A blog by our co-director, Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw, and the launch of our new guide: How to Talk about Air Quality and Environmental Health.
Read moreConservative values and messengers — what’s the deal in climate change communications?
A recent paper and associated videos have gotten people talking about what happens when we use politically conservative values to frame climate change communications. Our co-director Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw, and researcher Ellen Ozarka respond with this blog reflecting on values and climate change communications.
Read moreStart with hope — narrative strategies for climate change narrative
Kia ora from Hannah and Julie,
Here at The Workshop, we have been reflecting on Jess’s latest blog post and thinking about the big changes that are needed to address climate change.
Last month the government released the first Emissions Reduction Plan. It was awesome to see a commitment and resources dedicated to ensuring our children inherit a survivable planet. It is a good step towards a thriving and healthy environment, but there is still much more work to be done. Crucially, this work requires public support and understanding. How do we build this support and understanding? One way is by shifting the unhelpful mindsets that get in the way of effective action. This involves using narratives to build better public understanding of the problems and solutions.
Currently, there are outdated but habitual ways of thinking that hold us back from the changes that will make the biggest difference. These unhelpful climate change mindsets and the narratives that reflect them are the ones that leave us feeling hopeless. For example, a focus on individual behaviour change can crowd out people’s thinking, making it harder to think about the collaborative action that focuses on their role as citizens. We need to put forward new narratives that deepen people’s understanding of climate change and inspire people to act together to make changes that make the biggest difference.
This is where mindset and narrative work comes in. As Jess writes in her blog post, “Effective policies are nothing without the public's ongoing belief in them as important, effective and helpful to the problem, as they have been led to understand it.” People will be drawn to solutions that match the description of the problem. If we want big changes, we need to work on building public support and understanding for them.
Climate Change Q + A with Jess
We've been watching and listening to the public response to the launch of the Emissions Reduction Plan, which sparked more questions and conversations about how narratives can contribute to the changes we need in the climate space. We asked Jess to share her responses to these common questions.
What is your vision for climate change communication?
Oh, that is interesting! For me it is communication that is a plethora of hope filled stories from across many of our different communities. And, in those stories, in which people talk about what matters to them and why from their own unique experiences, there are golden threads (narratives) that people can find that say similar things about how climate change happened and what we can do about it. These golden threads help people grasp the deeper and more complex understanding we have about climate change, the environment and our interconnected systems that all of us are embedded within and reliant upon.
You’ve said we need to talk about people as citizens rather than consumers. What are other shifts we should make when talking about climate change?
People have to be able to feel like we can solve this problem, not perfectly - perfect solutions are not what people do - but in a collaborative, creative and iterative way that puts the things most of us deeply care about at the centre.
It is also vital that we find ways to communicate about the solidarity we need to solve these problems. That it is working together, and recognising all our unique strengths to their utmost. I think that is why in Aotearoa there's so much power in Te Tiriti led solutions, because at the heart of Te Tiriti is a story of solidarity - it’s about collaboration between different people to value and recognise the different strengths of each other’s ways and take best care of each other. If we can find ways to talk about and help people understand the potential for all people to thrive through Te Tiriti led solutions to climate change, and notably to properly recognise the leadership of mana whenua in this space (because we have no problem talking about the leadership of Tangata Tiriti), that would be very powerful too.
What’s the one thing you recommend people who are communicating about climate change start doing now?
Start with hope and our ability to collaborate across communities at scale, it will automatically redirect your own narratives and people's thinking from individualism.
The Workshop in the Media
5 Resources for Talking about Systems Change
In this blog post, Sam Rye recommends five of the best resources, reports and articles on communicating about systems change. The list provides a great starting point for those who are working on the changes that will make the biggest difference and want to deepen people’s understanding on these issues.
We feel delighted to see our guide - Mapping the Landscape, How to Talk About Systems Change in Aotearoa - included in this list, alongside great work from our friends across the globe: Narrative Initiative, ORS Impact, Ella Saltmarshe, the Centre for Public Impact, Dusseldorp Forum and Hands Up Mallee.
Read the full blogpost here: https://www.samrye.xyz/communicating-systems-change-5-best-resources-reports-articles/
How to Talk about Systems Change - an Interview with Jordan and Jess
“[Systems thinking] is not new to our people. Whakapapa is one of the most complex systems. It is the very fabric of our universe. There are heaps of systems change and systems thinking capabilities in our communities and it’s about listening and learning from our leaders.” - Jordan Green
For a deeper dive on our guide, Mapping the Landscape, check out this interview with our Kairangahau Jordan Green and Co-Director Jess Berentson-Shaw by Paul McGregor from Business Lab. Drawing on their work, Jordan and Jess talked about systems change in Aotearoa and the importance of listening and learning from Māori leaders and te ao Māori.
Check out the interview: https://www.businesslab.co.nz/beyond-consultation-podcast/45
Examples from the Narrative Movement
Unlocking People from Poverty - Dr Innes Asher
“Most parents have a vision that their children can thrive and have opportunities. Most parents want that. Unfortunately, the system has locked a lot of families in so their children cannot thrive and have opportunities - that is, really, called being in poverty.”
- Dr Innes Asher
In this interview on poverty in Aotearoa, New Zealand, Dr Innes Asher does several great things. She:
Leads with a vision
Explains the barriers to that vision, and names the government as an agent - someone who can make change
Points upstream, towards the systems that have locked families into poverty
Uses the ‘locked in poverty metaphor’
Outlines clear solutions.
For more in-depth recommendations on this topic, check out our guide: Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform in Aotearoa.
Haere rā Sharon!
It was with equal parts sadness and excitement that we farewelled Sharon Bell from The Workshop this month. Sadness because Sharon has been with us from near the start of our growth into the organisation we are now. She has helped build a solid foundation for this organisation to grow further from, especially in our insights and research work.
Her work on our mode shift project in the early days is especially worth mentioning as part of our "just get stuck in" approach. She managed our projects with aplomb - Sharon has always had a steady hand on the tiller in rough weather. We are excited for Sharon because she heads off to MFAT to reacquaint herself with her real passion - aid and development work. As Sharon says, it's back to her knitting and we know she will knit something fabulous while there. Thank you, Sharon, from all of us at the Workshop. It is never goodbye, only a divergence of the path.
You can get more guidance on narratives on topics from transport, climate change and justice reform in our freely available message guides on our website.
Get in touch with operations@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team.
Marianne, Jess, Carolyn, Jordan, Gidion, Ellen, Nicky, Jayne, Tom, Julie, Hannah, Minette, and Nick at The Workshop
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Emissions plan needs public support to succeed — how we talk about climate action will make the biggest difference
The Emissions Reduction Plan is out and buried deep under the equitable transition chapter is a small but important objective for ‘informed public participation’. As experts in helping people understand complex issues and changes that make the biggest difference, what’s our take on the opportunity and risks in this objective?
Collective action needs collective understanding and support
Aotearoa New Zealand’s First Emissions Reduction Plan is out. People across Aotearoa have worked hard together for a future where government and industry act so all our children inherit a survivable planet.
The plan shows people care about what our planet can sustain. It’s a good first step in creating the conditions where all people and our environment can thrive. But we still face a barrier to implementing the plan, and the other effective actions that experts tell us are still to come. Many people who are both for and against effective climate action continue to tell the public that making individual low-emission choices as consumers is where their role starts and finishes.
The success of the emissions plan hinges on building people’s understanding and support for the transformative changes set out in it — everything else flows from this.
We need to help people reach a deeper understanding of how climate warming has happened, what the solutions are, who needs to act, and our own place in the collective solutions beyond our role as consumers and individuals.
People can’t buy or behave their way out of climate change: informing people about ‘low emission-choices’ will fail
The plan signals the government wants informed public participation in climate policy and actions (objective 5). This objective is a fundamental building block for implementing climate change policies that work to ensure we have a survivable planet. One action under that objective is to investigate setting up a new centre to provide public information on the climate:
‘Inform low-emissions choices through a Climate Information Centre: investigating the benefits of a Climate Information Centre that provides a trusted source of information to promote and socialise the wide-scale behaviour changes needed for the transition.’
But a climate information centre that’s designed to ‘inform’ people about ‘behaviour change’ and help them make low-emission ‘choices’ is destined to fail. It won’t ensure informed public participation in effective climate policies and won’t build the necessary public support for the big changes to come. This approach frames the problem and solution of public information as: individuals need information poured into them so they can choose to buy or behave their way out of climate change. This is simply untrue.
Are we citizens or consumers?
Picture the word ‘consumer’. What sorts of feelings and thoughts does it bring up for you? What does the word ‘consumer’ make you think about, what images come to mind, how is that person interacting with the world, and what are they doing? Try to notice what you do not think about?
Try the same exercise with ‘citizen’ or ‘community member’. What images come to mind? How is that person interacting with the world, and what are they doing? What do you not think about?
This exercise is an example of framing — the lens people see something through. ‘Consumer’ and ‘citizen’ are two very different frames that lead to two very different types of thinking about problems, solutions, and who’s responsible for fixing things.
Individual choice won’t solve climate change — we should stop talking like it will
Consumers making greener choices won’t solve climate change and people know this on a deep level — the scale of the problem is too big. And people get exhausted by being told they’re the ones that need to change when they see what they believe to be not enough action by people in government or businesses, including those causing the problem.
Focusing on individual behaviour can also lead to victim blaming — people get angry with other people if they feel they’re not making ‘better choices’. Consider the vitriol directed at people who bought petrol utes after the subsidy for electric cars was announced. Sure, it's not an ideal action in a time of climate change, but it is misdirection to blame individuals and say they don't care enough to change their behaviour. This thinking doesn’t acknowledge that some people have no choice.
People don't have the resources, the physical structures, or the right policies to support them to do things differently. The sorts of changes that will make the biggest difference — ones that enable people’s default behaviours to be low emissions ones — are only a glimmer in the eye of policymakers. And that’s, in part, because these changes lack public understanding and support and the political will that follows this support.
Effective policies are nothing without the public's ongoing belief in them as important, effective, and helpful to the problem, as they have been led to understand it. If people can’t understand how these policies relate to the problem as it has been framed and explained to them, they won’t support those policies or fight for them. People will also become easily influenced by the stories and narratives of those working hard to maintain business as usual.
How a problem is explained has to match proposed solutions. It’s a hard equation for people if you tell them that the problem and solution of climate emission is one of individual consumer choice — ‘buy an EV’ — and then try to get them to support a complete redesign of urban centres and housing infrastructure.
A Climate Information Centre could focus on citizen-level understanding and behaviours
To deepen understanding and increase participation in climate policies, climate information could engage people as citizens who are working together, over individuals who need to choose to change their behaviour.
A climate information centre that engages people as citizens, not consumers, could help people understand the complexities of climate change. It could help people see what big systems changes are needed, and are being planned for, and see their own role within this. A centre like this could:
develop a comprehensive strategy for deepening public understanding drawing on the best social science, mātuaranga Māori, and communications theories and research
research into what works in the Aotearoa context to deepen public understanding on climate problems and solutions in a bipartisan way
avoid the trap of fact-led descriptions of climate change as the problem about to consume us all
avoid a myopic and unhelpful focus on helping consumers ‘choose’ low emissions products
focus on hope-led, realistic stories of the collective solutions that are possible and already being done
explain the origin stories of climate breakdown and our planetary boundaries in ways that people can connect with and feel empowered to act by
work in partnership with ‘experts’ including those with lived experience of climate change harms — to build communications for different communities in ways that work
deliver participatory models for peoples’ involvement in climate action
resource the critical voices and work of Māori and pacific climate change communicators
provide resourcing, tools, and support to communicators in different communities to build their own communications that work, for example in schools, workplaces, and rural communities.
Climate communications based on the idea that we are citizens who together can shape effective solutions first, will help people see the bigger picture and the connections between things. This approach helps people understand, agree with, and support needed change — all other actions and behaviours stem from this.
For more guidance on narratives around topics such as transport, climate change, justice reform and more, visit our website. We have freely available message guides.
Get in touch with operations@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team.
The team at The Workshop - Marianne, Jess, Sharon, Gidion, Jordan, Carolyn, Ellen, Jayne, Nicky, Hannah, Julie and Tom
The Workshop is growing
Kia ora from Marianne and Jess,
Over the past eight months, The Workshop team has grown significantly. Seven new people have joined our team, each bringing with them a diverse set of skills and experience.
For some of our team, this is a slightly belated introduction. You may already have worked with some of them! Still, we are excited for you to get to know our newer staff members a little more.
Below are the very brief versions of their introductions. You can read a bit more about each of them in this blog, including their ideal Saturday.
Gidion de Haan
is our Head of Operations. He came to The Workshop from a range of senior management roles in big companies, but before all of that Gidion was a fashion designer in his hometown of Amsterdam. Gidion’s role at The Workshop is to help us be the best organisation we can be, so that we can do great work while taking care of our people and clients.
Tom McDonald
is our Operations Assistant. He came to The Workshop from business support and administrative roles at Regional Public Health and the NZ Drug Foundation, in the thick of the Cannabis Referendum campaign. Tom works with Gidion to keep the day to day operations, human resource, information and financial systems of The Workshop working smoothly.
Nick Beaudoin
is our Project Manager. His most recent roles were in project management and fundraising in the charity sector. He has an interest in public policy, politics and history. Nick’s role at The Workshop is to help all our projects run more smoothly and efficiently, which will help us have more impact, with less stress.
Nicola Henderson
is our Training & Communications Administrator. She joined us after almost seven years living and working in Cambodia, most recently as an Editor in the Marketing & Business Development Team at IDP Education. Nicola’s role at The Workshop includes administering our training courses, production of our publications and assisting with research.
Julie Fairfield
is our Senior Narrative Implementation Advisor. Before she joined The Workshop she led strategic communications for Healthy Families Hutt Valley, where she used The Workshop’s tools and resources. Julie’s role at The Workshop will be to support our clients and collaborators to apply new narratives. This includes mentoring, coaching and helping people use new narratives in the real world.
Jayne Dalmer
is our Senior Narrative Advisor. Before joining the Workshop, Jayne was a consultant for five years with Write Limited — experts in communication that sounds like it was created by humans for other humans to understand. Jayne’s role at The Workshop is to help us all get better at making complex information crystal clear. This involves a lot of writing and editing, as well as helping us all to be better writers.
Hannah Patterson
is our Narrative Implementation Assistant. Before The Workshop, Hannah was studying part-time to finish off her Law and Media Studies degree. Hannah’s role at The Workshop is to help people use new narratives. She works on our message guides, email newsletter and social media posts, and she’s putting together a library of examples of narratives in practice.
Read more about the newer people on our team in this blog post. To get to know the whole team, check out Our People.
Get in touch with operations@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team.
The team at The Workshop - Marianne, Jess, Sharon, Gidion, Jordan, Carolyn, Ellen, Jayne, Nicky, Hannah, Julie, Tom and Nick
PS: If this email was forwarded to you, you can get future emails like this by signing up here.
Get to know our new staff
Over the past eight months, The Workshop team has grown significantly. Gidion, Tom, Nick, Nicky, Julie, Hannah and Jayne have joined our team, each bringing with them a diverse set of skills and experience. We are excited to see how The Workshop will continue to grow and thrive with an enriched group of people working together across disciplines.
For some of our team, this is a slightly belated introduction. Still, we are excited for you to get to know our newer staff members a little more.
Gidion de Haan, Head of Operations
What were you up to before The Workshop?
I worked for a number of big companies in different roles ranging from projects to senior management. Before I came to New Zealand (ages ago), I worked as a florist in Germany and was a fashion designer back home in Amsterdam. In general, my passion has been doing good and finding ways to make sure companies are their best selves.
What does your ideal Saturday look like?
Either hiking in the Tararua forest park or doing a beach clean up with the kids.
What drew you to The Workshop?
The Workshop has a great moral compass and I love working with like minded people. I am looking forward to growing the organisation into its best self.
Tom McDonald, Operations Assistant
What were you up to before The Workshop?
Most recently I worked for Regional Public Health as the Business Support/Child Health Administrator in its Wairarapa office. Prior to that I was the Office Administrator at the NZ Drug Foundation in the throes of the Cannabis Referendum campaign. I have largely worked in not-for-profit spaces since returning to Aotearoa in 2017 following five years overseas.
What does your ideal Saturday look like?
It looks very chilled! A sleep in, a bit of brunch on the deck, hanging out with the fur kids. In simpler times, definitely a gig in the evening (hopefully that will be a thing again in the coming months).
What drew you to The Workshop?
Not-for-profit life is the only life for me. I’m here to help The Workshop team do good things for Aotearoa and beyond. The work we do is already so important and it’s only early days!
Nick Beaudoin, Project Manager
What were you up to before The Workshop?
Before joining The Workshop team, I worked as a project manager for a fundraising platform called Funraisin. Prior to that, I worked in the charity sector supporting fundraising for organisations like UNICEF, the Cancer Society, and JustSpeak, where I actually used to work right next to The Workshop team!
What does your ideal Saturday look like?
A nice, long hike with a packed lunch eaten in the bush or on a mountain top, followed up by a pint or two of Wellington’s famous craft beer.
What drew you to The Workshop?
I’m very interested in public policy, politics and history, and I’m excited to be able to apply my project management experience in this field. The Workshop’s values and mission very much align with my own, which was definitely a factor in drawing me in. I look forward to helping projects run more smoothly and efficiently, which will hopefully help alleviate some stress and help us maximise our impact.
Nicola Henderson, Training and Communications Administrator
What were you up to before The Workshop?
Before I joined The Workshop I was working in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as an Editor in the Marketing & Business Development Team at IDP Education (Cambodia), a position that I held for four years. Before being appointed to the position of Editor, I worked as a Curriculum Writer at IDP Education (Cambodia) for two years. I spent almost seven years living and working in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, before moving to New Zealand in 2020.
What does your ideal Saturday look like?
My ideal Saturday looks like having a sleep in, enjoying a coffee while listening to some music, and then playing tennis at Waikanae Beach Tennis Club in the afternoon (I love tennis!). The next best thing for me is curling up with a really good memoir or biography, prior to enjoying a glass of lovely New Zealand pinot noir in the evening.
What drew you to The Workshop?
I was drawn to The Workshop because of its values and vision, and because I really enjoy working with people whose values align with mine. I feel really excited and fortunate to be putting my research background and skills to good use and also to be more involved in production at The Workshop in 2022.
Julie Fairfield, Senior Narrative Implementation Advisor
What were you up to before The Workshop?
Before I joined The Workshop I led the strategic communications for Healthy Families Hutt Valley. Healthy Families NZ is a Ministry of Health funded initiative in ten locations around Aotearoa. The location teams work collaboratively with local leaders to make the systems that influence our everyday lives and the environments we live in better support our health and wellbeing. My role was to use storytelling and other communications tools to influence change and then celebrate the impact we collectively create.
What does your ideal Saturday look like?
My ideal Saturday would start with a cup of tea in bed, followed by a happy mix of spending time with my family sharing in the activities that the kids enjoy (which seem to change weekly). I also enjoy creating yummy food (and mess!) in the kitchen and enjoying time in the garden.
What drew you to The Workshop?
I used The Workshop’s tools and resources in my previous role and understand how they can make talking about the big issues easier and more effective. I’m excited to work with the team and our clients so that together we can create more impact through well researched, effective narratives.
Jayne Dalmer, Senior Narrative Advisor
What were you up to before The Workshop?
Before joining the Workshop, I was a consultant for five years with Write Limited — experts in communication that sounds like it was created by humans for other humans to understand. The work was all about helping writers make complex information crystal clear.
What does your ideal Saturday look like?
My ideal Saturday would start with a sleep in, listening to the radio, and a coffee. I might go for a bike ride by the sea, then hang out with any of the kids who are awake and around. I love having no plans, but letting the day unfurl in interesting and creative ways. Then I’d blob on the couch and watch trashy TV. Actually, an ideal Saturday would involve swinging on a hammock in South East Asia somewhere, but that’s another story.
What drew you to The Workshop?
I love the mission and values of The Workshop and am drawn to using evidence to support persuasive communication. I’m thrilled to put my psychology, linguistics, and communication background to good use and to learn something new every day.
Hannah Patterson, Narrative Implementation Assistant
What were you up to before The Workshop?
Before The Workshop I was studying part time to finish off my Law and Media Studies degree at Te Herenga Waka. I was also spending a decent amount of my time writing poems and reading.
What does your ideal Saturday look like?
My favourite Saturdays involve sunshine, being under some trees, getting excited about books in the city libraries (I love the city libraries!), spending time with friends, and rock climbing. Saturdays are most ideal when I manage to fit in some of these things while maintaining a chill vibe.
What drew you to The Workshop?
I feel lucky to be at The Workshop because I get to do work that aligns with my values and work with people who share those values too. So far, it has been really interesting to see how our communication tools can apply across many different fields and social issues. I’m loving the variety of content and I am excited to contribute to making this knowledge accessible to all.
Narratives for Change Public Training 2022
Kia ora from Carolyn and Nicky,
We’re very happy to announce the 2022 dates for the first of our public training workshops for this year. In these workshops, we dive into cognitive and social science to help you understand the surprising barriers we face when communicating our big issues. And we introduce you to our evidence-led model on how to overcome them: The Five Building Blocks of Narratives for Change.
Our training is divided in two modules: Foundations 1 and Foundations 2. At the Foundations 1 level, you will complete an online training course that includes self-paced reading, videos and individual reflection activities, as well as small group activities and live virtual facilitated sessions with our expert trainers. It is extremely flexible and you will work through most of the content at times that suit you and at your own pace each week.
The Foundations 2 module is delivered via the video-calling platform Zoom in 4 weekly workshops of 2 hours each. Attendees must attend all four sessions.
Registrations are open for both modules on these dates:
2-27 May: Narratives for Change Foundations 1
2-23 June: Narratives for Change Foundations 2
For more guidance on narratives around topics such as transport, climate change, justice reform and more, visit our website. We have freely available message guides.
If this email was forwarded to you, you can get future emails like this by signing up here.
Get in touch with operations@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team.
The team at The Workshop - Marianne, Jess, Sharon, Gidion, Jordan, Carolyn, Ellen, Jayne, Nicky, Hannah and Tom
Communications tips for these changeable times
Kia ora from Jess,
As things change rapidly with this pandemic, almost weekly it feels, we're seeing stories about fear and division. Now more than ever we need to remind ourselves that acting together for our communities is how we've got through so far and will continue to get through this global pandemic best. A long term collaborative and caring response will limit the spread, allow us to adapt as things change, help us cope with the impacts, and enable us to emerge better than before.
If you're someone who plans and communicates every day, you’ll understand the challenge and the opportunity to bring people together and provide calm reassurance.
Whether you’re a community collective, a school principal or a public commentator, here are some things to keep in mind when you’re trying to lead a conversation about important things and you want to support good decision making.
Better decisions based on deeper thinking can help create a world where everyone thrives.
Focus on what we know so we can adapt and grow
At the moment, we face constant uncertainty that feels different to when the pandemic started. And it’s hard to hold on to a clear vision for something that’s always changing and we don't know what will happen next.
In this situation it’s important to communicate what you do know, and to focus on what we know will help. Explain that learning and adapting to new information is a core part of a good response, and will help us get through.
For example, “The best way to make sure everyone is taken care of is through our public services. They are there for all of us. As new science on COVID-19 comes in, skilled people who care are assessing and responding. We have the skills within our public institutions and our health and science communities to get us through this with the right support from all of us”.
What does this look like?
Here’s an example of how you might explain that adapting to new information is part of a good response.
“Health professionals really care about our wellbeing. It’s their job to monitor our public health actions. They’re making sure we always have the most up-to-date advice. That care demonstrates being good at their job at caring for other people.”
A great example of what we already know is illustrated in Toby, Siouxsie and the Swiss Cheese. In this explainer, cartoonist Toby Morris and science communicator Siouxsie Wiles use a well-known metaphor to help frame vaccination as the next empowering tool we use in our COVID-19 journey. The Swiss Cheese metaphor emphasises the importance of vaccination, but also the importance of all the other things we’ve been doing, like handwashing, border controls, testing, and tracing.
A consistent communication structure can build togetherness and trust
The main communication structure to keep in mind is to:
lead with a clear, positive vision based on shared values
name the barriers to achieving that vision
state the solutions to overcome those barriers
Lead with a clear positive vision
Lead your communication with what matters most to people — what we collectively care about. That might include connectedness, community, fairness, or manaakitanga.
Develop and reconnect people to a clear positive vision. What do we all want to see? Visions help give people hope and stop communicators leading with problems or alarming statistics. Visions help stop people getting derailed by misinformation or unhelpful narratives.
Paint a vivid picture of how the world will be better in concrete terms. How will people’s day-to-day lives be better? In what concrete ways will things be improved?
Name the barriers to achieving the vision
Be clear about the barriers to achieving the vision — what is standing in our way? Attribute cause and effect, use facts, and name human agents.
State the solutions to overcoming barriers
Make it clear how your solutions relate to the cause of the problem. For example, “tools such as getting vaccinated, getting boosted, and wearing masks, can help us all get through when things feel uncertain”.
What does this look like?
Vision – One day this pandemic will be over. We’ll be doing the things we love again with the people we love – gatherings, festivals, travel to see loved ones, uninterrupted education!
Barrier – But right now, the pandemic feels never ending, and we’re not certain of the best course of action to ‘get us through’. Some in our community are angry and upset with the solutions that are being used and scared about not knowing what’s next.
Solution – There are tools that we know will help, like getting vaccinated, boosted, and wearing masks. People in health and science are learning and adapting their approaches, and continuing to put our care for each other first. We will get through this pandemic by acting together.
We also love this mask accessibility example of a clear vision – barrier – solution structure by Action Station.
Focus on people, collective action, and clear communication
Once you have your main structure of vision – barrier – solution, you can think about other evidence-based communication tips.
Avoid repeating divisive or unhelpful stories
Tell your story, rather than arguing why someone else's story is wrong.
What does this look like?
An unhelpful COVID-19 story is framing COVID-19 protests as a crisis with many selfish, panicked people: “People are selfish, and angry and they are only getting worse”.
Instead of trying to argue against this story, tell your own. For example, you could say, “We’re all in this together, and together we will get through. It’s ok to be scared when things are so uncertain, reach out for support and do the right thing to help others”.
Rather than negating the crisis or panic frame, you put forward your own story about solidarity and interdependence.
Why we need stories of strength, not division
In this recent op-ed Jess makes the case for focusing on our strengths and our collective action, framing our assets, rather than on deficit framing.
“Consider the difference in talking about the strength and resilience of disabled people in this pandemic and then moving on to discuss how this leadership has not been able to come out in its full force because of controls on the funding or lack of trust from people in funding bodies. That frames a very different way of thinking about the issues and the types of solutions people are considering than simply talking about the vulnerability of disabled people and why we must act”.
Collaboration and care are core human characteristics. Reminding ourselves of this and using these values will get us through these changing and challenging times.
For more guidance on narratives around topics such as transport, climate change, justice reform and more, visit our website. We have freely available message guides.
If this email was forwarded to you, you can get future emails like this by signing up here.
Get in touch with operations@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team.
The team at The Workshop - Marianne, Jess, Sharon, Gidion, Jordan, Carolyn, Ellen, Jayne, Nicky and Tom
Not another Xmas gift list, but a list of all our new guides and reports in 2021
Kia ora from Jess and Marianne,
Well, it's been a year for us all (another one!). The challenges don’t stop, and for us that is very true personally and professionally. Standing back and considering the amazing work that has been done by people across all our communities, in government and business to help us through COVID-19, we are reminded again that coming together is what we do.
Our shared values, and vision for what is possible drive both ordinary and extraordinary acts of care and love for each other in challenging times. Thank you to all of you for being part of a larger us this year.
We hope our contribution to this collective effort has been helpful. As founders and co-directors we feel very proud of our growing team, their hard work, and their ability to respond to the needs of people across different sectors from health to environment. You can see below the wide range of areas the team has worked on.
We’ve welcomed new people and said goodbye to others, as we continue to adapt and work out how we do this narrative work best. All with the goal of helping you implement changes that will make the biggest difference to people and the planet.
We hope you all find some time for rest, joy and reconnection over the coming months, and thank you for all the support you give us. It’s your optimism, enthusiasm and enjoyment of our work that continues to motivate us.
Our publications this year (general):
The Workshop: Measuring our impact, 2019-2021
How to talk about the future of farming in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021
How to talk about co-governance of our bioheritage, 2021
Mapping the landscape: How to talk about systems change in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021
Talking about early brain development: A short report, 2021
Talking about early brain development in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021
Our publications this year (Covid-19):
Flowchart for navigating vaccination conversations, 2021
Conversations with friends & whānau about Covid-19 vaccination: Connecting, not correcting, 2021
Talking about Covid-19 vaccination with whānau Māori, 2021
Encouraging Covid-19 vaccinations: A guide for workplaces, 2021
How to talk about Covid-19 vaccinations: Building trust in vaccination, a guide, 2021
How to talk about Covid-19 vaccinations: Tip sheet, 2021
For more guidance on narratives around topics such as transport, climate change, justice reform, and more, visit our website - we have freely available message guides.
If this email was forwarded to you, you can get future emails like this by signing up here.
Get in touch with operations@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team.
The team at The Workshop - Marianne, Jess, Sharon, Gidion, Jordan, Carolyn, Ellen and Nicky
How to talk about co-governance of our bioheritage
Kia ora from Jordan,
When it comes to our natural environment I’m pretty confident that we all want the same thing – to ensure the wellbeing and protection of our taiao for future generations. Threats like myrtle rust pose a serious risk to the ngahere ecosystem of my own hapū and iwi whenua, so this kaupapa – supporting community-led environmental solutions through narrative change – is one I am so honoured to be involved in.
To awhi our friends at the BioHeritage Science Challenge and the kaitiaki doing this deeply important work, we are really pleased to announce the release of our new messaging guide, How to talk about co-governance of our bioheritage.
This guide has been designed to help our environmental and Treaty advocates and communicators use effective narratives and communication strategies to build support for mana whenua-led environmental management, and shared-decision making between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti in protecting our taonga species and ecosystems.
Some of the key thinking this guide can be used to help bring to the surface:
We can create legislation, policies and practices that support co-governance partnerships and actively create a healthy taiao/environment together.
When mana whenua-led kaitiakitanga is honoured, and environmental management centres on local expertise and knowledge, the benefits are collective and shared by all of us.
Through agreements that honour this work and create legal pathways to tino rangatiratanga, we can bring together distinct knowledge systems and approaches that complement each other.
Through partnership and reciprocal balanced relationships we can realise the joint hopes and ambitions that our ancestors had for their future generations in signing Te Tiriti.
How we can use narrative strategies to surface this thinking:
Lead with a concrete, shared vision of a flourishing taiao, balanced decision making and tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti thriving as a result. Be clear about the pathways to achieving this vision – co-governance might be one of these.
Don’t focus on the hard to persuade people who are in opposition to this work, look instead for and talk to people who care but need effective communications to draw them in.
Draw on self-direction and equity values to help audiences understand the importance of co-governance and tangata whenua-led environmental management.
Use a leadership frame to communicate the strengths that iwi, hapū and local communities bring to this work and how Māori leadership of shared spaces will benefit us all.
Use solidarity frames to remind tangata Tiriti of their obligations as Te Tiriti partners and how they should offer their support.
If you’d like to learn more about the project, the BioHeritage adaptive governance team are holding a webinar on the 15th of November, follow the link to register: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/7965708174554449163
Mauri ora from Jordan and The Workshop team
For more guidance on narratives around topics such as transport, climate change, justice reform, and more, visit our website - we have freely available message guides.
If this email was forwarded to you, you can get future emails like this by signing up here.
Get in touch with operations@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team.
Communications that build trust in the Covid-19 vaccine
Kia ora from Jess and Jordan,
I (Jess) got my second COVID vaccination this week, another two weeks and I will be very relieved to be able to say I have immunity to the worst of COVID-19. It felt a very empowering thing to do in the face of a lot of concerns I have about Delta. Emma, the nurse who talked me through it, was brilliant. I have anaphylaxis to some medications, and she really took time and care to make sure I was well looked after.
As a really powerful (but not the only!) tool to help us keep COVID-19 out, lots of us are talking about vaccination. From the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, to Elmo from Sesame Street reiterating the importance of getting vaccinated, 2020 and 2021 have seen a wide variety of communication campaigns and strategies about COVID-19. Showing there are fantastic stories to tell when we have a great narrative strategy in place.
Our recent publication How to talk about COVID-19 vaccinations: Building trust in vaccination, provides evidence-based communications techniques and tools for those people and organisations telling stories about the importance of getting vaccinated. The purpose of this guide is to help understand the foundations that underpin vaccine hesitancy and build our narrative strategies in response. Describing eight techniques and tools that effectively address vaccine hesitancy, while showing techniques already in use. We also provide tools and templates to help you use these findings. Including posters to print out explaining how immunity works to protect us all.
This month's newsletter showcases communications that build trust in the Covid-19 vaccine in a positive, creative way. We highlight some of our favourite effective communication campaigns that encourage vaccination in the ways the research suggests works.
P.S. Keep a lookout in your in-box because in the next week or so we will be releasing the latest in our COVID-19 communications suite of tools: How to talk to whānau and friends about vaccination. The conversation guide is designed specifically to help with those tricky one on one conversations we are all having.
Examples from the Narrative Movement
Giving Covid Its Final Curtain Call
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra encourages Australians to give us the performance of a lifetime and get vaccinated against Covid-19.
The extravagant two minute video leads with a vision of a brighter future, “Let's give Covid its final curtain call and go back to what we love most”.
They emphasise the importance of unity and collective action, “We need you to come together and get vaccinated as soon as you’re eligible, to give us the performance of a lifetime”.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra leads with collective benefits that the vaccination offers us, using values of responsibility and care getting back to the things we love. Collective responsibility is emphasised, “This isn't just about you as an individual soloist … It’s an ensemble effort”.
They do a great job at framing decision making in the context of collective benefit over individual choice. The video is visually engaging while encouraging vaccination through intrinsic values and collective action. Great mahi from The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, you can see the full video using this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDfug35d5fU
Elmo Encourages Vaccination
“That's why I got the Covid-19 vaccine, so me and my family and neighbors can get back to play-dates, trips, cookouts and sports”, says Father Louie, Elmo’s father. Sesame Street has led vaccine communication with intrinsic values of care and love; and to get back to the people we love.
Through our research on how to effectively communicate the Covid-19 vaccine, we have found that surfacing and engaging people’s intrinsic and collective values helps them to understand complex collective social problems and solutions. Sesame Street does a wonderful job of encouraging vaccination through values of care and love for one another.
https://twitter.com/sesamestreet/status/1430590900175056900
The Value in Hearing directly from Rangatahi Māori
Hāpai Te Hauora communicates the Covid-19 vaccination by sharing Rangatahi Māori voices and values of care, responsibility and empowerment.
In our guide How to talk about COVID-19 vaccinations: Building trust in vaccination, we emphasise the importance of amplifying experts who can speak to people’s personal experiences and concerns, including Māori, Pacific and disabled experts; or people most trusted by these communities.
Hāpai Te Hauora gives a personal voice to the Covid-19 vaccination, while communicating good information from someone trusted within the community. This communication campaign is effective at providing vital vaccination information to Rangatahi Māori while using intrinsic values that lead with a vision for a better future.
https://www.facebook.com/hapaitehauora/photos/a.203529373020349/4608648622508380/?type=3&theater
The Workshop in the Media
Emphasising Creative and Effective Vaccine Approaches
Vaccination provides the best protection to everyone when we have collective immunity. High levels of immunity in a population shield everyone from the worst of Covid-19. To achieve this, individual level benefits to get the vaccine should not be emphasised. Instead, framing the vaccine as a part of a collective effort to protect the community is important in encouraging more of our population to get vaccinated.
Co-Director Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw discusses this in her recent article with Newsroom titled Jess Berentson-Shaw: On ‘incentives’ and the vaccine hesitant. Jess mentions that when we use rewards and punishments to get hesitant people vaccinated, we send the message that the benefits of the vaccine are so weak, that people need an external motivator. This frames vaccination only in the context of individual-level gain and loss. Jess instead, highlights three main ways to encourage vaccination:
Through making vaccination easy and accessible to all communities, removing financial, social and physical barriers that stop people from accessing the vaccine.
Providing ‘social proof’, if people we trust get vaccinated, we are more likely to do the same.
Making vaccination the default, using an ‘opt-out’ not ‘opt-in’ approach. This works under the presumption that everyone has the positive intent to get vaccinated, limiting talk about choice and encouraging healthy vaccination behaviour.
You can read Jess’s full article here: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/jess-berentson-shaw-do-vaccine-incentives-help-hesitant-people
Notes from the Narrative Movement
Passing The Message Stick
We have been deeply inspired by the work done by many people, including some of our friends and collaborators in Australia, to produce advice on messages that are effective in building public support for First Nations self-determination and justice. This report, and the beautiful website that accompanies it, is the result of a two-year research project led by Dr Jackie Huggins AM, Larissa Baldwin and Karrina Nolan, supported by GetUp, Original Power and Australian Progress. Research on this project was undertaken by our colleagues at Common Cause Australia. Check out their website and report.
https://passingthemessagestick.org/
Latest from The Workshop
Encouraging COVID-19 Vaccinations: A Guide for Workplaces, 2021
Mapping the Landscape: How to Talk About Systems Change in Aotearoa, New Zealand, 2021
Talking about COVID-19 vaccination with whānau Māori, 2021
All Covid-19 publications from The Workshop
For more guidance on narratives around topics such as transport, climate change, justice reform, and more, visit our website - we have freely available message guides.
If this email was forwarded to you, you can get future emails like this by signing up here.
Get in touch with Rachel@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team
Marianne, Jess, Sharon, Carolyn, Jordan, Rachel, Ellen and Nicky at The Workshop
How To Lead Your Communications With Values
Kia ora from Marianne,
Unless you’re an essential worker (in which case, thank you!) you’re probably trying to work from home right now. Which is difficult in different ways for each of us. But we’re doing it. We’re staying home. Parenting and caring for others. Juggling all the things. Worrying we aren’t doing any of them well enough. Missing the people and places we love.
Why are we all doing this hard thing?
One of the strongest motivators for all of us to stay home right now is knowing that this is the best thing we can do to keep everyone in our communities safe and well.
We are doing this because, despite our differences, most of us care a lot about each other.
In our Narratives for Change workshop, we show a graph of the values prioritised by people in a representative sample of New Zealanders. It shows that the vast majority of people in the sample prioritise our shared wellbeing more than personal success, and caring for each other and the planet over accumulating wealth or social power.
This helps to explain why clear messaging that frames staying at home as an act of care for others, has been so effective. But it also begs the question: if we all care so much about collective wellbeing, why is it so hard to get support for some of the changes that will make the biggest difference to people and the planet?
Part of the answer to this question is that we all hold many different values, and the context in which we are making a decision significantly influences which of these many values we prioritise in that decision. People will make a decision using the value that has been brought to the surface for them.
For example, if I have been repeatedly told that the reason I should care about climate change is the economic cost of inaction, then when I make decisions about my support for big climate actions or policies, I’m likely to consider them in terms of money. Research has shown that thinking about the economic cost or benefits of a decision is more likely to motivate me to do things for my individual personal benefit, and less likely to motivate me to support things for collective benefit.
What this means for people trying to deepen public understanding of complex issues and build support for the big changes that will make the world a better place is that we should always offer people intrinsic, collective reasons to care and act.
This month’s newsletter has a selection of articles and reports from our own research and others’, which will give you concrete examples of how you can use intrinsic, collective values to motivate people and build support for those big changes that we need to make for our shared wellbeing.
Take care,
Marianne
Crafted at The Workshop
Talking About Early Brain Development in Aotearoa New ZealanD
The Workshop has developed a report on how to talk about early brain development in Aotearoa New Zealand to build greater awareness of brain development and how to support it in the early years. This was commissioned by the Child Wellbeing Unit of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and followed a two day brain development collective wānanga held in March 2021. The wānanga brought together non-government service providers and designers, government and philanthropic funders.
The purpose of this report is to provide a partial map of the current territory of public narratives and mindsets around early brain development, explain guiding principles for deepening understanding of the issue through more effective narratives, and propose some communications strategies. We have also recommended some potential next steps in this narrative shift work.
You can read the full report here:
Reframing systems change: Changes that make the biggest difference
Throughout our research project ‘How to Talk about Systems Change’ we heard about how everyday life could be much better, for so many more people, once the changes we are working toward have happened and our human-built systems have been redesigned to prioritise people and te taiao. We were reminded of how critical this work is, yet how challenging it can be to communicate.
To get there, the knowledge holders we spoke with identified the need to build a shared understanding of what systems change means among our community of practice. In our upcoming report, we follow the framing advice of UK researchers in reframing systems change as the changes that make the biggest difference - and offer the upstream/downstream metaphor of an awa or river as a way of explaining the changes we are working towards, and why they are important.
Explaining the upstream/downstream metaphor
Downstream, where most people stand, are all of the visible problems we collectively wish to overcome. As we walk upstream we can see the social, environmental and cultural conditions that shape our lives and experiences. For example, the way in which people in our public institutions treat us, our information environment, how our transport systems and cities are built, the policies the government puts in place (or doesn't), the rules of the economy, and our cultural beliefs and values. Extensive bodies of research show us that, in changing some of these upstream conditions, we can make the biggest improvements to the most people’s lives over the longest timeframe, for the least individual effort. In making the changes that make the biggest difference, we are helping to shift the status quo of downstream responses to create change through upstream solutions.
We’re looking forward to sharing the full report in the coming months, and in the meantime, hope this helps to explain the important work you and your teams are doing to make these upstream changes happen.
Mobility As a Matter of Justice; The Benefits of a Car-Free Future
Playgrounds, plants, trees and benches are a few of the ways Oslo, the capital city of Norway, changed their infrastructure to prioritise the public. Car-parks have been removed and replaced with public spaces. Streets have been rezoned into pedestrian ways and cycle paths, and public transport in the city center has been boosted.
Jess Berentson-Shaw talks to Neil King in his podcast ‘On The Green Fence’ and discusses the positive impact reducing cars in New Zealand can have on the environment and our communities. Currently our infrastructure makes it difficult and unsafe for disabled, elderly and young people to navigate our big cities. Listening to those most excluded from our transport system and understanding how we can build transport systems that deliver for them, will lead to the most cutting edge, innovative solutions to our transportation challenges.
Prioritising pedestrians and cyclists within our urban centres, shifting away from car-centric cities, will bring huge benefits to our health and climate. The government needs to focus on centering active and public transport as an alternative to cars.
We expand further on how to bring intrinsic values to the discussion around transport in our guide How to Talk About Urban Mobility and Transport Shift: A Short Guide, 2020. We discuss how our perceptions about what people value are often incorrect. This is due to dominant cultural narratives and discourses that surface values relating to wealth and success. Instead, research shows that what matters most to people, is taking care of each other and the planet.
Extrinsic values focus people’s thinking on short term financial win or loss and aligns with the dominant narrative; in this example, that more roads are needed to fix our transport issues. Instead, lead with values of independence and autonomy; a safe environment for our children to walk and bike independently on our streets.
Listen to Jess Berentson-Shaw discuss further in the link below. https://open.spotify.com/episode/1PnPN6enceIQhFNURgF2PP
Image: Retrieved from Independent UK (Car free streets in Oslo, Norway)
Notes from the Narrative Movement
Making Our Streets Safer: How Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communities Access Urban Areas
We are currently working on how we can communicate changes to open our streets to people who use bikes, walk and who use public transport. Making our streets open to people of all abilities is a critical part of these changes. Our streets are closed for too many people due to the prioritisation of private cars. Here is a really interesting piece by Camilla Payne on how we can make sure streets and urban are open to people who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/DHH).
Narratives at Work
Why You Should Lead With Values of Independence and Autonomy
We want a world where all children have the freedom to travel easily and safely, with the ability to visit their friends or attend free time activities without their parents.
When discussing transport, leading with values that bring helpful thinking to the surface is vital in building public support for systems change. These include: Freedom, autonomy and independence, inclusion, connection to community and responsible management of the environment. We need to shift away from narratives based on money and economics. Dominant narratives typically focus on short term financial win or loss. Advocates and researchers know how harmful this can be. Instead, lead with values of independence and autonomy. For example, we can give our kids independence to get around their streets and enjoy the freedom of being kids.
The Urban Cycling Institution has done a great job at leading with intrinsic values over economic reasoning. They lead with the value and vision of autonomy, providing valuable information that proves it is possible to create a city which is designed to support our children’s autonomy.
Source: City of Copenhagen (2021) Via Urban Cycling Institute
For more guidance on narratives around topics such as transport, climate change, justice reform, and more, visit our website - we have freely available message guides.
If this email was forwarded to you, you can get future emails like this by signing up here.
Get in touch with rachel@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team.
Marianne, Jess, Sharon, Lucia and Rachel, at The Workshop
NEW free guide on how to build trust in COVID-19 vaccination
A new freely available guide on ways to talk about COVID vaccination that will build trust and motivate vaccination. Together with a set of social media shareables and posters made using the insights from this guide.
Read moreCovid-19 Vaccination Guide Resources
To accompany the release of our guide “How to Talk about COVID-19 Vaccinations”, these resources have been created for you to use and share. Simply click on the images below to download. This work is in collaboration with The Workshop, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig and Daylight Creative. See our publications here
Talking about Covid Vaccination
Kia ora from Jess,
I feel incredibly grateful for the space we enjoy here in Aotearoa from experiencing the worst effects of COVID-19 our communities. I’m grateful also to all those people working across the system to keep COVID out before we have full vaccination.
Vaccination has become the critical next step to moving past the pandemic, and many people are right in the thick of vaccination work and keen to do it well. There is a great sense of responsibility driving this work. We feel that sense of responsibility too. In collaboration with our Australian sister organisation, Common Cause, we have been researching how to talk about vaccination to people who have hesitations. We are also putting together a guide for communicating COVID-19 vaccination to build trust. Trust is a fundamental aspect of people’s ability to hear good information about vaccination and decide to vaccinate.
While you're waiting for the guide, we have included some of the key findings and recommendations in this newsletter, as well as some examples of fantastic vaccination communications already being used.
Crafted at The Workshop this Month
How to talk to people not quite ready to get vaccinated and build their trust
Giving people access to good information about vaccination in ways that work for them is an important determinant of their health and wellbeing. So how can we talk about COVID-19 vaccinations in ways that deepen understanding and encourage those who may not be quite ready to get vaccinated?
Some things we have learned about vaccination are:
False information may be one factor in hesitancy but it is only one of many, including personal and social group influences, contextual influences, and vaccination specific issues (like access).
Vaccination decisions are about trust far more than they are about information.
Social norms have a powerful effect on vaccination decisions (seeing people move from hesitancy to vaccination encourages us to vaccinate).
Most people are willing to get vaccinated. Being hesitant does not prevent people deciding to vaccinate. Many people have not adopted a binary position.
We should treat hesitant people as though they are willing to get vaccinated under the right conditions, because many are.
Communications can help create these conditions. Here are five ideas on how...
Aim to connect and build trust rather than correcting, mythbusting or extensive fact led communications (facts don't build trust in people, being trustworthy does).
Collaborate and co-develop vaccination communication programmes with communities: sharing knowledge and handing over the work. This will increase trust and ensure that the people visible on vaccination communications can speak authentically to the experiences of those communities particularly.
Concerns about access may be the primary concern for people. In such cases assume willingness to vaccinate and clearly communicate: how people can get a vaccine, that it will be easy, and that someone they trust will deliver it.
Use intrinsic values: motivate people to vaccinate through values of care, responsibility to others, and empowerment over their wellbeing, (ditch individual motivations, fear and safety ones). Vaccination is a collective action, if everyone who can get vaccinated gets vaccinated and our community becomes immune we will all be able to enjoy the benefits of keeping Covid-19 out.
Frame vaccination in helpful ways. These include:
Talk about the better world we get through immunity (don't focus on the act of vaccination, it’s not motivating)
Talk about vaccination as the next step following all the other things we have done to keep COVID-19 out (as opposed to framing vaccination as a silver bullet)
Avoid talking about hesitancy as THE problem to overcome, instead frame the transformation from hesitancy to getting vaccinated.
Avoid urgency frames, instead talk about vaccinating now in the space we have.
Use gain frames, not loss frames - leading with the benefits of vaccinating is better than negative consequences of not vaccinating.
Avoid the word choice (it can surface ‘free rider’ thinking - that is thinking someone else will choose the vaccine so I don't need to in order to get the benefit). Do talk about empowering good decision making.
Applying some of these key insights to interpersonal conversation, Jess wrote an op-ed in Stuff last month.
Talking about Covid Vaccination
For an Inspired evidence based COVID-19 vaccination communication campaign go no further than the CCDHB Māori and Pacific Team.
Some great things about this campaign (which are supported by the evidence):
Image: The CCBHD Trusted Faces Trusted Places campaign for more information see https://positivelypacific.org.nz
1. This campaign understands that trust is fundamental in vaccination decisions and people need to know someone THEY trust will give them a vaccine in a way that works for them (especially where trust has been eroded previously by negative treatment).
2. This campaign frames transformation: instead of talking about hesitancy as a problem, they have a story about someone moving from hesitancy towards vaccination.
3. This campaign motivates people with collective intrinsic values around community responsibility
Amazing work!
Supporting Mana Whenua Led Environmental Management
Now is an important time to tautoko our bioheritage champions with narrative strategies we think will build greater understanding and support for Te Tiriti partnerships and a flourishing taiao. As hurtful narratives surrounding He Puapua circulate the media and the halls of parliament, we have been working with the Bioheritage National Science Challenge team on a messaging gude about co-governance partnerships. Keep an eye out for the guide, due to be released next month.
Notes from the Narrative Movement
Daniel Kahneman – Why We Contradict Ourselves and Confound Each Other
We really enjoyed Krista Tippett’s recent interview with Daniel Kahneman which discusses his childhood in Nazi Germany, the origins of his interest in social psychology and the ‘irrationality’ of humans. At the Workshop we draw on Kahneman’s research and writing in our narratives for change work and Kahneman’s 2011 book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ is a key text we reference in our Narratives for Change foundations training.
https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/on-being-with-krista-tippett/id150892556?i=1000520494598
Words Matter: Talking about Mothers, Work and the Pandemic
This blog on framing mothers and work is a reminder of how important it is to be aware of the unhelpful frame and narrative that is used to explain many issues of inequity: personal choice. In this case the frame is that women's personal choices have caused them to leave the workforce in the wake of COVID-19. With all issues of inequity, where we are working on changing the things that will make the biggest difference, we should avoid a choice frame and instead employ an external forces frames, to help people see the people and the processes that constrict and constrain people's options and lead to inequities in society.
The Role of Narrative Change in Collective Action
In this dynamic discussion, described as a “master class on narrative” from the 2021 Collective Impact Action Summit, Melody Barnes (Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions) leads a conversation on the importance and power of narrative in collective social change efforts.
https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/resources/role-narrative-change-collective-action
You can get more guidance on narratives on topics from transport, climate change and justice reform in our freely available message guides on our website.
If this email was forwarded to you, you can get future emails like this by signing up here.
Get in touch with Rachel@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team
Marianne, Jess, Sharon, Lucia and Rachel, at The Workshop
Mindset shift and we're hiring at The Workshop
Kia ora from Jess,
Many of us are working on changing the things that will make the biggest difference on significant social and environmental challenges. These include legislation and policy changes, physical changes to our cities or rural environments, changes to decision making processes, and devolving power and funding decisions to communities. Alongside these explicit and significant upstream changes, we need to shift people's mindsets to help support such change. Mindset shifts help build public understanding of these big issues, help people see where the changes that make the biggest difference can be made, and provide policy makers and politicians with social proof that the public supports these changes. Mindset shifts will lift people’s thinking, including policy makers, out of the space of individual behaviour change, which is insufficient for the types of challenges we face, into the systems change space. Mindset shifts will also help support the changes to stay in place once made.
News from The Workshop
We are currently recruiting!
We are growing again and are looking for an operational expert to join our team. Head of Operations is a new role in our Senior Leadership Team with a focus on reviewing and enhancing our existing business frameworks, policies and procedures. This role will ensure our team has the right tools and resources to do excellent work that makes a positive impact, while enjoying their work. The role is currently posted on The Kin Recruitment page. Applications will close on 7 June.
Crafted at The Workshop this Month
Stubbing out Climate Change
In this analysis in Newsroom, Jess discusses the history of SmokeFree work in Aotearoa New Zealand. She outlines how both visible (policy, practice, structures, funding) and invisible (narrative tools for mindset shifts) change was used to get tobacco companies and the harm they cause out of communities, and build our health. She makes the case that this is a model of change we can also apply to climate change, poverty, housing and more.
The key take-away is that mindset shift is a critical tool in our toolkit for making the changes that will make the most difference to people and our planet. Because for those people who are being harmed the most by our current systems and structures it is vital we ask the least of them in the way of change, and instead do those things that will improve their lives in the easiest and biggest ways.
Notes from the Narrative Movement
Mindset Shifts - What are they? How do they happen?
Recent growth in demand for and interest in The Workshop’s research is part of a larger trend, described in this report as a ‘swell of interest in mindset shifts and narrative change’. This work discusses methods for addressing the challenges of ‘widely shared patterns of public thinking that obstruct progressive change’.
‘Yet these discussions are frequently unclear and imprecise. People use terms and concepts in different and often unspecified ways. While the participants in these discussions bring substantial expertise and experience to bear, knowledge about mindsets and narrative is divided across disciplines and dispersed among practitioners, scholars, activists, policy experts, communications experts, creatives, and organizers.’
This report synthesises a year of research to bring together insights into ‘mindset shifts’ from across a range of fields and experts. The report contains lessons and recommendations for how ‘advocates, activists, funders, and other practitioners can maximize the impact of their efforts to change how we think about social issues in order to change the contexts and structures that shape our experiences and realities’.
Mindset Shifts - What are they? How do they happen?
Narratives at Work
Aotearoa will Thrive if our Rangatahi do
How do we use effective communications tools to shift the mindset of our audience so that they can focus on upstream solutions? In her recent op-ed Aotearoa will Thrive if our Rangatahi do, Lani Evans draws on research from The Workshop to talk about poverty and well-being in Aotearoa in a way that helps her readers think more deeply about the complex structures that influence poverty and wellbeing. Lani shares her vision: “New Zealand should be a place where all young people have access to the resources and opportunities they need to thrive, where rangatahi can make decisions and shape their own futures”, talks about the systems that create poverty, and guides us to who the agents are that can influence change. You can read more about our research on Poverty and Wellbeing in our guides:
Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform in Aotearoa: A Short Guide
How to Talk About Child and Family Wellbeing: A Short Guide
Talking about Covid Vaccination
At the Workshop we’ve been talking about how we talk about COVID vaccination. In the coming months we’ll be producing work on what effective communication should look like in the media, government and interested parties. How do we ensure a happy, healthy, safe, vaccinated population? HSE Ireland show us how focusing on what we want to achieve is key in this YouTube video, Every Vaccine is a Little Victory.
From our Board
Economist and The Workshop board member Julie Fry talks to Bernard Hickey about her recent work for the Productivity Commission on migration. Together with migrant workers’ activist Anu Kaloti, Julie talks about the need for reform, both to improve our economic performance and to treat our guests fairly and humanely.
You can get more guidance on narratives on topics from transport, climate change and justice reform in our freely available message guides on our website.
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Get in touch with rachel@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice or do training for your team.
Marianne, Jess, Sharon, Lucia, Jordan, Mark, Carolyn and Rachel, at The Workshop
Lifting our gaze and new staff
Kia ora from Jess and Marianne,
We are thrilled to be introducing two new members of The Workshop team. As you’ll see below, Mark and Carolyn bring an impressive set of research, training, organisational and communication skills to our work and are already helping us do more of the work you’ve told us is most useful to you. Most importantly, they both share our belief that we can talk about important and complex social and environmental issues in ways that build support for the changes that will make the biggest contribution to a better future for Aotearoa.
If you get an email from Carolyn about a training workshop, or a request from Mark to be interviewed for one of our research projects, these are the excellent people at the other end of the email or phone. We’re very happy to have them join us and hope you get to meet them soon.
Mark Stewart, Researcher, The Workshop
Mark Stewart, Researcher
Mark comes to The Workshop from academia, where he has worked for the past 10 years in three different countries as an Assistant Professor and Senior Lecturer in Media & Communications. Mark has a deep interest in the ways that the media can be used to communicate ideas and information, both for good and for ill, and is bringing those experiences to bear on his role as a Researcher with The Workshop. Mark has published work in Television Studies and Fan & Audience Studies, and spends most of his free time buried in popular culture of all sorts!
Carolyn Blackwell, Research Communications and Training Assistant, The Workshop
Carolyn Blackwell - Research, Communications & Training Assistant
Carolyn has worked in central and local government, in volunteer roles for community organisations and as a free-lance photographer, designer and artist. Most recently, she worked in the director's office of the Waitangi Tribunal as a Senior Business Advisor. Carolyn enjoys working in spaces where she can use her creative, analytical and organisation skills, and workplaces committed to increasing equity for all New Zealanders. She has a background in visual arts and a BSC. in Psychology. Carolyn is interested in social psychology, how people connect, communicate and organise themselves. When she’s not with The Workshop Carolyn is most often found with her two children or up in the air practicing circus aerials.
The Workshop in the Media this Month
Lifting our gaze to changing digital media systems not just ourselves
In this article for The Spinoff Co-Director Marianne Elliott discusses how she uses her smart phone as a tool to benefit her life - at work and at home. Having worked on The Workshop’s Digital Democracy research, Marianne is aware of the wider implications of digital media, and the ways in which targeted content can affect individuals and communities. She keeps this awareness at hand when she uses her phone but cautions us from a one-size-fits all individual response to how we deal with this.
“I think the solution to the ways in which those apps are behaving unethically has to happen at a higher, more systematic level than individuals using them. I think we’re going to need better regulation at a governmental level.”
Marianne Elliot (Image: File/Alice Webb-Liddall)
Notes from the Narrative Movement
We need to Talk About How we Talk About System Change
At The Workshop we research ways to talk about complex social and environmental issues that help lift people’s gaze to the structural and system level, and build support for the changes that will make the biggest difference - often called ‘systems change’.
But talking about systems change in a way that makes things clearer and deepens public thinking isn’t easy, as Nat Kendall-Taylor & Bill Pitkin from Frameworks Institute discuss in this article. As they put it, “if we are going to channel all this talk into actually changing systems, we’ve got to make sure that we are talking about systems in the right way”.
We Need to Talk About How we Talk About System Change
Systems Change Work at The Workshop
The Workshop’s Kairangahau Jordan Green is currently working in collaboration with our partners, Tokona Te Raki and The Southern Initiative, to produce recommendations on how we could talk about systems change in Aotearoa New Zealand. This work is possible thanks to our Peter McKenzie funding. Keep an eye out for more updates over the next few months.
From our Board
Economist and The Workshop Board Member Shambeel Eaqub looks at New Zealand’s post-Covid economic recovery with illustrator Toby Morris in his latest article for The Spinoff.
You can get more guidance on narratives on topics from transport, climate change and justice reform in our freely available message guides on our website.
Get in touch
Get in touch with with lucia@theworkshop.org.nz if you are interested in training for your team, with sharon@theworkshop.org.nz if you are interested in research on narrative strategies for your area of work, or operations@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice.
Narratives for Change Public Training 2021
Kia ora from Lucia,
I’m very happy to announce the 2021 dates for our public training workshops for this year. In these workshops, we dive into cognitive and social science to help you understand the surprising barriers we face when communicating our big issues. And we introduce you to our evidence-led model on how to overcome them: The Five Building Blocks of Narratives for Change.
Narratives for Change public training 2021
The 5 Building Blocks
Our training is divided in two modules: Foundations 1 and Foundations 2.
Each module is delivered via the video-calling platform Zoom in 4 weekly workshops of 2 hours each. Attendees must attend all four sessions.
Registrations are open for both modules on these dates:
Crafted at The Workshop this month
Stop the Behaviour Change Talk, Give us Better Systems
Many of us are working on big issues that require big changes to solve. From poverty to climate change, the most effective solutions require making changes at the systems and structural level. In this Op-ed Jess explains why our narratives need to move away from talking about behaviour change, which keeps people in a mindset of individual personal effort which can seem too hard. Rather we need to use our narratives to help people to understand that structural and systems level changes will make the biggest difference, and to encourage them to support people in power to make them. This means we Stop the Behaviour Change Talk, Give Us Better Systems
How to Talk (and Not Talk) About Covid-19 Vaccination to People with Doubts
There is a lot of talk about the small proportion of people who have hesitations about getting a COVID-19 vaccine (about a quarter of people). In this analysis for RNZ, Jess outlines what the research tells us about how to have productive conversations with people who have some concerns about getting vaccinated, and why having some hesitations is not the major issue we may think it is as long as we approach it well.
Analysis: How to talk (and not talk) about Covid-19 vaccination to people with doubts
Scared, Shouting and Standing in the Way
We spend a lot of time talking about the loud and noisy opposition to change. In transport this can look like a lot of reporting of those loud minorities who oppose changes for the long term wellbeing of our future generations. This has the effect of amplifying their fears and ideas, and those with the power to change things also become reluctant to make the changes that will make the biggest difference (like integrated cycleways). In this Op-ed we discuss the importance of centering the needs of people we don't hear from, including the next generation.
Scared, shouting and standing in the way
Notes from the Narrative Movement
Framing Climate Justice
Systems Change Photo: Lynn Grieveson
The Framing Climate Justice website sets out the findings of a 12-month project bringing together organisers from across the climate movement to identify, frame and tell the stories that will build support for climate justice. Through a series of participatory workshops, group work, research and testing this project found out how the UK public currently thinks about climate justice, and then crafted and tested ideas for how the movement can engage and build public support for climate justice. In the resources section of the website you'll find a research briefing and presentation slide deck, with more resources coming soon.
You can get more guidance on narratives on topics from transport, climate change and justice reform in our freely availably message guides on our website.
Get in touch
Get in touch with with lucia@theworkshop.org.nz if you are interested in training for your team, with sharon@theworkshop.org.nz if you are interested in research on narrative strategies for your area of work, or rachel@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice.
Lucia at The Workshop
Transformational governments need transformational narratives
A discussion on the importance of using effective narratives and a campaign for change in order to build and activate support for transformation in government.
Read moreOur crime and justice message guide available now
Last night we launched our new message guide, ‘How to Talk About Crime & Justice’. This post is the speech Marianne gave at the launch, explaining why we did this research, what we found and what comes next.
Read more