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@BayerStrategic
Connect before you communicate:
Keys for mastering difficult conversations
Mark Bayer, President
Bayer Strategic Consulting
bayerstrategic.com
25 September 2019
@BayerStrategic
• Engage and effectively communicate with your stakeholders
through a deep understanding of the essence of connection
• Avoid common mistakes that undermine your communication
efforts -“The Jargon Trap” and “Shoot the Messenger Syndrome”
• Tailor your communication and build trust by uncovering key
connection points with each stakeholder group
Goals for Today
This keynote will help you:
@BayerStrategic
Get “S.E.T.”
1. Similarity starts it
2. Empathy is essential
3. Trust is a must
Today’s Main Message
@BayerStrategic
• What it means to “connect” with stakeholders
• Why connect?
• Connection challenges
• Case study 1: Missed Connection
• How to overcome barriers to connection
• Case study 2: Masterful Connection
• Where to find stakeholders’ key connection points
Roadmap
You will learn:
@BayerStrategic
Observe these principles:
1. Connection Manipulation
2. Be Authentic, Honest, Curious
3. Listen and Follow Through
Rules of the Road
TMWhat It Means To “Connect” With Stakeholders
@BayerStrategicWhat It Means To Connect with Stakeholders
• Feelings of similarity and mutual understanding
• Recognition of shared values and interests
• Grasp of stakeholder needs gained by listening, asking
questions and showing empathy
Connection is:
TM
Why Connect?
@BayerStrategic
Reflection-Affection-Connection
• People often are drawn to others with similar traits
or backgrounds
• “[W]hat causes one person to like another?
T There are 3 important factors. We like people
who are similar to us…”
• “People prefer to say yes to those that they like.”
Why Connect?
*Robert Cialdini, Ph.D., “The 6 Principles of Persuasion
https://nfluenceatwork.com/principles-of-persuasion/
*
*
@BayerStrategicWhy Connect?
Connection builds trust
• “People who cannot evaluate the assessed risks and promised benefits…will rely on the assessments of experts.
• Lay-people will have social trust in experts who appear to hold similar values.
• People…accept as true the risks and benefits identified by experts who share their values.” *
Salient Value Similarity, Social Trust, and Risk/Benefit Perception
Michael Siegrist, George Cvetkovich, Claudia Roth
© 2000 Society for Risk Analysis
*
TM
Connection Challenges
@BayerStrategic
“The Jargon Trap”
• “…impairs people’s ability to processscientific information…”
• “…leads to greater motivated resistanceto persuasion, increased risk perceptions…”
• “undermines efforts to informand persuade the public…”
Connection Challenges
*
Jargon as a Barrier to Effective Science Communication:
Evidence from Metacognition
Olivia Bullock, Daniel Amill, Hillary Shulman, and Graham Dixon
Annals of the International Communication Association
*
Jargon:
@BayerStrategic
“Shoot the Messenger Syndrome”
Connection Challenges
440 BCE:
Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare
“So here I stand, as unwelcome to you as I am unwilling…
For no man delights in the bearer of bad news.”
MESSENGER: “Gracious madam, I that do bring
the news made not the match.”
CLEOPATRA: “Rogue, thou hast lived too long.”
(draws a knife)
The Greek tragedy Antigone, Sophocles
1606:
@BayerStrategic
“Shoot the Messenger Syndrome”
Connection Challenges
April, 2019:
•“[N]ot much that can be done to change the deeply ingrained
tendency to shoot the messenger.”
•“Messengers can take measures to avoid the likability penalty through
the way they convey bad news.”
•“[R]ecipients are less likely to dislike bad news messengers when
those messengers…convey the benevolence of their motives —
….such as: “I’m really hoping for the best for you.”
*
Harvard Business Review, April 16, 2019,
Leslie K. John, Hayley Blunden, Heidi Liu
*
TMCase Study 1:
Missed Connection
The following video shows a meeting to discuss
environmental contamination and health effects suffered
by residents of a large, mostly African-American, public
housing community in Los Angeles, California.
Built in 1972, Ujima Village had community gardens, a
fitness center, computer labs, fruit trees and ponds.
The community was called “Ujima Village”, using the
Swahili term for collective work and responsibility.
It was meant to be an oasis
in an impoverished part of the city.
But 30 years after Ujima Village opened, soil and groundwater tests
revealed the land was contaminated with gas and crude oil
from an oil tank storage facility on the site from the1920s to the mid-1960s.
Health officials said the contamination did not pose a risk to residents.
But they promised further testing.
@BayerStrategic
@BayerStrategic
Missed Connections…
Case Study 1: Missed Connection
Count the Ways:
TM
Overcoming Barriers to Connection
@BayerStrategic
Toeholds for Connecting
• Determine the “native language” used by your
stakeholders
• Pick messengers who are similar and relatable
• Identify key individuals well known or respected
(“gilt by association”) by your stakeholders
• Understand stakeholders’ level of knowledge
of your subject to guide your presentation
Overcoming barriers to connection
TM
Case Study 2:
Masterful Connection
At the same community meeting,
a former Ujima Village resident used powerful techniques
to connect with both residents and health officials.
@BayerStrategic
Missed Connections…
Case Study 1: Missed Connection
Count the Ways:
@BayerStrategicCase Study 2: Masterful Connection
Masterful Connections…Where?
TM
`
Finding Stakeholders’ Connection Points
TM
•Close colleagues who are members of group you’re addressing
•Leaders of organization who can describe knowledge level of their members
•Previous speakers to person or group you’re addressing
•Individuals respected by, influential with person/group
Finding Stakeholders’ Connection Points @BayerStrategic
Talk to people:
TM
• Twitter to see what they’re tweeting and who they’re following
• YouTube channel/videos to see what they may be posting and/or interested in
• LinkedIn posts to see level of knowledge of the group, type of language used
•Press releases/news stories/bios for individuals or organization
Finding Stakeholders’ Connection Points @BayerStrategic
Do your research:
@BayerStrategic
Get “S.E.T.”
1. Similarity starts it
2. Empathy is essential
3. Trust is a must
Today’s Main Message
TMConnecting with Me
@BayerStrategic
Email:
LinkedIN:
https://linkedin.com/in/markdanielbayer
Podcast:
https://WhenScienceSpeaks.com
Website:
https://bayerstrategic.com
Connecting with me
@BayerStrategic
Upcoming Online Course (January 2020):
“How to Effectively Communicate with Any Audience”
• 4-week intensive course to help engineers become skilled communicators
using jargon-free, everyday language that engages stakeholders while
preserving accuracy
• Learn to confidently develop and deliver persuasive messaging to
policymakers and other important stakeholders
• Register by the end of the conference (Thursday, 26 September at 1pm) to get
a special bonus: FREE, one-on-one, 30-minute consulting call with me included
in the course investment
Connecting with me
Special Offer for WasteMINZ Attendees
Details and Registration:
CommSeminars.com
