GYCZ – Progressives Fail To Communicate

I saw this post on Twitter/X earlier this year and loved the opinion expressed. @PeterHRatcliffe stated that ‘Progressives’ believe their ideas make perfect sense and then fail to communicate their ideas well.

Driving Change & Agreement on Issues

It’s a fair comment, however I’ll add that, not only Progressives, but every speaker, every communicator, has a responsibility to communicate their ideas well.  It’s especially important when you wish to encourage, promote, or drive change.

 Here’s a link to the tweet https://x.com/PeterHRatcliffe/status/1805900850709004459

 

A Simple Model for Driving Change

Here’s a model for driving change that can be used if you’re delivering a single presentation, or delivering a series of presentations over a longer period for a more complicated issue.

1.   Define the Problem or Issue

The primary purpose of a speech is to inform, persuade, or entertain. When exploring change or introducing a new concept to an audience, it will be difficult to persuade. First, you need to inform about the problem or issue, and to get concurrence that the problem exists and is significant. If the audience doesn’t accept that there is a problem or issue, then they will never be persuaded to think differently or act differently.

With a new concept, your goal must be to get concurrence that there is an issue and have the audience eager to pursue solutions.

Problem definitions should be short, simple and clear. I’m confident that everyone reading this post has heard a speaker explain with passion what he perceives as an issue, but you remain unclear of the exact issue.  The problem ideally should be reduced to one simple sentence.

2.   Develop Alternatives

Once your audience agrees there is an issue, and is willing to invest time, energy, and money, it’s time to describe or develop possible solutions.  Ideas could be developed during a team exercise, or you might present a series of options and invite other ideas from the audience. In my opinion, it’s always advisable to engage the audience and let them voice their ideas.

3.   Select a Solution

There are many methods to assist a team in selecting an alternative once the alternatives have been thoroughly discussed.  People need to be heard, and to feel that they’ve been heard. 

Approaches include SWOT analysis, Nominal Group Technique with ranking, listing of pros and cons, and dot voting Dot Voting

 

Conclusion

The primary purpose of a speech is to inform, persuade, or entertain. If you’re planning to speak with an ultimate goal to enable a group decision, you better be very clear.  If you’re not clear it will be very difficult to get your audience on board, and you’re likely to become frustrated with your lack of progress.

Every speaker, every communicator, has a responsibility to communicate their ideas well.  Public speaking is a skill.  Skills require practice.

 

 

Comfort Zones – Anticipating Change – and Municipal Progress

I’m visiting Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia for a few days.  It would have been nice to spend a few days skiing at Cape Smokey, which offers a stunning ocean view, but that’s not to be on this visit.  Here’s a link to the Cape Smokey website should you want to see the spectacular view across the water https://capesmokey.ca/

As a result of breaking from my usual routine, and being here for a few days, I’ve been thinking about community identities, things we hold to be unchangeable and immovable, and comfort zones.  I grew up here in Sydney on Cape Breton Island.  Sydney was and is a small town of about 30,000 people. In 1992 the Nova Scotia provincial government decided that 67 municipal governments in a province of 900,000 people was too many.  As a result of a study and recommendation, in 1995 Sydney was amalgamated with 6 other entities to form the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM). CBRM suddenly appeared as a municipality, and market, with 100,000 citizens. 

Since 1981, I have lived in Saint John, in the smaller province of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia’s neighbor. I didn’t pay much attention to the Nova Scotia amalgamations at the time.  However, as the 1990s ended I noticed on my visits to Sydney that business investment took off. To my observation it was mainly with big box stores, but they did arrive and invest, and hire people. I noticed further investment in infrastructure that occurred to support the new construction, particularly in roads and interchanges. While it wasn’t obvious to me, I’m confident that the investment in infrastructure, the creation of jobs, and the subsequent development of local talent benefitted the local economy. 

I surmise that the big box stores arrived because where there had previously been a town of 30,000 people, there was what suddenly looked like a small city of 100,000 people, that was the result of the amalgamation of the 7 local towns into one governmental entity.  When a business is investing, a city and market of 100,000 is more attractive than a town of 30,000 people. 

This growth and investment occurred even though people didn’t move. People stayed in their homes in Whitney Pier and Dominion but were now in a municipality of 100,000 people. Today I continue to visit Sydney to see my family. We still visit the excellent Black Spoon Bistro in North Sydney (https://www.blackspoon.ca/)   The ferry to Newfoundland still departs from North Sydney.  The Fortress of Louisbourg hasn’t moved from the town of Louisbourg since France built the massive fortifications in 1720.  You can see more about Louisbourg at https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/ns/louisbourg/visit. Sydney, Louisbourg North Sydney, and others continue to have their community identities within the governmental body of CBRM.

I write this because I’m obsessed with change and comfort zones. I’m sure the amalgamation of these local governments was controversial at the time. But life didn’t seem to change for the worse for people, and while I’m not an economist it is apparent to me that the region has grown. And these days in my home province of New Brunswick, some amalgamation is about to take place.  340 entities are being amalgamated into 90. This is pushing some people out of their comfort zones, and forcing people to deal with change. People are concerned their small town will lose its identity.  However, I don’t perceive that that happened in CBRM.

As I reflect on the experience of municipal reform in Nova Scotia, as I saw it, I believe it’s another lesson that while change is uncomfortable, we often worry too much about the effects. We do need to anticipate and plan for the effects. But regardless the world around us will evolve.  As individuals, and as communities of various forms, we need to respond and evolve appropriately.  If we stay in one place and refuse to evolve, we’ll be left behind as others change and adapt themselves.