Archive for “Communications”

One of the initiatives that I’m proud and privileged to be involved with is the Sciencewise Expert Resource Centre.  There’s a team of Dialogue and Engagement Specialists (DESs), and we provide mentoring and advice to government and semi-government bodies which are engaging the public in discussions and deliberations on science-related topics.

Sciencewise has asked its DESs for insights – key things we’ve learnt from experience.  This is mine.

Essentially the message is this – when you’ve engaged people and asked for their views, you need to let them know how your decisions and plans have changed as a result.  Or, if you haven’t changed aspects that they wanted you to, let them know why not.

This is simple and perhaps obvious, but frighteningly often isn’t done well at all.  Read the insight to see what happens when it is done.

A recent report by the American Psychological Association, featured in the New Scientist, brings together some of the evidence and theory behind the ‘positive thinking’ approach to communicating about climate change.

It goes something like this: people will block up their ears if you tell them the scary facts and make them feel bad.  Instead, discover what already motivates them and makes them feel good, and use that knowledge to promote the new behaviours you’d like them to adopt.  You might not mention the climate change links at all.

The areas picked up the NS article are:

• social networks
• immediate feedback
• competitive instincts
• fitting in with the crowd

I’m very excited that this kind of psychological analysis is seeping into the world of technical experts and physical sciences.   How have you been using psychology to help engaging people more effectively?

There are quite a few courses on offer in the UK to help people speak in public more confidently, knowledgeably and effectively about climate change.

This article which I wrote for the environmentalist examines two of them, focusing on the key points that the trainers are trying to get across.

Enticing people with a money-saving message has always been part of the eco-communicator’s armoury.  When the credit crunch began to hit in late 2008, I looked at how those messages were being resurrected in the UK, through make-do-and-mend to more radical voices hoping for a wholesale redesign of the economy.

Read that article here. It’s a pdf file.

Changing behaviour, encouraging and enabling pro-environmental behaviours in particular, is endlessly fascinating.  There are lots of theories of behaviour change, and lots of practitioners getting out there and trying to make it happen.  And some of them even succeed from time to time!  This article – Behave – which I wrote in 2007 – covers some approaches.  There are also other models, like the six sources of influence which I came across recently.

Start your exploration of that model with this great video!

The UK Government’s Defra (Department of Food and Rural Affairs) has its own behaviour change models, which I wrote about here in the context of audience segmentation.  NESTA also produced a great report on the use of established social marketing techniques to sell ‘low carbon’ living.  My September 08 column in the environmentalist covered that.

Which approaches to behaviour change do you see being used by environmental organisations?  And which are used by multi-national FMCG organisations? (That’s Fast Moving Consumer Goods to you and me.)  Clue: the behaviour FMCGs want to influence is purchasing behaviour.