public believe and understand your message?

• What attitudes do you convey that could affect perceptions?

• What can you do differently to improve perceptions?

Engage the Audience

Important techniques, but harder to accomplish

• Avoid saying what audience already knows

• Relate to what audience cares about and is interested in

• Deliver message through medium that audience uses

And so we need to understand the audience!

By understanding the audience, we can make sure…

• Sender is appropriate, well respected

• Message is clear, not garbled

• Message is meaningful and relevant

• Information builds on what is known

• Misunderstandings are corrected

• The right audience is targeted

What can you do?

• What are the most important things to find out about an audience before you plan a program?

• How can you find out that information?

What do you know?

• Who is your audience?

• What do they care about?

• What do they already know about interface issues?

• What values are important?

• Where do they go for information?

• Who do they trust?

A blooper

• SAF Chapter wanted to distribute new video on forestry careers to teachers

• Invited 100 5th grade teachers to dinner and program

• 4 cameWhat was the problem? The 4th grade curriculum addresses local resources and careers, not 5th grade.

What would have helped: Initial conversation with “audience” could have ensured invitations went to the right teachers.

Techniques to gather data

• Conversations• Exercises• Interviews• Focus Groups• Observation• Surveys

Using values

For people to do the hard work of building a mental model out of your information, they need to know the information will be relevant, meaningful, useful.

Connect your message to things they care about

What do they care about?

1. Ask them2. Check the literature3. Some things are universal:

Children, health, quality family time

4. Some things are cultural: Privacy, community, convenience, future,

frugality

5. Community leaders may have concerns: Fiscal responsibility, election, media coverage

Exercise 4.8: Knowing the Community

Exercise 4.8 Directions

Using the worksheet, review what you know about the group of people with whom you will communicate. How could you find out more?

Why engagement?

• Some people want straight, undiluted information

• Others need to be entertained

• Most do not want to be told what to do, even though you want to tell them!

• Try to engage audiences in learning

Engaging youth

• Youth audiences can be engaged by an exercise or worksheet.

• Discovering, matching, naming, counting, and competing with other groups can be effective.

Engaging adults

• Adult audiences may respond well to questions that get them to think and share their ideas.

• The right series of questions can lead the audience to realizing new ideas, without you telling them!

Stories and examples

• Stories and examples Provide concrete imagery Explain how to do a task Explain how to overcome problems Demonstrate that real people can do

it

Extremely helpful elements of effective communication

Group discussions

• Asking the audience to work together Enables them to share their

experiences Engages them in solving a problem Changes the pace and structure of a

workshop Gives the presenter a break

Don’t preach

• People don’t like being told what to do

“You should …”

• People respond to threats by retreating or defending themselves “If you don’t do … bad things will happen”

• Guilt is not a motivator for most

They need to figure out theright answer

Exercise 4.3: Questions to Build Understanding

Exercise 4.3 Directions

Using the worksheet, develop a series of questions that could help lead an audience to an understanding of a wildland-urban interface issue and how they might reduce the problem.

Consider the message

Language differences

• Technical jargon may be a barrier to your audience

• Ask them what they understand• Translate materials to their

language

The language of conservation

Public opinion research suggests that some phrases resonate better than others and are better at communicating a conservation message

Not “endangered species” But “wildlife protection”

But “natural areas”

But “agreement”

Not “open space”

Not “easement”

Effective messages instill responsibility, provide information, support values

Protect your water supply

How to remove Brazilian pepper…

Keep your cat safe and healthy--indoors

Clean your boat; check for mussels

Background information

• Provide background to help readers make sense of the issue.

• Tell why, where, what the consequences would have been.

• This alone rarely is convincing

Make the text interesting

• Active voice• Action verbs• Concrete examples• Short sentences• Common words• Organizing statements• Interesting topics

Boring brochure

?

Threat and fear can backfire

Make sure the message includes how to prevent the problem with reasonable easy steps. Don’t paralyze people with guilt or

fear.

Procedural information

• Provides details about how to complete an action. Which plastics to recycle What question to ask Where to find native plants How to fertilize trees

• Critical if lack of information is a barrier to action

Impact information and feedback

• People like to know what will happen if they take this action

• People need to know that they’ve done it correctly

• People are rewarded by information about their success

Look for ways to communicate past success and current progress

Exercise 4.4: An Edict to Edit

Exercise 4.4 Directions

• With your group, edit your technical card to make it easier for the public to understand.

• Share your results with others.

Deal with Misconceptions

When a deeply held notion prevents someone from

understanding your message

A communication gap?

• Keep your cats indoors ● My cats don’t kill birds

• Create defensible space ● I like my trees nearby

• Test your home for radon ● Natural things can’t hurt

• Clearcuts give seedlings ● Clearcuts destroy forests

more sunshine

People may not understand

• They don’t share your background

• They have made sense out of experiences

• That shapes how they accept new information

• Their understanding is different from yours!

It depends on what they know and how they think

If I think…

• I feed my cat sufficiently Then my cat is not hungry And therefore will not hunt

• Fires jump across highways and firebreaks Then I would have to clear hundreds of feet

to protect my house

• Radiation is caused by power plants and microwaves Then the rocks and ground are safe

Underlying the assumptions may be misconceptions

• That my cat deserves to go outside

• That the goal of defensible space is keeping fire away from a home

• Natural is good; synthetic is bad

A strategy

1. Listen to questions and explore how people perceive the issue

2. When you understand the misconception, acknowledge it

3. Explain why it is insufficient

4. Explain your information and message

5. Show how it is more sufficient at explaining the issue

• “I know you take good care of your cat – does it like to pounce on toys? Might it pounce on anything that moves?”

• “Fires jump large distances – and they move quickly across the forest. By removing nearby fuels you can shorten the time the fire is close to your home and reduce the chance that the house will ignite from the heat.”

• “A variety of natural things are dangerous to humans, from poison ivy to arsenic. Radon is found in this part of the country. It emits radiation.”

Putting It All Together

Exercise 4.5: Connecting Prose to People

Exercise 4.5 Directions

• What makes text relevant to a particular audience?

• Revise your edited technical card to make it relevant to the audience on your Audience Card.

• With your group, try to make your message relevant to all of your audiences.

Exercise 4.6: Critique Brochures

Exercise 4.6 Directions

• Using brochures from several agencies, look for good examples of good communication

• Complete the worksheet• Share ideas with the other

groups about ways to improve communications

Case Study 9: Karst Habitat Restoration in

Arkansas

Case Study 14: A Multi-Agency Initiative: Water

Education in Kentucky

Case Study 15: Outdoor Environmental Classrooms

in Oklahoma

Summary

• Build understanding• Reduce conflict• Engage community members• Convey trust and relevant expertise• Use appropriate language• Use relevant examples• Listen and correct misconceptions

Practice good communication

Credits

• Slide 2: USDA APHIS PPQ Archives, www.forestryimages.org• Slide 3: www.beeng.com• Slide 4, 6, 20: Shruti Agrawal• Slides 7, 9, 13, 23, 27, 31, 34, 35, 36, 39: Larry Korhnak• Slide 14: Library of Congress• Slide 15: J Madden• Slide 16: M Haddon• Slide 17: Washington State University• Slide 33: G Traymar• Slide 40: www.angelascards.co.za• Slides 44, 47: South FL Water Management District• Slide 46: US Army Corps of Engineers• Slide 43: Eagle Vision Communication