Posts in: Reflections

We’ve all been there. Stellar participants. A promising agenda. But within the first hour of the workshop, people to your right and left are already on their email or editing manuscripts. The first several speakers have gone over their time limits, so even the few minutes reserved for Q&A have evaporated. The moderator cancels all breaks to try to get back on...

Why is it that some scientists seem to have an easy time getting the ear of policymakers? When it comes to engaging decision-makers, we’ve told you to find the story in your science, to prepare yourself to answer the “So what?” and to keep it simple but not lose the details. But how do you get involved in that initial conversation in the first place? More...

As we’ve described in many places, including this blog, we love supporting you in communicating, sharing, and discussing science outside your labs, classrooms, and the field. We know this isn’t easy and the practicalities of engaging aren’t always, well, very practical. I’ve worked hard to find funding to support our boundary organization so that our se...

As I noted at the end of Monday’s post, I did not directly tackle the question of whether scientists’ advocacy has been shown to damage public trust in them (or their science). The best specific resource I know of is an E&E News article from last summer in which Paul Voosen covered some particularly relevant research by Jon Krosnick. Krosnick wanted ...

A recurring challenge for scientists talking to policymakers is finding the match between the details that the scientist focuses on and understands, and the details that the policymaker needs to make their decisions. I often see scientists struggling to calibrate their message to the right level of specificity. Missing the mark on this can kill an otherwise promisi...

In order to bridge dissimilar cultures and have effective dialogue, you have to know who you’re talking to. At COMPASS, we often talk about the similarities between scientists and journalists – for example, they share a love for discovery, healthy skepticism, analytical minds, and competitive natures – in order for them to meet on common ground before explain...