Briefing authors for a special of a magazine

Briefings are often done on line. Sending just an email with the request to write an article is not enough. These are some points of attention when briefing a new group of authors for a special of a magazine. The email itself should be short and personal. The briefing should be in an attachment. See also: Successfactors for a good briefing and Briefings for communicatuion support. Click on the image to read the points.

What to tell and how to tell it?

For a presentation – focus not only on content but as much on your style. In my last posting I provided some suggestions on how to organize the content. From my musical education I also learned that playing all the notes accurately does not turn your performance into music. Similarly a good presentation in terms of the sonata form, still can be boring. With the result that people afterwards do not remember much of it. So apart from the content we have to think what makes people really pay attention. These are a few points that have helped me:
1. Ask the audience one or two questions about the themes of your sonataform that they can answer by show of hands, then do your talk referring to the answers of the audience.
2. Tell the subject of your talk and ask the three things they would like to know most from you: in your answers you improvise around the themes of your prepared sonataform and be prepared to go beyond.
3. When interacting, give positive feedback to the public, e.g. I heard you have much experience in…; your show of hands proves your positive attitude towards…; that is a very good question that makes me think of the following story…. Etc.
4. During a concert the conductor also does not show the score, so leave the powerpoint in your notebook (if you have one send it in advance or afterwards with the invitation to mail you questions). A talk without powerpoint can be more powerful than one with all the distractions of images and words.
5. Be relaxed and make your mind completely empty before the talk (don’t concentrate on the themes of the sonataform – you know them already by heart); be open to anything that happens when you get on stage, smile, make eye contact, use humor, show emotion and use silences. Be like the audience: a normal human being of flesh an blood. Show what makes you tick. The more they like you, the more they will like what you tell them.

For a presentation - use the Sonata form

The sonata form comprises an exhibition, a development and a recapitulation. It is the most common form of the first movement of a classical symphony, solo concert or string quartet. In the exposition the main themes or theme groups are presented, in the development the themes are elaborated, questioned and argumented. All tonal, harmonious and rythmic developments are finally resolved in the recapitulation of the main themes from the exhibition. Similarly in a presentation one should start with the two or three key messages one wants to convey to the audience. Next one should illustrate each of these messages with examples and stories preferably from one’s own experiences. One should conclude with repeating the main messages.
A colleague of mine has to give a 12-minute presentation on communicating biodiversity to consumers. The themes she choose were: ‘perception is the only reality’, ‘people change because they want to’,’ let others tell it’. We talked about developing the first theme with stories about generating attention and interest of consumer groups by changing the focus on biodiversity messages and using jargon to focusing on people’s own situation, experiences and values and using plain language. The second is to be developed by stories how change in behaviour of large groups is more successfully triggered by appealing to people’s own motives and drivers. And not by rules, penalties and prohibitions. For the third theme we thought of stories where she had used intermediaries that are most credible to consumer groups and who conveyed messages from their context that (also) benefit biodiversity. For the laggards behind finally we need strict enforcement and if that does not work we should reach out to the responsible agencies.

The answer isn’t more science; it’s better PR

Scientists need to make people answer the questions, What’s in it for me? How does it affect my daily life? What can I do that will make a difference? Answering these questions is what’s going to start a conversation. John Francis has drawn the attention of the CEC network to an article by Erin Biba on Wired, titled ‘Why Science Needs to Step Up Its PR Game’. Scientists risk their lives and fortunes to do something that is, in many cases, an act of faith. They’re heroes. It’s a beautiful thing. Imagine the impact if a scientist said, ‘I’ve been working in climate science for 20 years, and it breaks my heart that people don’t believe in what I do.’ The reality is that scientists assume that facts will speak for themselves. However in the real world cerebral mindedness does not work, you need to draw the attention of other human organs. Or like Randy Olson, scientist and filmmaker, says in his new book Don’t be such a scientist: “in a media dominated era you should grab people’s attention by plain language stories, caring about how you are perceived and using artists to arouse interest.”

Managing professional updating projects

The graphic summarizes the phases of a professional updating project to help clients think beyond funneling expert knowledge into power points. Formulation and execution of a professional updating project is often a learning experience for both consultant and client. The client makes steps from thinking in terms of instruction to thinking in terms of creating a learning environment; from seeing the consultant as a follower of instructions to trusting his/her didactic expertise to guide the development process for which the client is one of the suppliers of information and content. The consultant makes steps in understanding context, audiences, expectations and a possible next phase of development in the learning of the client. Most difficult for both is to realize that often most of the available time is needed for the phases that prepare for the production. I sometimes wonder whether these reflections not only apply to learning projects, but to all communication projects.

The power of love messages

People will protect nature because they want to, not because they have to. This is one of the pay offs of Futerra's arguments to rebrand biodiversity. They base this on common sense. Everyone loves nature. Love is a powerful driver. You can't get more powerful than wonder, awe and joy. Reconnecting with such type of childhood experiences in nature generates empathy and willingness in our mind that motivates to act for nature. I had to think of the biodiversity brand when visiting this morning the National Gallery here in Ljubljana and seeing the painting - 'Summer' - by Ivana Kobilca. The light, shadows and colours on the real painting are much nicer than on this reproduction. In the same way our own memories of real experiences in nature are much stronger than any rational appeal to conserve biodiversity.

It is time to kill off the extinction message

It is time for a new biodiversity message. That is the conclusion of Futerra after working on developing the logo and communication strategy for the International Year of Biodiversity, an information toolkit on Access and Benefit Sharing and many other conservation projects. Futerra has been building up thought leadership on sustainability communications and shares its latest findings in Branding Biodiversity. A concise manual for campaigners, policy makers and media who are open to radically changing our biodiversity message, in order to radically increase action. Branding Biodiversity challenges communicators to stop talking about extinction and to distil a complex scientific concept into a set of values and promises that appeal to the masses. They reveal the formula of ‘Love’ + ‘Action’ that will inspire the public to act to conserve biodiversity.

Be simple and personal

What is the retention of a lecture? The framework of my eight hour lecture consisted of me asking questions, telling stories from my work to answer questions, assign group work, do games, make drawings on a flipover and jointly draw conclusions. I avoided any use of PP and handouts on paper. I wanted to walk the talk of 'effective communication is being simple and personal'. The students seemed to like it. What they learned I will know when they send in their assignment. But at the end of the day I already was quite satisfied when the over 20 Klagenfurt University students of the International MSc Course in protected area management listed their main principles for effective communication and public participation in the early stages of planning a protected area:
Be humble.
Respect views of others.
The stakeholder 'is always right'.
Improve your empathy.
Invest in building mutual trust.
Avoid assumptions.
Invest in assessing prior knowledge.
Communication is a two way process.
Identify leaders.
Create positive word of mouth.
Participatory planning and management equals dealing with change.
Change is painful, focus communication on overcoming resistance.
Learn how to deal with uncertainties.
People are more concerned about 5 Euros loss than about 5 Euros gain.
Sometimes money can be a disincentive.

Seeing is believing

Communicating biodiversity is communicating how people behave in a positive way towards nature and natural resources. David Aimé and David Fabrega, two young professionals are about to start a world tour to explore real life examples of such positive behavior. As their contribution to the International Year of Biodiversity, they will visit over 12 countries and meet with people in communities, organizations and governments. They will document the experiences and stories on video on their site. What I like is the 'people' aspect that reminds me of the West-Eastern Divan, the without borders orchestra initiative of Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said. By playing music together this communication platform offers young Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian, Egyptian, Spanish and Israeli musicians an opportunity to make music together, learn first hand about each other's life, and perform in countries that otherwise would be completely closed to them. Communication that contributes to peace. Similarly the two Davids want to contribute to biodiversity and sustainable development.

Deep listening to a brochure

People make judgments in a split second, not based on rational weighing of costs and benefits, but through ‘irrational’ associations with deeply ingrained values, feelings, and experiences. That’s how we scan headlines, pick up magazines and surf the internet. It is also how we browse a brochure and put it aside or grab the phone. I just came across SOS Save our Species, a brochure from a IUCN-GEF-Worldbank initiative to raise funds from the private sector for species conservation. Going through the brochure I started to like the initiative and its potential. At the same time I came up with 5 things I would had done differently:
1. Have the animals on each page look from left to right: avoid ‘looking backward’, forward looking associates with the future. That is the language of the private sector.
2. Start with a vision how species underpins our life, our business. Don’t start with the threats: guilt shuts us down and makes us put the brochure aside.
3. Use pictures of animals we can emotionally relate to; a tiger pub is better than a rhino; we can’t relate to plants but we can relate to a farmer in her field, a fisherman on his boat or a doctor in her laboratory.
4. Use common sense, make it personal: “We all love nature. We all want to conduct business in a responsible way. Here we offer a range of concrete opportunities to combine the two. You can associate yourself, your employees and clients with a conservation project of your choice”. Don't use conservation jargon.
5. Support our species, support our own species, might be better that the current tagline. Actually I would avoid all SOS connotations. SOS associates with disasters. Nobody wants to contribute to a lost case. That's what the private sector calls: "throwing good money to bad money."