For the National Cancer Institute's Public Affairs Network conference in Denver in 2013, this talk focuses on how cancer communicators can better understand the experts with whom they work--and vice versa--by examining more closely experts' default communications styles and personality preferences, so they can work with, not agai

1. things communicators don’t
know about experts
(& vice versa)
Insights for the PAN-NACCDO Conference, Denver 2013
Denise Graveline
@dontgetcaught communications consulting

2. Let’s make a list
What’s a word you would use
to describe the experts you
work with?
What’s a word those experts
would use to describe you?
(I like “you people.”)

3. 1. Know how to explain the
expert’s default style of
communications, & how to flip it

4. 2. Know the expert’s common
personality type: ISTJ
 Your experts may vary
 Most common type for
researchers and SMEs
 Introverted
 Sensing
 Thinking
 Judging
 Shapes their default
behaviors & communications

5. 3. Their stress looks like non-
cooperation—or worse--to you.
 Myers-Briggs personality
preferences include useful
section on how types
behave in times of great
stress
 So what can
communicators do to
reduce the expert’s stress
and improve cooperation?

6. …and it looks like this:
Negative, pessimistic
Withdraw or resist
Blame/accuse others
Obsess about
problems
Talk too much or
clam up
Lose control of facts
and details
Can’t come to
conclusions
Get impulsive
Catastrophize
…all bad things for
an expert in public

7. 4. “Busy” is the excuse, but it’s
about control of the schedule.
 You’ll hear “I’m too busy”
less often if you think about
how to help your expert
prepare, train and
anticipate what’s going to
happen
 Acknowledge
communicating is “outside
the box”
 Stems from the sensing
traits of personality

8. 5. Last minute=disorganized &
interruptions=bad
 How experts see
communicators
 Something as simple as
advance notice, time to
prep, discussion about
when last-minute requests
happen can work wonders

9. 6. Expertise is important to them,
but they don’t know about yours
Expert: Connie, I prefer to be
called Dr.
Connie: Oh, sorry. Guess you
should call me "Ms.," then.
Expert: Yes, except I earned
the "Dr."
Silence.
Expert: You aren't taping this,
are you?

10. 7. Experts want preparation—more
than communicators ever imagine,
less than they will admit.

11. 8. Your process is invisible to
them, leading to impossible
requests.
 I need to see reporter’s story
before it runs
 I only have 5 minutes for the
interview on my complex
topic
 Let’s tell them to fire the
headline writer
Impossible requests are a cry
for help. Give them
alternatives that work better
than these suggestions.

12. 9. Women experts, introverts = so
misunderstood by most of us
 Women who type as
“thinking” vs. “feeling” and
introverts in general are
both minorities in the U.S.
 Acknowledging and working
with their preferences will
make them powerful and
loyal communications allies

13. 10. No matter how much they
resist practice, experts don’t like to
wing it.

14. 11. Bonus: Consider the “no-
asshole rule”
 The No Asshole Rule:
Building a Civilized
Workplace and Surviving
One That Isn't
 Quantifies the cost to
organizations for tolerating
jerks
 Consider a corporate culture
that discourages bad
behavior in experts

15. “This was actually useful to me, and I don’t mean
that to sound as condescending as it’s going to
sound.”
--A high compliment from a
recently coached scientist speaker

16. Be an Expert
on Working with Experts
for communicators who work with smart people
 June 13 in Washington, DC
 Discount: Register by 5/16,
all registration closes 5/31
 Or, can I bring the workshop
to you?
“If you ever have the
opportunity to take a workshop
with @dontgetcaught, do it!
Best training I've ever had.
Informative and eye-opening.”

17. Denise Graveline
The don’t get caught blog on
communications & social
media strategies
The Eloquent Woman blog
public speaking
Media training & speaker
coaching
Communications strategies
Experts a specialty