There are a few key elements to my work – the approach I take.
1. The audience is central
Whether I’m conducting a training workshop, producing a panel discussion or advising on a behaviour change communication intervention, the “audience” is central.
The “audience” refers to the people taking part in the workshop, those attending the panel discussion or the people the behaviour change intervention want to engage.
In practice, it means finding out as much as possible about the audience to get some insights. This goes beyond criteria such as gender, level of experience, age and occupation.
It could mean their needs, expectations and desires. It could mean existing levels of knowledge and attitudes. It means building detailed profiles, to enable insights to be drawn out that help with the activity design.
2. Participatory
No matter the event or advice session, I want people to take part actively.
I design my workshops, events and activities to make participation happen. Although I prefer to work face to face, if a workshop or event must be online, I still build-in that element of interactivity. Discussion and debate spark change. Game-playing promotes learning in way that’s fun.
3. Use of evidence around ‘what works’
The world is full of communication and engagement projects that fail. And it’s often because their creators ignore the evidence around what works. Lessons from the past. It’s my job to keep across the latest theory and practice, to give interventions the best chance of success.
4. Use of tools and frameworks to provide structure
No matter whether a project is simple, or multi-strand and complex, there are some simple tools that I use to help design and define an activity.
This could mean carrying out a simple “theory of change”, to clearly define the desired impact, and the outcomes and outputs will lead to this. Or communication frameworks that include objectives, outcomes, impact, channels/platforms and messaging.
5. Encouraging evaluation
There are many ways to find out if a project or activity has achieved its goals. I always encourage developing an evaluation because it can also result in learning around what works and what does not work. This can help your future projects.
But I’m always mindful of designing an evaluation that is deliverable and an appropriate scale. You don’t want the evaluation to take more time, and cost more than the actual activities.