Top tips for engaging on complex or difficult topics

Credit: Michal Vrba (Unsplash)

We often conduct research with the public on complex topics. Some are complex because they are technical and unfamiliar to participants; some are difficult to think about because they are controversial.

Over the years we have successfully helped members of the public to understand, discuss and debate a wide range of complex subjects, from pensions decisions, to expression of personal beliefs in the workplace, to where political debate in elections crosses the line.

Here are our top tips for engaging on complex topics:

Create space and permission for nuance

We live in a time of extreme positions and quick social media soundbites that are designed to provoke a reaction, rather than to provoke reflection. This goes against what we try to do in research, which is to find deeper meaning and to understand the spectrum of views and experience. Some of the topics we’ve been looking at with people are difficult because they are controversial and the public discourse is dominated by polarised views. Recent examples include abuse in political debate and the expression of personal beliefs in the workplace. In these projects, we have had to think carefully about how we address strong social norming, which is where people feel (particularly in a group context) they should be conforming to the dominant ‘socially acceptable’ view, and not admit to thoughts or behaviours that contravene this for fear of strong negative reactions. Fictional scenarios are helpful here, along with careful moderation introducing ‘what if…’ options, and comparing with other contexts and participants real-life experiences. This allows people to start to articulate where the edges blur and to identify the myriad factors that can push opinions in one direction or the other. Essentially, we’re looking for the ‘it depends’ factors — this is where nuance lies, which in turn facilitates our clients’ decision-making and policy design.

Use visuals to help convey complex information

Information can be provided through presentations, briefings, videos, quiz sessions and expert speakers to ensure that different learning styles are catered for. Complex information needs to be broken down into bite-sized pieces and made fully digestible. Visual information often works better in this respect.

We have developed particular skills in creating voiced-over animated videos (in PowerPoint or VideoScribe) which work really well, particularly in online deliberative research. We spend time really grappling with the subject, then break it down into easy-to-follow explanations to make it digestible and engaging to a public audience. In fact, in a project on pensions, our client even joked they could use our videos to address wider lack of understanding of pensions!

Encourage participants to think about the issues in advance

Our experience suggests that it will be much easier to get into the debate quickly if participants to complete a short, simple pre-task in advance. This helps sensitise people to the issues and encourages them to start thinking about their views prior to the research.

Pre-tasks need to be simple so that they are not off-putting for participants – completing a short questionnaire or diary, perhaps, looking for recent newspaper articles or discussing the topic with friends. However, more creative pre-tasks can help set the tone for a more productive engagement session. We have sometimes asked participants to bring along an object that reminds them of the subject in question or to take photos relating to the topic matter in advance (which can then be used to make a collage at the actual session).

Build up knowledge over time

We are finding that our clients are increasingly asking for us to engage with informed groups of consumers. Once consumers have been educated about a particular issue, it makes sense to use the same cohort again to discuss related issues. We have a number of ways of doing this, most commonly by holding reconvened events either online or offline, or both.

We’ve found that online bulletin boards are an ideal vehicle for continuing the conversation if the consumers are geographically dispersed or if time pressures mean that they would find it difficult to meet again in person. An alternative option is to set up a qualitative panel of consumers – participants who sign up to attend a certain number of sessions over a given time period. In the last couple of years, we have run qualitative panels of (increasingly savvy) members of the public for organisations like the General Medical Council, Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, and the Legal Services Board. This means that the participants are informed about the basics of the organisation and the regulatory framework under which they work at the first session, meaning that participants can get straight into the debate at subsequent events.

One final tip could be to ‘use the professionals’ as it is harder than it looks to do this stuff well, but of course, we would say that wouldn’t we?!