2 Defining outcomes
Activity 2
Now that you have your goal, write down everything that is in the way of success when it comes to your goal.
What are your barriers? Where among these barriers are things we can hope to change with our interventions? What are the barriers we can influence with communication?
Highlight and circle the things you can change, and rephrase them from negative barriers to positive intended outcomes.
| Barriers | Outcomes |
Example 2
In our example goal – saving the planet – what is in the way of that being a reality now?
The fossil fuel industry, carbon intensive agriculture, overfishing and other overexploitation, deforestation, lack of climate finance, ineffective corporate sustainability reporting and ratings, geopolitical rivalry, polarised public debates … the list goes on!
But write down the full list, and identify what you can change. It’ll most likely give you more insight into other things you can do with public interest communication.
Perhaps from these examples, we might decide that we have some control over the polarisation of the debate, maybe some control over raising demand for effective climate financing, raising awareness and objection to overfishing and other exploitation.
If so, these become our intended outcomes. We need to:
- create a more balanced public climate debate;
- raise public demand for climate financing,
- raise public awareness about overfishing and its impact,
- educate public audiences about the link between ocean health and planetary health
etc.
