Engage Your Audience
A visual to help segment messaging
When I’m struggling too long on how to communicate ideas, it’s usually a sign: I may know the topic but I don’t yet know the audience. It’s especially true in communicating about change.
After too many time-consuming guessing games, I developed this simple matrix to more effectively segment audiences and messaging.
According to adult learning theory, every person brings important existing knowledge to what they learn. In other words, we all have a lot of mental pictures already framed and hanging on our walls. Good communicators respect the values and existing frames of the audience: Where will the new information fit? How can I best complement the existing array of “pictures hanging on the walls” without seeming like I am simply walking in and rearranging them? Am I hanging up something that simply doesn’t fit? (If you’re thinking I sound like I have learned this lesson the hard way, you would be correct.)
On my matrix, the x-axis represents an audience’s overall familiarity with the issue. How much does my audience already know? In all cases, they know a huge amount but may be more or less familiar with what you’re communicating. And each views your message through values, cultural models, and context.
“Power to act” sits along the y axis. A key piece of many communications strategies is the “call to action.” But what if you perceive that your audience doesn’t hold much power to take action?
Disclaimer: These categories represent a simple mental model. “Powerful” and “less power" clearly represent a blurry, complex judgement. By making these assumptions explicit, we aim to design our communications so that the balance tips toward increasing autonomy and agency among customers or to people in our organizations who may hold less power.
Let’s say you work in health, and you’re supporting rollout of a new workflow across a provider enterprise. Not surprisingly, each quadrant requires a distinct approach to messaging, and each characterizes people whose interests matter to the success of this rollout.
In the upper right sits the expert with clear positional power. Let’s say your audience is the chair of surgery. She wants an update on the change in workflow on a post-surgical unit. In fact, she’s responsible for initiating your process. It’s important to help re-frame the key messages so that she can own, support, and repeat them. Focus on early wins, key lessons, and situational changes that stoke her ability to champion this initiative. At the same time, see this as an opportunity to build relationship and welcome her insights along the way.
The lower right holds the person with a lot of familiarity with the issue or environment but seemingly less power to shape outcomes.
Let’s say this is a weekend unit clerk in the surgery department. In this case, check your assumptions about power, focusing more on influence! (If you are old enough to remember Radar O’Reilly from M*A*S*H, you’ll know why.) The “high-familiarity, low-power" audience might offer a wealth of insight and can often make or break the success of your initiative.
Whenever possible, engage this audience in developing the message. Request just a bit of his time to test your messaging, and ensure your approach fully respects his perspectives. (As in, buy him lunch.) You will learn much.
The lower left is home to the person who is neither familiar with your content nor holds much power to shape the outcomes of the rollout.
Let’s say this is the spouse of a newly-diagnosed patient who feels the effects of a new workflow on wait times for procedures. Or it could even be a new staff person just finding her footing. Messaging should gently orient people in this quadrant, recognizing that they likely feel a cascade of emotions and are likely overwhelmed with information.
Here, the messenger counts as much as the message. It’s good to offer just-in-time communication training, support, and coaching to the messengers — the staff who interact directly with your audiences.
The upper left holds the person with little familiarity with the issue but quite a lot of power to influence it. In this quadrant you might find a cross-section of administrators, utilization review personnel, or even philanthropic donors. (In the political sphere, many elected officials fall in this quadrant.)
Messaging here takes the form of framing. Neither simple nor quick, effective framing pays off over time because whether the problem matches priorities of people in this quadrant can make all the difference to an initiative succeeding — or taking a giant digger.
Depending on your goals, keep in mind that people in each quadrant have a lot to offer your initiative. Seeing communication as a means to build relationship (instead of a one-way endeavor) and shift power to those who may feel powerless will help you hone a more effective strategy.
