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An Engaging Problem

Insight teams aren’t the only people that recognise the fact that communication is one of the strongest parts of their armoury. Scientists also realise this, and face some of the same issues involved in communicating effectively. This was highlighted in a recent article by the Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, in Times Online.

He starts by saying that he often finds it hard to give clear explanations about work in his own specialist field – even though he understands the subject so well. He then outlines some of the benefits of presenting his findings to an audience. This enables him to see his work in perspective and also helps him to focus on the ‘bigger picture’. This is a useful discipline, as researchers often only focus on bite-sized problems and may forget that these are usually just one part of a larger issue.  
 
The parallels with insight are obvious. Presenting bits of information in a piecemeal way can be very risky. We always need to keep in mind that these smaller items – even though important – are often just one piece of a very large jigsaw.
 
Information overload
The other problem faced by scientists is that their results can sometimes get lost in the sheer volume of other material that is produced. Millions of scientific papers are published each year and many are only read by a few specialist readers. It’s often difficult for scientists to engage with the general public because many people tend to be a little frightened by science (because of its jargon and technical nature), or they are just disinterested.
 
At least Insight groups have an advantage here – normally our audiences are (or at least, should be!) interested in what we have to say about customers and markets. However, the fact remains that we still have to engage them – and that means that our presentations and our writing need to stimulate their interest.
 
Loud and clear
Martin Rees talks about the need for ‘skilful communicators’ who can distil and interpret science so that others can understand it. The same is true of insight - we need to put our ideas across in a clear, concise and compelling way so that members of our audience can really relate to them. We therefore need to keep developing our journalistic skills so that we can all become even better communicators.
 
If you would like to read the full article, it can be found at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article6862874.ece.
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