COMMUNICATING PROGRESSIVE AGENDA

A workshop for progressive organisations and movements to improve the effectiveness of their communications, campaigning and advocacy.

BACKGROUND

Why and how are the conservatives and the right-wing able to capture hearts and minds in the public discourse?

We are witnessing radicalisation and a shift of the political spectrum towards the right. The conservative politicians are the ones setting the tone of the public debate, whilst the progressives are mostly reactive and on the defense.

The progressives, who fight for social and environmental justice, equality, human rights sustainability and against climate change are at loss: they have facts, science and reason behind them and their agenda would benefit many, if not all. Yet their messages are slow in gaining traction.

The right seems to have figured out how to get an upper hand in the political discourse.

This workshop is based on the pioneering work of George Lakoff, who has applied to politics and public discourse what cognitive science knows about how people process information and form ideas and concepts. The secret lies in activating the right frames in the minds of those who receive our communications.

It helps the progressives to reconsider how to communicate their agendas, to persuade those whose views can be influences, in order to increase their support base.

BENEFITS

During this workshop, progressive civil society and political organisations gain insight into the secrets of effective communication on progressive issues and reflect on how to apply these strategies in their work.

The participants learn what cognitive scientists have discovered regarding framing and why presenting facts alone is an ineffective strategy to change people’s views. They also learn why self-interest is an astoundingly poor predictor of people’s voting behaviour.

The workshop uncovers what it really takes to convince someone and how to build narratives to garner support for progressive proposals for change. By learning how to shift from fact-based to value-based communication, the participants can immediately start shaping their messages in a way that persuades the unconvinced.

This helps organisations and movements become better at influencing the public and policymakers and at steering public discourse, thus becoming more effective in fighting for their cause.

CONTENT AND FORMATS

During the workshop the participants discover:

• what the conservatives do right when it comes to political communication and what the progressives can learn from that;
• what are some key mistakes the progressives make when shaping their messages;
• what are the characteristics of effective political communication that not only preaches to the converted but convinces and broadens the support base;
• what is framing and bi-conceptualism and how to leverage them for communicating the progressive agenda effectively;
• how to choose words and phrases that persuade.

The interactive format is centred on ample examples in conservative and progressive communications, and joint reflections with the participants on why and how they work.

* in remote facilitation, workshops are usually divided into two parts

Options

The workshop can allow additional time to directly apply the learnings to the topics that an organisation or a movement works on. Whilst some reflections on issues specific to the audience will always be included in the workshop, the extra time allows for a deeper facilitated brainstorming that follows and builds on the theoretical part.

Pathways

For organisations to become more effective in delivering their mission, check out ‘Technologies of Change’ workshop.