Practicing hearing

"Do you hear the silver coins rolling through the temple, as Judas throws the money at the High Priests?" My father asked me when he was practicing the violin solo in his study and I was playing at his feet. With Easter this childhood memory came back when I listened to Ton Koopman's interpretation of the St Mathew's Passion. The tempo is much faster than in most interpretations of the second half of last century. Today I hear the coins bouncing even more! I wonder how many people still practice being mindful of what they hear. I also hear the difference of the bows used....

Communicating adaptation approaches

Effective communication is essential in overcoming barriers, particularly those encountered during processes of adaptation and change. When faced with the many uncertainties posed by climate change impacts, the capacity to access, use and disseminate relevant information becomes crucial for vulnerable communities in order to better cope with and adjust to new climatic conditions -and to their social, economic and political repercussions, writes Angelica Valeria Ospina on her blog. She refers to a paper by Moser and Ekstrom (2010). This paper contains a matrix that helped me understand the ratio for the different adaptation approaches, e.g. a capacity based approach suits better when the challenges and opportunities are here and now and we cannot wait for more substantial systemic changes. I adapted the matrix to include the various approaches.

ABS elevator pitch

How to explain ABS in plain language? Almost no one really knows about ABS. I tried to picture the pitch of an effective ABS champion: what would (s)he say? “I am …… of the Ministry of Environment. I have been tasked to deal with Access and Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources (ABS) in our country. This involves for example managing the demand and supply of plant-based ingredients for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Our country is an important source of genetic resources for these industries. To share the benefits and regulate access our country needs to formulate a legal regime, based on biodiversity conservation, the ethics of commerce and science and the interests of local communities. Would you be interested to …… Who can I phone to make an appointment? For an appointment the champion could bring the Nagoya protocol and the ABS information kit.

Bangladesh - Interactive Flood Risk Map - Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine

Bangladesh - Interactive Flood Risk Map - Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine. Maps can convey strong messages. So do testimonials in photos and videos. Look at villagers in Bangladesh bring their 'movable' mosque to a higher location. Day to day life examples of adaptation to climate change from article in National Geographic with good photo and video testimonials.

Communicating a workshop

Before the workshop participants were invited by email. The email contained an electronic version of the workbook to enable them to come to the workshop with their first homework assignment already done. The workshop was advertized in the local media on the first day to satisfy the institutional stakeholders. On the last day participants received a diploma and they uploaded their work, photos and ideas onto a facebook page, where they aim to continue their exchange and work on a joint initiative: social learning finds us through social media!

CEPA case study format

Think how users of the toolkit will look for case studies and for learning. In my experience they will search CEPA stories on conservation issues they are currently dealing with: e.g. coral reef CEPA stories, water CEPA stouries, tourism, etc. Formulate those categories and ask for stories about them. Ask for stories of say 500 words, that make clear: 1. the context (the place in nature where the conservation issue occurred and the underlying causes); 2. the players (who had to change in attitudes and behavior); 3. the interventions (what kind of messages and communication methods were used – next to other interventions); 4. the turning point (when change really started to take off – this is where peer learning occurs); 5. the impact (how in the end the realized positive change looked like for nature, for the people involved and for the organizations involved).

Stairs vs. Escalator - How CLEVER is this!!!!‏

Neuro marketing - where brain science and marketing meet. It seems we have no control over many of our decisions. We buy things on impuls: neurologists have found that seconds before we buy something, somewhere in our brain the decision is already taken. Timing of offers also influences our behavior. Fun can change it, as the video illustrates. Read more.

Effective interviews

The semi-structured interview to articulate stakeholder views has four parts. In the introduction we tell shortly why we are doing the interview. In the second part we - shortly - aim to get acquainted with the respondent. It provides him or her with an opportunity to position her/himself vis-a-vis our enquiry. It gives us the chance to express our respect for their work, responsibilities and experience. In the third part we collect information. Prepare in advance the (maximum ten) themes you want to ask (open) questions about. Open questions start with: ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘who’, how’. The answers received are followed by us encouraging them to tell more, e.g. by asking: “Can you give an example?”, “Can you explain?”, “What makes you say that?” etc. A theme can be closed by asking: “Do I understand you well that … (summary of answer)? Opninions can be cecked by: “Do I hear you say … (repeat your interpretation)?” We take notes of what they literally say. Afterwards we assemble the key words of their answers in an excell interview worksheet. This way we can compare with the answers of others. We end the interview with thanks, what will happen next, how they will be informed of the results and can comment on our draft report.

Communication basics in 3 steps

Improving your communication starts with learning how to position your organization. The first step was a two hour session with the leadership of the organization. We discussed in pairs and plenary the following questions: who are you? why do you exist? what is your dream? who has to change? What is the message? It gave them a new perspective on the role of communication. They then wrote a first positioning statement. In a second one hour session they recognized it was too long and too much jargon for a positioning statement. They felt they needed more information. We are now at step three: diving deeper into positioning and branding. They are answering the usual list of questions (see illustration), adapted to the NGO situation.

The Bill - short film - Germanwatch

Humor can help to convey a message. This is German humor on who pays the climate change bill. Mit Essen spielt man nicht (You do not play with food) is an even shorter other German fun video on CC. The video was made to raise awareness for the CC COP in Copenhagen, in 2009, but its message is still valid.