Communication skills

Hello and a warm welcome on to the course ‘Communicating your research to non-specialist audiences’. This course is all about going above and beyond with your communication skills. It’s going to be about finding ways to talk about your research in an impactful and engaging way to lots of different audiences and in lots of different formats. So first, I’m going to introduce you to the idea of having a research story and why that’s really important to have to hand as a researcher. You’re then going to have a go at working on your own research story by completing a research story mind map. As part of this, you’re going to really get to know your audience by making an audience profile. Lastly, we’re going to finish by exploring the different methods and platforms that you can use to communicate with your target audience so that, by the end of the course, you’re going to have a research story ready to go and lots of ideas about how to use it to start communicating with your audiences straightaway. So you’ll find the learning outcomes for the course as well as some other useful resources coming up in the next part of the course. The course is going to be a mixture of video tutorials, interactive activities and text resources. Make sure you get stuck into all of these to get the most you can out of the course. So that’s us for now, folks. Grab yourself a pen and paper, a tea or a coffee, and let’s get stuck in. See you in the next video.

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Hello and welcome on to the course. In this video we’re going to explore why having a research story is so, so important. So let’s get stuck in. As a researcher, you always need to have a good research story prepared; you already know this. On a day-to-day basis you find yourself in scenarios where you’re communicating to completely different people about what you do and why. For example, maybe you’re presenting in a meeting, you’re talking to people from different research groups, you’re writing about what you do for a blog or a magazine, you’re doing a public engagement or participatory research project, you’re being interviewed for your future job, you’re collaborating with industry. All of these different scenarios mean that you need to have a research story prepared and ready to go, a research story that doesn’t leave people feeling like you’re talking about something on another planet or a research story where you’re using really welcoming and inviting language, a research story where you’re explaining exactly what it is that you work on and why. For those of you working on a participatory research project, a good research story is a crucial, crucial first step when you’re starting to communicate with those different people that you’re going to be working with. Having good welcoming, inclusive communication is a crucial first step in forging those strong, strong relationships and making sure that you don’t alienate people from the get-go. So we’re going to get stuck in straightaway, folks, and I want you to head over to the next part of the course where I want you to have a go at telling me about your research, but in one sentence. So head on over and I will see you back in the next video.

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Hello and welcome back to the course. So, hopefully, you’ve had the chance to tell me about your research, the tricky bit in one sentence. So if you haven’t done this already, please do go back to that activity and give that a go because that one sentence is actually going to be the foundation for your research story. So watch this space and watch that research story grow throughout the course. So to get started then, we’re going to have a look at what makes a good research story. So let’s get stuck in. So all good research stories have four key parts to it: firstly, it’s about knowing your audience; secondly, making it short and sharp; thirdly, highlighting your work; and, lastly, making it relevant. So when we’re working out our research story mind map throughout the course, let’s think about it in these four ways. So when we get to know your audience or audiences, this is about giving your story some context. So this is the context part of your research story mind map. We want to make your story short and sharp, and this is all about how you structure your story. When highlighting your work, this is going to be the main content of your story. Lastly, by making it relevant, this is all going to be about the flavour of your research story. Throughout the course, we’re going to go through each one of these parts in a little bit more detail. You’re going to contribute to completing that research story mind map and, by the end of the course, you’re going to have a story ready to go that you can tell anyone and everyone in so many different situations. So head on over to the next video; I can’t wait to get stuck in.

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Hello and welcome back to the course. So this video is all about setting the flavour of your research story. It’s about taking something super-super-complicated, like your research, and being able to give it some context for those people who you’re going to be communicating with. So before we get started then, it’s really important to remember that you are the only person in the whole entire world, even the whole entire universe that knows your research like you do. Even someone sharing an office with you probably understands, I don’t know, let’s say 60/70 per cent of what you do – let’s be generous. Someone across the corridor in a different office, maybe 50 per cent. The other 50 per cent, you’re the only one who knows. Now let’s think about someone on a different floor or a different building on the same campus as you, they’re probably going to know less than ten per cent. Now think about the type of people that you might be communicating with in your different public engagement and participatory research projects. It can really feel to them like you’re talking to them in another language from another planet and this is where setting a flavour for your research story can be super-super-powerful. So let’s think back to your research-in-one-sentence activity. Were there any really complicated words in there? You’re probably thinking, ‘No, not really. Amino acids, discourse analysis, ethnography, this, that and the other,’ and you’re probably thinking it’s not very complicated. Now let’s put yourself in the shoes of your nana; would your nana understand those words? That’s what I like to call the ‘nana test’. So with everything we’re going to do today, everything to do with your research story, have a think about the nana test, think, ‘Would my nana understand what I’m trying to say?’ I’m going to let you into a super-super-powerful hack that you can use to make your research story relevant to lots of different people, your nana included. So let’s have a look. So the first thing we’re going to do is actually come up with a way to talk about your research as an analogy or a metaphor that lots of different people are likely to be able to relate with. So what do I mean by this? I’m thinking card games, something that you’ve heard on the radio, perhaps a boardgame, a TV show – one that’s on now or has been in the past – perhaps an invention or a gadget or maybe a well-known story or myth or fable. So what I want you to do next, folks, is think about something that comes to mind; think about analogy or a metaphor and think about one that you could use to talk about your research. So for a powerful example of what I mean by this, head on over to the next part of the course. I will see you there.

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So let’s take a look at an example then of a research story analogy. First things first then, anyone heard of TCR immunotherapy? Didn’t think so – maybe a few of you. Who’s heard of ‘Where’s Wally?’ Now we’re talking – probably most of you, hopefully all of you. So in the next example then, we’re going to look at how we can use an analogy of ‘Where’s Wally?’ to talk about TCR immunotherapy. Before we look at that example, just a quick note on using acronyms. In research we love using acronyms left, right and centre, but I can tell you that they are one of the worst ways of communicating with people. If I go straight in with my research story saying ‘TCR’, I’ve lost you straightaway because you don’t even know what TCR is. In fairness, even if I then unabbreviated the acronym and said ‘T-cell receptor therapy’, you’d probably still know as little. So just a little note to absolutely avoid acronyms and abbreviations unless you have the time to be able to completely explain them. So head on over to the resource in the next part of the course to find out about what Wally has to do with TCR therapy. So head on over, take a look, and I’ve also included some more examples of analogies in the next section, as well.

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Hello and welcome back to the course. This video is all about setting the context of your research story. I hope you enjoyed coming up with a flavour – with an analogy for your research story; I cannot wait to see what you came up with. So thinking about the context then, this is, essentially, thinking about who you’re going to be talking to and why do you think they care. If you answer these two questions, you can really start to add some context into your research story, which is ultimately going to make it super-super-impactful. So let’s get started then by thinking about who; who are you going to be talking to or who are you likely going to be talking to? So the first place to start with this is, instead of just thinking about the public as one whole great big body of people, is actually to start seeing people for who they are – what groups they might be a part of, who they might hang around with, what their needs might be in society. So, for example, this is a diagram I commonly use and it’s by no means exhaustive as there are so many different groups of society that you could end up communicating about your research with in a public engagement or participatory research project. Just as some examples, perhaps you might be talking to specific museums or very specific community groups, perhaps charities or other organisations like that. Perhaps you want to work with school groups, perhaps teachers, parents of schoolchildren of a certain age. Perhaps it’s patients, perhaps carers or families of patients. Perhaps it’s other healthcare professionals. Perhaps you’re interested in working with particular businesses that might work in different sectors or on certain topics. Perhaps you’re interested in working with policymakers who work in a particular area. So already you can start to see how the public is not just one great big group, but already these many diverse groups of people have very different needs, might have very different expectations of you and your research. So once you have found out who you think you’re going to be talking to, the next thing you want to work out is why do you think they care about your research. What impact is your research trying to have on them or on things that they care about? What problems is your research trying to solve for them? So let’s take a look at some examples about what I mean by this. So what I have in front of you are lots of different reasons why people might care about your research and, again, this list is absolutely endless, but here are just some common things that might come up in the context of your research. So, for example, perhaps you want to make something cheaper or safer. Maybe you want to make something more reliable, more sustainable, more economical, maybe more accurate, or you want to make something quicker. Perhaps you want to improve health or decrease the prominence of some diseases. So, for example, if we go back to our ‘Where’s Wally?’ analogy about TCR therapy, there are lots of different groups of people that you may want to communicate with – for example, policymakers, patients and businesses. Actually, the context for each of these groups of people is going to be slightly different. The important thing to note here is that the flavour – that analogy – is going to be exactly the same for each one of these groups, but the context that you’re talking to them is going to be slightly different. So, for example, for policymakers, they might be really interested in the fact that TCR therapy is cheaper and that it improves health compared to current therapies. For patients, they’re probably going to be really interested in knowing that it’s safer or that it’s more accurate than current therapies. For businesses, they might care about the fact that it’s more economical or quicker or easier to develop. So you see that, depending on who you’re talking to, the context of your research story changes slightly and this is really, really important because you’re going to want to lean into this in your research story. So think about those different people, think about who they are, think about why they care. What I really want to do now, folks, is hand over to you to think about your own research story – think about who and think about why. It could be that there’s a few different whos and a few different whys, and that’s absolutely fine; I would love for you to explore all of those. So we’ve had a little think about who your audience might be and why they might care about your research. Next, we’re really going to take a deeper dive into getting to know your target audience by having a go at making an audience profile. So I’ll see you in the next video soon.

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Hello, and welcome back to the course. In the last video we had a go at getting to know our target audience a little bit by thinking about who they are and why they might care about our research. In this video we’re really going to build on that to get to know our audience on a deeper level. By getting to know our audience, by getting to know them on a deeper level, we can communicate much better with them. So by getting to know our audience we can tailor our communications to them, making it way more impactful and engaging. So how do we do that, I hear you ask. Well, by making an audience profile, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do in this part of the course. Building an audience profile is a practical way to get to know your target audience, their motivations, beliefs, opinions, what they know or don’t know, why they may or may not care about your research, how you can find them, how you can understand them, how you can reach them, what their needs might be. All of this really helps to put yourself in the shoes of your audience and to ultimately end up being a much better communicator. So when making an audience profile, this can be separated into five main sections which are demographics, psychographics, barriers and challenges, channels and contents, and the whys. We are going to explore each one of these in a little bit more detail, and also find out how you can actually find out about your public in the next part of the course. Just a quick note to say folks, that you cannot, and will not know absolutely everything about your target audience, and that’s absolutely okay. This is just a really, really good place to start, so make sure you get stuck in. So head on over to the activities and the resources in the next part of the course, and I will see you back in the next video soon.

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So hello and welcome back to the course. We’ve done a really deep dive into the context of your research story by getting to know your target audience, who they are, why they might care. Now we’re really going to focus on the main content of your research story, so let’s get stuck in. So the main content of your research story is, essentially, going to boil down to what impact has your research had so far or perhaps what impact is your research planning to have. Of course, many of us are going to be in so many different stages of our projects, so you might just be talking hypothetically, and that’s absolutely okay, but if you think about your research story, we want it to be really short and sharp, up to three minutes. So the main content is really going to be those hard-hitting overarching questions. So to explore this, here are some questions that I want you to think about. For example, what are your main work highlights so far or the main highlights that you hope to achieve? What is the single most important thing you have done on your research so far or what are you most proud of? What is going to help you solve the problem for your audiences? What has been the biggest defining moment of your work so far or what are your biggest hopes and dreams for the project? So what I really want you to do is have a go at answering some of these questions. So head on over to the next part of the course to think about your answers to some of these questions. I think when it comes down to your research story that’s going to be up to three minutes long, you’re pretty much going to be looking for about two to three answers to these questions that you might pop into your research story. So head on over to the next activity and give it a go. I cannot wait to see what you come up with. If you’re getting stuck, don’t forget to explore the resources where you’ll see some examples and some case studies. So have a little look if you get stuck. So I will see you back in the next video where we have a look at the structure of your research story. See you soon.

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Hello and welcome back to the course. So in this video we’re really going to explore the part of the mind map where it really weaves your whole research story together and that is thinking about the structure. So when it comes to a good research story, I’ve come up with a pretty simple structure that you may want to follow when developing your research story. So let’s take a look. Hopefully, as researchers, this will be quite an easy structure that you are used to dealing with or that you are familiar with. So, for example, first you want to introduce your story, and to do this you might want to start with some sort of hook that pulls in the audience and introduces your topic of research. You may want to think about getting that analogy rolling from the very first sentence. So putting this back into the example we had earlier, you do not want to open up with, ‘Here’s a talk on TCR therapy.’ You’ve already lost your audience with the very first sentence and, you know what, you are never going to get them back. So, instead, maybe you want to introduce a hook related to your analogy. So, for example, you could open up with, ‘Who knows of ‘Where’s Wally?’ Who’s played the game ‘Where’s Wally?” So straightaway you’re sparking their interest and getting them excited about your story. So from there you then maybe want to start introducing a problem that your research is trying to solve. Maybe you want to back this up with some statistics. Then maybe you want to come in with the research question that you might be exploring to help solve this problem. Again, you can keeping linking back in and weaving that analogy through, always bearing in mind who you’re talking to and why they care. So really setting the context of your pitch. So next, if you want to, you can think of it a little bit like materials and methods. So you may want to spend a little bit of time talking about your approach to answering those research questions. At the same time, you might not want to. This is a bit of an optional section and, actually, I would say if you cannot take the time to explain your materials and methods, applying the nana test – for a reminder of that, head back to the previous video – then it’s probably best to leave this part out, and that’s completely okay. Next up is very much like thinking about your results and conclusion section. Perhaps it involves a bit of discovery – what did you find out or what are you hoping to find out? What conclusions did you make or conclusions are you hoping to make one day? Lastly, then you want to wrap it all up with some sort of discussion, which is really putting it back into the bigger picture. How will your research change the world or how is it changing the world? Again, the whole way through, linking that analogy back through and also thinking about who your target audience is and why; keep bringing that context into the story. So you want to think about your story being approximately three minutes. This is an approximation; if it’s less, that’s okay, if it’s more, that’s absolutely okay. So what I’m going to do now is hand over to you to actually come up with a structure for your research story. So head on over to the resources in this section for an example, have a go at filling in your mind map and then I actually want you to have a go at structuring a story, so putting a script together that you can use to talk to different target audiences to give them a slightly different story about your research. I cannot wait to see what you come up with and I will see you back in the next video. All the best of luck.

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An absolute huge well done, because if you’ve made it to this far in the course, then you’ve already filled in all four parts of the mind map and you’ve already had a go at structuring your very own research story. You have done the hardest part here today. You’ve come up with a story. You can go and tell the world this story. So what I really encourage you to do is now take a moment to think about what you’re going to do with the work that you have done today. For example, how are you going to go out and speak to those people that you want to speak to? How are you going to reach them? The beauty of the story is that you can actually use it in lots and lots of different ways. For example, maybe you can talk about it on the radio or the TV. Maybe you can write about your research story in a magazine or an article or a blog. If you’re doing public engagement and participatory research projects, you can use your analogy and maybe even turn it into a board game or some other sort of game as a way to connect with those people that you really want to connect with. This is exactly what we’re going to do in the next and final part of the course. So you have your research story, you’ve got to know your target audience, now we’re really going to explore the different platforms and methods that you can use to communicate with them. So let’s get stuck in. There are so many different ways that you can communicate with your audience. You could communicate on social media – for example, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok. You could use a podcast, radio. You could write articles, blogs. You could present at a festival. You could deliver a live seminar or tutorial. You could run a debate or a Q and A session. Maybe you could design infographics that you could share on these different platforms. You could create a board game. The list really, really is endless and it’s completely up to you, based on your target audience, how you would like to communicate with them. The key to figuring out the best way is to think back to your audience profile. Who are they? Where do they like to hang out, so to speak? For example, in your audience profile you want to communicate with people aged 16. You want to communicate with them about a research career. Therefore, you decide to do a social media campaign. You write blogs and advertise these on social media platforms, on groups that you know 16-year-old people hang out in. When writing your blog, you use your research story – the flavour, the content, the structure. Importantly, you can also use and adapt this research story to different formats, for example, for different audiences. So, for example, for a different audience, perhaps it’s going to be to people aged 50 that you know might attend the local festival that gets run every year, so you actually decide to present a live seminar about your research story at this live festival. You see, in both instances the research story is exactly the same – the same flavour, the same content, the same structure. The context might be a little bit different, you might be tailoring it to those different audiences and, obviously, a written format is going to be slightly different from a live delivery, but, hopefully, you can see that the research story is almost exactly the same for the different formats. So head on over to the resources in this part of the course to explore different formats and methodologies further and I will see you back in the next and final video of the course.

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A huge well done for making it to the end of the course. Now you have a research story, a target audience to tell it to and, hopefully, lots of ideas about the different platforms and methods you could use to communicate with them. So please, please, please go out and talk to some people about your research. You really have done all the hard work. So what I would love for you to do in the next and final activity of the course is to just take a moment to reflect on whether there’s an action that you want to take or an intention that you may have as a result of being on this course. For example, maybe you want to try writing a blog or presenting at a festival. Maybe you want to go and talk to somebody about exploring some projects that you may have. Let me know in the next activity, and all the best of luck putting those plans into action. Don’t forget to stay in touch with any exciting projects that you end up working on, and all the best of luck with your research and your communication projects. So that’s us for now, folks. Have a lovely day and I will see you again soon. Goodbye.

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