Making the Complex Clear in Knowledge Communication georgiatech talk

Making the Complex Clear in the Communication of Experts and Policy Makers

Research Evidence and Practical Guidelines

Martin J. Eppler, PhDChair of Communications Management

www.knowledge-communication.org

www.clear-communication.org

School of Public Policy Speaker Series, February 12th, 2015

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Prof. Dr. Martin J. Eppler / =mcminstitute / HSG

Premise:

Wright’s and Wittgenstein's Wisdom

What can be said at all,

can be said clearly.

Lack of clarity is the

number one time waster.

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Agenda of the Talk

1. Research Context & Questions

2. Research Framework

3. Research Findings

4. Guidelines

5. Conclusion

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Research Context & Questions:

Expert-based Decision Making

Engineers LawyersPolitical

AnalystsFinancial

Analysts

IT

Analysts

Managers Managers Public

Policy

Makers

Investors CIOs

= Knowledge Transfer through Communication

ENABLING CONDITIONS? FREQUENT MISTAKES? METHODS?

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Research Focus:

Knowledge Communication

We define knowledge communication as the (deliberate) activity of

interactively conveying and co-constructing insights, assessments,

experiences, or even skills through verbal and non-verbal means.

The transfer of know-how, know-why, know-what, and know-who

through face-to-face or media-based interaction.

Knowledge Communication is more than communicating information

because it requires

– conveying context, background, and assumptions,

– conveying personal insights and experiences,

– conveying rationale and reasoning,

– conveying perspective and priorities,

– conveying hunches, intuition, skills (implicit knowledge).

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Agenda of the Talk

1. Research Context & Questions



4. Guidelines

5. Conclusion

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Framework: Stages of Knowledge

Communication

Identifi-

cation

Need Arti-

culationAnalysis Transfer Use

Finding the

right experts

Articulating

the relevant

problem

parameters

Finding

the right

insights

Communi-

cating

the insights

adequately

Ensuring

that the

insights

are

used

Macro-levelMicro-level Macro-level

Decision Maker Tasks Domain Expert Tasks Decision Maker Tasks

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Identifi-

cation

Need Arti-

culationAnalysis Transfer Use

‚Skill

Matching‘

Problem

(champion

bias)

‚Anomalous

State of

Knowledge‘

(ASK)

‚Paralysis

by Analysis‘

‚Curse of

Knowledge‘,

‚Information

Overload‘

‚Knowing-

Doing

Gap‘

Macro-level Micro-level Macro-level

DM Tasks Domain Expert Tasks DM Tasks

Problems at each Stage

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Agenda of the Talk

1. Research Context & Question



4. Guidelines

5. Conclusion

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Research Approach and Results

Mixed Methods Approach:

– Literature Review (on knowl. comm. theories, problems)

– Expert Interviews

– Surveys (i.e., on clear communication)

– Case Studies (Brookings, Gartner, EIU, GfK, Military/Gov’t,

Telco, World Economic Forum)

– Experiments (on visual knowledge communication)

– Focus Groups with Experts and Decision Makers (i.e., with

engineers, executives, lawyers)

Results:

– Compilation of Knowledge Communication Problems

– Description of Contextual (enabling/inhibiting) Factors

– Development of Methods, Tools and Techniques

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Case Example:

Importance of Boundary spanning:

– Analysts have government experience, academic training,

and T-shaped profiles

– Extensive networking activities

Importance or Review and Feedback Processes

– Pre-wiring with decision makers of reports

– Focus Groups with future users

Importance of Accessibility and Versatility of

Content

– In-house TV and radio studio

– Scalable information: same report in different granularities

and formats.

– Making it resonating

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Struggling with Making the Complex

Clear

”It’s particularly (difficult) if three or more things

interact. You write in terms of, now what I am

going to tell you is difficult to know, but for God’s

sake, it is not enough. Therefore, I am going to tell

you this. But, by the way, this is only true if.. (..)

If it is a subject I know, I can write what I have to

write in half an hour. But it always comes out 2 to 3

times too long and then I spend hours to get it

shorter.” (C. Schultze).

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Scalable Insights

” The logic is, policy makers don't read 500 page

books, I like to write 500 pages books.

So we can still write the 500 pages books but we

write the conclusions of those in a format that is

more accessible to them.

So there is the 8 page version, the 30 page

version and the 500 page version.

So you hope that the policy maker, or more likely

the congressional staff members, read the 8 page

version of a policy brief and go from there to more

depth.” (K. Weaver)

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Making the Complex Clear in

Congressional Hearings

“If you have five minutes, you have to make key points. You have to figure

out, what is your main message, what is the main message you want to get

across? (..) You just try to convey three core things and hope they would

remember one of them. And then the written testimony gives more of the

background. “

Figure out why this is difficult for people to get and write to that. (..) Time

and again, I think I can explain something better I had struggled with than

something that is obvious. (..) In these cases, I can figure out with what

somebody else will be struggling with as well” (C. Schultze).

I imagine saying that to a person who is intelligent but who is not trained in

economics. What is the insight that I have to offer in plain English?”

“I find it most helpful to talk rather than to read testimonies. Reading out

loud testimonies is boring as hell” (W. Gale).

If it is a subject I know, I can write what I have to write in half an hour. But it

always comes out 2 to 3 times too long and then I spend hours to get it

shorter.” (C. Schultze).

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Making it Resonating

“If you start: ‘The present value of the social security deficit is

4 trillion dollars’, they ask what you intend with present value,

and you go and say that it is the amount today that with

interest will equal.. and it just puts them off. I will say ‘present

value’, (..) to make sure it is accurate, but I kind of put it at

the end so that (..) so it does not block the listeners mind. I

would say: ‘Over the next 75 years the social security deficit is

4 trillion dollars in present value’” (W. Gale).

“It is important to use analogies, anchoring techniques,

examples, sometimes even a story to illustrate a good point”

(W. Gale).

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Know thy Users: Focus Groups at

Brookings

”One of the reasons why we did this focus group was

to find out, whether we were disseminating ideas

properly, in the right format, in the right time.

(..) You always have to keep changing and adapt

yourself to the times.

One of the slogans I have is doing things the same

way as we did last year, is just an excuse for not

thinking” (R. Nessen).

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Brookings Board Network

(based on theyrule.net)

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Brookings Board Network 2015

(based on theyrule.net)

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Conduits to Impact

“Isabel Sawhill came up with this idea of a partially

refundable child tax credit. We publicized the idea

in the form of a policy brief.

But I guess the key thing was that we had a lunch

on Capitol Hill with the senators' staffers.

About 15 staffers came, including some key staffers

of some moderate Republicans came who were

looking for something that would make the bill less

aggressive. They essentially took this proposal, put

it in the bill and it became law in about a month and

a half. That is really unusual.” (K. Weaver).

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Consolidating our Research Findings:

The Complex to Clear Approach

Enablers

• S tandards

• T raining

• A ccountability

• R eviews

• T ools

• E xamples

• R esources

Clarification Process

From Complex

• C omplicated

• O verloaded

• M essy

• P olysemic

• L inked

• E verchanging

• X traneous

To Clear

• C ontextualized

• L ogical Structure

• E ssential

• A mbiguity-free

• R esonating

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“Too many Cooks“

Description: A document has been compiled

by involving different departments with equal

power regarding the document. The

individual sections are inconsistent,

overlapping and in different styles which

creates confusion.

Example: strategy briefing to employees.

Problem Driver: Lack of Ownership

Remedy: Assign clear ownership rights to

one co-ordinator with clearly defined input

deadlines and gateways.

Working with Clarity Problem Patterns

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Agenda of the Talk




4. Guidelines

5. Conclusion

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The CLEAR Formula Applied (Examples)

from clear-communication.org

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2525

Message Map Tool (WHO) Stakeholder:

Question/Concern/Issue

Key Message/Fact 1. Key Message/Fact 2. Key Message/Fact 3.

Keywords:

Supporting

Fact 1.1

Keywords:

Supporting

Fact 1.3

Keywords:

Supporting

Fact 1.2

Keywords:

Supporting

Fact 2.1

Keywords:

Supporting

Fact 2.2

Keywords:

Supporting

Fact 2.3

Keywords:

Supporting

Fact 3.1

Keywords:

Supporting

Fact 3.2

Keywords:

Supporting

Fact 3.3

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Agenda of the Talk




4. Guidelines

5. Conclusion

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Conclusion

Knowledge Communication from expert to decision

maker is an essential task for effective policy

development.

Making the complex clear is a key challenge in this

task and requires a systematic management effort.

Managing clarity requires standards, training,

accountability, reviews, training with examples, and

resources (STARTER)

This can ensure contextualized, logically structured,

essential, ambiguity-free, and resonating messages

to policy makers (CLEAR).

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Reference: For more information

Eppler, M.J., Bischof, N.: Complex to Clear, St. Gallen: mcm

institute, 2011.

[email protected]

Documents

Making the Complex Clear in Knowledge Communication georgiatech talk