{"id":3292,"date":"2018-07-13T06:12:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T12:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/?p=3292"},"modified":"2018-07-13T06:12:18","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T12:12:18","slug":"scicomm-lit-review-josh-silberg-reviews-if-i-understood-you-would-i-have-this-look-on-my-face-my-adventures-in-the-art-and-science-of-relating-and-communicating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/2018\/07\/13\/scicomm-lit-review-josh-silberg-reviews-if-i-understood-you-would-i-have-this-look-on-my-face-my-adventures-in-the-art-and-science-of-relating-and-communicating\/","title":{"rendered":"SciComm Lit Review: Josh Silberg reviews “If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn many ways, Alan Alda represents an archetype of one type of audience member that people try to reach with their science communications. He is a non-expert. He\u2019s interested in a range of scientific topics from health to psychology to ecology. He is exceptionally curious. If this sounds like one of your regular target audiences, then this book is for you.\u201d ~J. Silberg<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"cO\"<\/p>\n

What is the reviewer\u2019s motive (expertise, curiosity, sharing lessons learned, etc.) and perspective (research scientist, educator, science communicator, etc.)?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I\u2019ve researched everything from humpback whales to whale sharks to rockfish\u2014I just couldn\u2019t decide on one creature to study. So I set out to find a career where no two days are alike. [Editor\u2019s note: read Josh\u2019s #MySciComm post<\/a> for loads of details about how he found that career, in #scicomm.]<\/em> Now, I\u2019m the Science Communications Coordinator for the Hakai Institute<\/a>\u2014a British Columbia-based research institution where intrepid scientists from a variety of fields study the coast from the icefields down to the oceans. I help scientists at the Institute communicate coastal science stories through blogs, videos, infographics, and the occasional poem.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m fascinated by strategies that can be used to teach communication skills to scientists of all career stages. I\u2019ve found that many scientists are keen to improve their ability to connect with diverse audiences both inside and outside their field of study, but they often don\u2019t know where to start.<\/p>\n

Who can benefit from reading and referencing this SciComm Lit (researchers, reporters, science communicators, educators, students, etc.)?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Alan Alda\u2019s book is especially useful for scientists, educators, science communicators, and students who are ruminating about how to better relate their science to a specific audience. It\u2019s easy to try to reinvent the wheel, especially if we don\u2019t regularly interact with people from other professional backgrounds. We can forget that other disciplines\u2014in this case, acting and improv\u2014offer valuable insight into our own fields.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Alan Alda represents an archetype of one type of audience member that people try to reach with their science communications. He is a non-expert. He\u2019s interested in a range of scientific topics from health to psychology to ecology. He is exceptionally curious. If this sounds like one of your regular target audiences, then this book is for you.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Some of Josh\u2019s marginal notes<\/p><\/div>\n

Marginal Notes (the good & the bad): favorite takeaways and productive points of disagreement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The book contains a strong collection of anecdotes from Alda\u2019s career in acting, as a host of PBS\u2019 interview show Scientific American Frontiers<\/em>, and now as founder of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. The book is more about a paradigm for communicating science rather than a step-by-step guide.<\/p>\n

For instance, Alda doesn\u2019t get into the nitty gritty of strategies for telling more engaging stories. However, through rich anecdotes, he probes his decades of experience to discuss what has worked, where he went wrong, and what he learned from his missteps.<\/p>\n

The tone of the book is by design. Alda\u2019s approach to science communication is that \u201c\u2026the solution, in my view, isn\u2019t a formula, a list of tips, or a chart that shows where to put your feet. Instead, it\u2019s transforming yourself\u2014like going to the gym\u2014only a whole lot more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen, relate, and react<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

During an improv show, actors listen and react to their counterparts. There are no wrong answers. You can redirect, but the general dialogue must flow from one idea to the next. Recognizing what others are thinking about is a critical skill for science communicators too. Don\u2019t make assumptions about what others know, or assume that what you know is the only way of knowing.<\/p>\n

Science communication is a skill that can be learned<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Most people know a scientist who seems to have an innate ability to communicate their research, tell engaging stories, and conceive poetic analogies to relate their science. But how much of that scientist\u2019s skillset truly is innate? It can be easy to overlook how that communicator obtained those abilities. Communication is a skill you can improve. It\u2019s a matter of training, practice, and a few key paradigm shifts to discover how people obtain and retain information. But it\u2019s also important to remember that science communications is \u201c\u2026an art, not a formula.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Book Citation & Summary (from publisher):<\/h4>\n

Alda, A. (2017).\u00a0If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating.<\/em>\u00a0New York: Random House.<\/p>\n

Alan Alda has been on a decades-long journey to discover new ways to help people communicate and relate to one another more effectively.\u00a0If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?\u00a0is the warm, witty, and informative chronicle of how Alda found inspiration in everything from cutting-edge science to classic acting methods. His search began when he was host of PBS\u2019s\u00a0Scientific American Frontiers,\u00a0where he interviewed thousands of scientists and developed a knack for helping them communicate complex ideas in ways a wide audience could understand\u2014and Alda wondered if those techniques held a clue to better communication for the rest of us.<\/em><\/p>\n

In his wry and wise voice, Alda reflects on moments of miscommunication in his own life, when an absence of understanding resulted in problems both big and small. He guides us through his discoveries, showing how communication can be improved through learning to relate to the other person: listening with our eyes, looking for clues in another\u2019s face, using the power of a compelling story, avoiding jargon, and reading another person so well that you become \u201cin sync\u201d with them, and know what they are thinking and feeling\u2014especially when you\u2019re talking about the hard stuff.<\/p>\n

Drawing on improvisation training, theater, and storytelling techniques from a life of acting, and with insights from recent scientific studies, Alda describes ways we can build empathy, nurture our innate mind-reading abilities, and improve the way we relate and talk with others. Exploring empathy-boosting games and exercises,\u00a0If I Understood You\u00a0is a funny, thought-provoking guide that can be used by all of us, in every aspect of our lives\u2014with our friends, lovers, and families, with our doctors, in business settings, and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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