Internet notebook about my work: deep listening to facilitate positive change

.

Thursday 24 November 2011

Demand reduction wildlife products










To get participating experts already focused on the issue in advance of our workshop we did a survey monkey.
We asked them about their ideas what motivates consumers in China and Vietnam to use wildlife products, what are knowledge gaps we have to overcome and what are constraints we would have to deal with to be able to communicate effectively.

Saturday 19 November 2011

Best practices in communicating forests

Know your audience – Is your message packaged appropriately? This was one of the lessons learned by foresters. The theme of one of the plenary sessions of the Asia Pacific Forestry Week was communicating forests. The organizers had agreed to let me do an interactive session instead of yet another presentation. The two hundred people in the room turned their chairs around and started animated conversations around: What are good examples of communications that support positive change? What are do’s and don’ts? This is what they came up with.

Lessons learned
*Networking
*Targeting people who will respond to your message
*Simple message
*Don’t let foresters communicate – well, not all the time
*Forest media specialists are in short supply
*Media is a participatory process

Do’s
*Start young
*Have a clear goal and get stakeholders onboard
*Know your audience – Is your message packaged appropriately?
*Tailor your message for your audience and keep it simple
*Be creative
*Be positive where possible
*Offer solutions where possible
*Make technical information practical
*Get your hands dirty - make sure we capture what is happening on the ground and at the community level
*Choose your spokesperson carefully
*Get to know the media (personal contact)

Don’ts
*Don’t push
*Try not to be exclusive
*Keep your enemies list as small as possible
*Don’t just summarize – Focus
*Don’t tamper with the drivers of change?
*Don't threaten

Wednesday 16 November 2011

'Stories, Sizzle, Salience & Social Proof'

Futerra Co-Founder Ed Gillespie delivers a speech for the 3 Pillars Network Sustainable Behaviour Change conference in Sydney, Australia. November 2011