Effective communication

I attended the Land Trust Alliance national conference this year and learned all about new ways to protect and conserve land. One of the most interesting sessions I attended was a presentation by two professional pollsters discussing how the public perceives environmental topics. One of the first surprises was that a huge majority of the public supports protecting the environment. Yay! Another surprise was how few people are familiar with many common terms people in the environmental movement (including me) use to describe their work.

Is this a watershed?

What does the word "watershed" mean? Over 70% of the people polled thought it was a shed in your backyard to store water. What does the term "ecosystem services" mean? Most people had no idea, but didn't care for it. It sounds too complex. I have to admit I don't care for the term either. For some reason, it makes me think about economics. When the pollsters asked about other phrases that could be used in place of the disliked ecosystem services, people overwhelmingly liked the phrase "nature's benefit." Well, that sure does sound a lot nicer, and makes me think of the beautiful things in nature instead of someone sitting in an office writing convoluted reports about nature. I started to think of other terms I frequently hear or use that people might not immediately understand. What about karst, or sedimentation, or mitigation banks? I know that the first time I heard the phrase mitigation bank the image that popped into my head was a river bank that someone was reinforcing with big rocks. I bet others think of a bank dealing with money. But mitigation banks are really restored wetlands and streams. So why not just say "restored wetlands and streams?" Why do we come up with convoluted and confusing phrases when clear language would be so much better?

So what did I learn from the session? I learned that in order to effectively communicate about complex topics we need to make sure the language we use is easy to understand. That doesn't mean we need to dumb down our message. What it does mean is that when I'm writing any kind of outreach or educational materials for the general public, I'm now paying more attention to the language I'm using. I'm also making a point to use words and phrases that people can connect to easily and in a positive way.