Understanding the link between communication and change
Most groups I work with see the goal of their communication as being achievement of some change – getting people to change something that they do or don’t do, like recycle, exercise more, lose weight, accept possum control, provide better services, consult more effectively etc. If we are to learn to communicate more effectively, however, it is critical to find frameworks to help us think through communication planning.
Different communication types lead to different outcomes and many communication forms have very definite limits on what they can achieve. A useful framework outlines the steps that happen along the way to a change in an individual’s behaviour (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 Stages of change (adapted from Parnell & Benton 1999).
This framework suggests that people begin in a blissful state of precontemplation, which is essentially a lack of awareness about an issue – say the need to exercise more. The first step for such individuals is to become aware that exercise is important or at least that certain people are recommending that everyone should get some. Before anything can happen, such individuals will need to build some understanding of why they should exercise, how they should exercise, and if they are lucky they will notice that their friends think exercising is good. They must then plan to change – for some people, this planning stage takes almost no time, and at an opportune time, such as at New Year, they may start to exercise. Once they have started, one of two things can happen – they will successfully continue their new exercise regime (maintenance), or when they return to the demands of non-holiday life, they will struggle and often fail to continue exercising.
What can we learn from understanding this process?
The kind of information needed for awareness-raising is not the same kind of information needed when people engage and start to inquire, or when they are working out what they will do or when they have taken action. This means that to support change we need to supply people with different kinds of information and we need to use a range of ways of getting the information across – for example, websites, fact sheets, workshops, public talks, sessions where participants can meet others trying to do the same thing, and media releases all potentially help at different stages of the learning/change cycle.
It is common to have several attempts at change before a new behaviour becomes established and maintained. When people try to change what they do, they are often subject to influences that drive them to ‘change back’. While people can usually maintain new regimes when on holiday, many pressures come back on when life goes back to normal after the holiday.
A large part of learning for successful change is not about what to do but about how to change one’s immediate everyday environment so that maintaining that behaviour becomes more likely. One might enlist the participation of others in the new activity, think about what other activities might be curtailed in favour of the new one, observe one’s resistance to different kinds of exercise at different times, for example.
At this stage also, for organisations trying to support people’s change efforts it is probably going to take more than just communication work. Environmental factors have a big impact on behaviour3. For example many people participate in recycling once kerbside recycling is available, simply because it becomes much easier than having to go to a recycling station or because the need for rubbish storage space is eliminated.
The insights and understandings that we need, both as individuals trying to change and as change agents trying to encourage change, is that this work usually happens as we reflect on past efforts to change. The fact that failure is common is testimony to the importance of planning and reflection in the change process. Even ‘failed’ changes represent a step in the right direction!
Parnell, B. & Benton, K. 1999: Facilitating sustainable behaviour change: A guidebook for designing HIV programs. UNDP Asia and Pacific Regional programme on HIV and development.
Lerner HG 2001. The dance of connection. New York, HarperCollins.
Ross L, Nisbett RE 1991. The person and the situation. Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press.
Chrys Horn, April 2006
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Page last updated: April 2006