Strategic Comms, Pt 32: Engage Supporters, Avoid a Spiral of Silence
(This is the 32nd in a continuing series on strategic communications. Click here for earlier segments)
By Owen Eagan, The Saint Consulting Group
Controversial land use projects cannot only divide a community, they can dissuade people from getting engaged and publicly expressing their opinions.
The Spiral of Silence Theory, developed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, maintains that people who hold a minority viewpoint are disinclined to express their opinions, whereas people who hold a majority viewpoint are inclined to do speak out. Moreover, Noelle-Neumann suggests that the media attention given to the majority viewpoint will augment these predispositions and create a spiral of silence for those possessing the minority viewpoint.[1]
Noelle-Neumann’s theory is an extension of Solomon Asch’s well-known conformity experiments. In these experiments, subjects were asked to name the line on the right that was equal to the line on the left in the following graphic (see Exhibit 1). However, participants were tested in the presence of the experimenter’s assistants who all intentionally gave the incorrect answer. The results showed that a significant number of the participants gave the wrong answer due to the pressure they felt to agree with others.[2]
Exhibit 1
Noelle-Neumann further tested this concept by applying it to moral and aesthetic convictions. For instance, she found that smokers were less willing to overtly support smokers’ rights in the presence of non-smokers.[3] Given these results, it is easy to see how residents who support a land use project that might be perceived as controversial would have an aversion to publicly expressing support for the proposal.
Therefore, it is essential to build support for your project before the opposition has a chance to organize in order to give residents the additional incentive they might need to get engaged. Organizing early will help you build momentum and avoid a spiral of silence.
Owen Eagan is a Senior Consultant for Saint Consulting, an international management consulting firm specializing in land use politics. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Emerson College, the nation’s only four-year institution dedicated exclusively to communications and the performing arts. Email Eagan@tscg.biz
[1] Richard West and Lynn H. Turner, Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2010), 411.
[2] Ibid., 415.
[3] Ibid.
Strategic Comms, Part 31: The Importance of Emotional Intelligence
(This is the 31st in a continuing series on strategic communications. Click here for earlier segments)
By Owen Eagan, The Saint Consulting Group
According Daniel Goleman, “emotional intelligence – the ability to manage ourselves and our relationships effectively – consists of four fundamental capabilities: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skill.”[1]
So important is emotional intelligence that many scholars believe it is a core competence of managerial leaders. In fact, James Kouzes and Barry Posner assert that without the requisite personal and social skills, senior executives would be more likely to fail than succeed even if they attended the best business schools, were extremely intelligent and had all of the relevant experience.[2]
For example, in a recent article by Tony Schwartz, the president and CEO of The Energy Project, entitled “Why Appreciation Matters So Much” (see http://bit.ly/A5FA1p), he cites a study which found that high-performing teams had a positive to negative feedback ratio of 5.6 to 1, compared to low-performing teams of .36 to 1. In light of this impact, demonstrating appreciation for people should become a business practice at all levels of the organization as it would strengthen teams and increase productivity. Read More »
Strategic Comms: Pt 30 – Build Trust, Establish Dialogue, Be Transparent
(This is the 30th in a continuing series on strategic communications. Click here for earlier segments)
By Owen Eagan, The Saint Consulting Group
Communication plays a critical role in building trust, and trust plays a critical role in any organization. In fact, trust not only enhances employee satisfaction but also the bottom line. Though, this should come as no surprise as both employee satisfaction and business results have a linear relationship.
For instance, one study found that hotels whose employees strongly trusted their managers were substantially more profitable than those whose managers scored average or lower.[1] What is surprising is that half of all managers don’t trust their leaders. [2] This would surely change if managers were aware of the correlation between trust and performance.
However, building trust isn’t just about demonstrating character and integrity. It also includes expressing a belief in others, which can be achieved by entrusting people with significant and meaningful responsibility. When it comes to your customers (i.e., residents of the communities in which you propose to operate), trust can be primarily engendered through establishing a dialogue with the community and operating in a transparent fashion. Read More »
Top 15 Arguments Against New Land Use Permit – Not Just NIMBY Objections
By P. Michael Saint, Chairman and CEO, The Saint Consulting Group
Not everyone who lives near a proposed new land use project and objects to it is a NIMBY. And not every argument raised in opposition to a new land use permit is a selfish grasp at straws. Many who say “no” to new development have sincere and legitimate concerns.
The trick in the debate is to figure out who is sincere in their arguments and who is simply against change and grabbing for any excuse they can in order to advance a selfish NIMBY agenda in position to development.
Below are 15 legitimate arguments we often see voiced in battles over land use permits
Top 15 Real and Persuasive Arguments Against Issuing a New Land Use Permit.
1) It will produce far too many vehicle trips a day for the local streets to handle without becoming gridlocked.
2) It will place too much stress on existing water supplies and sewers.
3) It will add hundreds of new children to the school system that is already overcrowded.
4) It will endanger existing rare or protected plant or animal species.
5) It will cause storm runoff that will flood adjoining properties.
6) It will encroach on burial grounds of indigenous peoples.
7) It will pollute local air or drinking water supplies.
8) It will destroy an historic landmark.
9) It will encourage sprawl.
10) It will change the character of the local community from rural to suburban or from suburban to urban.
11) It will encroach on the peace and safety of adjacent hospitals, schools or churches.
12) It will attract strangers to the neighborhood, raising the potential for new crime.
13) It will destroy existing jobs in existing businesses.
14) It will remove valuable agricultural or industrial property from being used.
15) It will eliminate important open space.
P. Michael Saint is chairman and CEO of The Saint Consulting Group, email saint@tscg.biz
Project Approval According to Gender
American Infrastructure Magazine — For potentially controversial infrastructure projects, the gender split means proponents must carefully craft their message and outreach approach. The 2011 Saint Index showed a distinct difference of nationwide infrastructure approval by men and women. By Jesse McKnight.
Read the Article — Download PDF
Join Jay Vincent at Free Energy Learning Lunch on Jan 17, 12 noon CST
Happy New Year, and welcome to our series of free Energy Learning Lunches scheduled in 2012 to capture and share knowledge about land use issues facing the energy industry. Our first learning lunch last November 22 discussed the 2011 Saint Index and how strongly the American public feels about energy projects proposed in their local communities, including the fact that not all perceptions of new energy development are negative.I invite you to join me for a free lunch-hour webinar on Tuesday, January 17 at 12 noon CST for a discussion on the Advocacy Pyramid and how one builds vocal advocacy for your projects in your community. The Advocacy Pyramid is one of the positive lessons we have learned in land use politics as a campaign approach to identify and rally latent support to overcome the established opponents.
We look forward to sharing this approach with you and learning about your own experiences facing opposition and political risk to your projects!
If you’d like to join us, click here to register for this free webinar.
I look forward to hearing from you. For information about The Saint Index, check out saintindex.info and browse our blog, The Saint Report, for energy related stories.
Jay Vincent is Senior Vice President for Energy for The Saint Consulting Group, email vincent@tscg.biz
Strategic Comms Pt 29: Three Reasons Your Project Begins Behind 8-Ball
(This is the 29th in a continuing series on strategic communications. Click here for earlier segments)
By Owen Eagan, The Saint Consulting Group
There are three reasons your project begins behind the eight ball. First, most Americans believe a candidate’s position on growth is important and are suspect of the relationship between developers and public officials. Second, swaying people from a predisposition is not an easy task under any circumstances. And, third, opponents of real estate development projects are always more motivated than proponents.
The first reason is evidenced by the results of The Saint Index, our company’s annual survey on attitudes towards land use and development issues. Our most recent survey found that 84% of Americans say that a candidate’s position on development and growth is important when making voting decisions. In addition, 64% Americans believe the relationship between developers and elected officials makes the land use approval process unfair (see http://bit.ly/nimnWN).
The second reason stems from our extensive experience in land use politics along with some support from a theoretical standpoint. Residents who are predisposed to opposing your project are difficult to persuade and rarely change their minds. This is why your resources are better spent on supporters and undecideds. Although, as we’ve discussed earlier, opponents who live near the site of your proposed project should always be included in your outreach efforts (see http://bit.ly/rZU52v).
To shed more light on why opponents are hard to persuade, we can turn to Cognitive Dissonance Theory. This theory states that when people encounter information that is contrary to their existing beliefs, thoughts and attitudes, they are motivated to reduce this dissonance. However, some of the primary ways they do this are to ignore opposing viewpoints, add to their consonant beliefs, or seek reassurances of their positions from their peers and others. Read More »
EPA Plans to Close Coal Power Plants Point to Big Problems Ahead
By Christopher Hopkins, Senior Vice President for Aggregates and Mining
The Saint Consulting Group
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to force the shutdown of up to 66 coal fired power plants over the next three years, totaling 14.7 gigawatts or enough electricity to power over 22 million homes.
As a Huffington Post article explains, the problem is that during that same period, only 23 power plants at most going on line to replace them. Currently 11 power plants are under construction, one is near construction and an additional 11 have been permitted for construction. Of these 11, there is no guarantee that they will be constructed. The cost of building a power plant has more than doubled in recent years due in large part to new regulations that have to be complied with.
The irony is that environmental activists who oppose the newer cleaner compliant power plants are delaying them and making the United States rely more on the outdated dirtier power plants.
Now that these plants are being retired, and not nearly enough plants are coming on line to replace their output, what is next? It appears the coal opponents are pressing the EPA to decommission the older plants while protesting and delaying the construction of the new plants to replace them. Their goal is to eliminate coal usage 100 percent.
What is their answer to this dilemma? I mean in the spirit of the season, you cannot use wind turbines as Frosty’s eyes can you?
Chris Hopkins is senior vice president for aggregates and mining for The Saint Consulting Group, email hopkins@tscg.biz
Is the Federal Gas Tax Obsolete? Chris Hopkins in Aggregates Manager
(This article was first published this month in Aggregates Manager)
By Christopher Hopkins, Senior Vice President for Aggregates and Mining
The Saint Consulting Group
The 1970s marked the first time Americans rushed in a panic to buy fuel-efficient foreign import automobiles. Long lines at gas stations caused by the 1973 Arab oil embargo ignited a switch from eight-cylinder gas-guzzlers to smaller, less-thirsty vehicles. Eventually, panic subsided, gas remained plentiful and relatively cheap, and we re-acquired the taste for powerful land yachts, then the SUV craze.
A question that should have been asked as soon as that phenomenon began, however, is one that now needs to be answered: Is the federal gas tax obsolete?
The problem created by more fuel-efficient vehicles is that cars with better gas mileage require less gasoline, which results in a reduction of gas tax revenue. And the federal gas tax serves one primary purpose — to fund the building and maintaining of roads and bridges across the United States, America’s infrastructure.
Click here for the full article.
Strategic Comms, Part 28: Key Tips for a Great Presentation
(This is the 28th in a continuing series on strategic communications. Click here for earlier segments)
By Owen Eagan, The Saint Consulting Group
We’ve all seen one – a presentation that lulled us to sleep or left us scratching our heads because we either didn’t know or couldn’t remember what the message was. But what makes a great presentation? That is, how do you successfully engage your audience and convey your key messages?
First, any discussion of public speaking needs to include Aristotle’s three types of persuasive appeals: ethos (an appeal based on the credibility of the speaker), logos (an appeal based on the logic of an argument) and pathos (an appeal based on the use of emotions). Moreover, Aristotle believed that ethos was the most persuasive device. But ethos is established not only by the background and experience of your speaker but by maintaining credibility throughout your speech through comprehensive research.
Next, to make your presentation memorable, Chip and Dan Heath, the authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, claim that a sticky idea needs to be simple, unexpected, concrete, credible and emotional, and that they are best depicted by stories (which creates the acronym SUCCES). One of my favorite tips that relates to public speaking is their discussion on the “gap theory” of knowledge.
This theory states that our curiosity and interest is piqued when there is a gap in our knowledge. This is why we always need to know how that bad movie ends, why mysteries are so popular and why news shows have developed a knowledge gap approach. This is an extremely effective technique for getting your audience’s attention in the introduction to your presentation. Read More »