A few weeks ago, I was asked to give a keynote on Knowledge Mobilization for the annual Graduate College Impact Awards at Arizona State University (the video’s at the end of this post). The talk was to be science communication. But on reflection, I took the opportunity to address something that’s increasingly informed my work around communication and engagement, but I haven’t spoken that much about publicly. And that’s humility.
Humility of course is sometimes seen as a bit of a dirty word when promoting and communicating your science. We’re taught that, when it comes to grant proposals and peer review publications, we not only have to convince others that our results are Earth-shatteringly revolutionary, but we also need to highlight how they are also vitally important to the continuance of human kind. If you doubt me, just check out some of the justifications you see for proposed research, or the broader significance inferences presented in papers (never mind institutional press releases).
This hubris has a tendency to bleed over to attitudes toward science communication — especially the idea that, as scientists, we are holders of privileged knowledge who should be revered for what we bring to those less fortunate than us. And it finds its way into a lack of patience over what quickly becomes labeled as “science illiteracy”, “rejection of science”, “unscientific thinking”, or just plain old ungratefulness.
And yet, important as evidence-informed decision making is, hubris in science communication is ultimately counterproductive because builds barriers that prevent any useful exchange of knowledge. In contrast, humility is a powerful way to build bridges that ultimately increase the chances of helping others gain value from what you know.
So with this in mind, I set out to pull together a list of ten lessons I’ve learned the hard way about humility in science communication for the talk. I did of course fully recognize the irony that I was ignoring the first rule of humility in science communication: don’t talk about humility in science communication! But I persisted anyway.
And here is that list:
1. Don’t become a victim of an excess of humility. Never underestimate what you know, and how valuable it is to others. It’s easy to overlook how much value what you know is to others. Most of us suffer from imposter syndrome at some point. But try and avoid comparing what you know with others, and instead ask how you can most effectively use it for the benefit of others.
2. Always respect your audience. One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn as a communicator is that most people are smarter than I think, and everyone deserves my respect when I engage with them. They may not know everything I do. But if I engage effectively, they have the capacity to understand how it’s relevant to them, and how they can make use of it.
3. Always put your audience first. Try not to make the mistake of thinking that science communication is about you. It’s not.
4. Always be prepared to listen to and learn from others. Do this, even if they clearly don’t see the world the way you think they should.
5. Don’t “mansplain”. I must admit that I don’t particularly this term, but it does have it’s uses. And at the risk of appropriating an expression from one area to another, academics of all genders have a dreadful tendency to mansplain to others. Surprisingly, this rarely goes down well!
6. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You’ll rarely if ever get things perfectly right with your science communication or engagement, and sometimes you’ll make a fool of yourself. And that’s alright. If you’re interested in empowering others rather than stroking your own ego, OK is often good enough.
7. Learn from your mistakes. It’s the only way to get good at what you do.
8. Remember that people don’t have to pay attention to you. Effective communication depends on building relationships where people trust and respect you, and where you earn the right to communicate and engage with them. And let’s be honest, if someone doesn’t have to read what you write, listen to what you say, or watch what you produce, being as boring as old boots isn’t going to do much for you!
9. Engage with others using language that makes sense to the people you’re engaging with. This means being careful with jargon — including excessive use of terms like “knowledge mobilization” I suspect (although jargon has its place when used appropriately). But it also means being sensitive to what others hear and what it means to them; and not just what you say.
10. Be generous in your support for others. Connecting your knowledge with others is hard, and it often puts you in a vulnerable position. So support your peers and colleagues in their science communication and engagement. Encourage them, affirm them, and enable them.
I should add that, just to show how hard it is to think of humility as a positive attribute, there was a slight error in the advertised title of my talk. I thought I’d been clever (always a bad sign) in coming up with a title with multiple layers of meaning in “Humility is Not a Four Letter Word”. Sadly, in the program, the “Not” was missing, perhaps emphasizing a suspicion many people still have that humility has no place in how we communicate our science.
Humbly though, I beg to differ.
You can watch the original keynote here:
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Updated with video link, May 18 2018
Image: By Forsaken Fotos, Flickr. Used under Creative Commons