The Importance of Optimism in Communications

President of the Clarendon Group, Christine Heenan, on the importance of solutions-oriented communications to inspire people to engage with your cause.

From pandemic updates to climate change news alerts, we’re constantly bombarded with negative messages and bad news, which can trigger feelings of helplessness.

Christine Heenan, former Vice President for Global Policy & Advocacy at The Rockefeller Foundation and current President of the Clarendon Group, believes that optimistic communications can help. Unlike communication strategies that focus solely on talking about today’s most pressing problems, solutions-oriented communications can not only make audiences feel better, but opens them up to hearing what they can do to help.

“Starting with the idea that something is solvable — that it can be tackled — and giving people an idea of what they can do, or what their role is, is going to be very important to successful communications and campaigns going forward,” Christine said.

With this in mind, Christine and her team at The Rockefeller Foundation created “Solvable” — a series of documentaries, podcasts, and short videos that allow global experts to talk about individual phenomena in their lifetimes that were…solvable! Through this content, audiences are able to see how tackling a large complex problem starts with approachable solutions, and feel inspired to take the first step to solve the most pressing issues of our time.

On this episode of Achieve Great Things, we talk with Christine about the importance of solutions-oriented communications in getting people to engage with your cause.

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