Language supplies us with ways to express ever subtler levels of meaning, but does that imply language gives us meaning, or robs us of it when we are at a loss to name things?
--Lucy Grealy
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Interpretive Writing Intensive
Last chance to register!
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REGISTER NOW
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April 19-24, 2010, Penn Center
St. Helena Island
South Carolina
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Mark Your Calendars:
the first ever
Summertime
Interpretive Writing Intensive
week of
August 9, 2010
Taos, NM
Details coming soon! |
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| We offer one, two, and four-day interpretive writing workshops. If you're interested in an on-site workshop, click the logo or contact Judy by email or phone, 888/886-9289. |
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Objective Power
From Great Dreams to Great Realities
You're pretty good at skipping rope, but what you'd really like to do is leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Your new hall will be filled with a cool exhibition, but what you really want is for the hall to be filled with people who linger, chatting about their own experiences.
Your audience clusters around you after every program, clamoring for more. You long for a way to give them more, but what you'd really like is a way to show the higher-ups how enthusiastic visitors are after each program.
You feel like a Ping-Pong ball: protect the wildlife and save the resource--WHAP!--protect the people who endanger themselves, the wildlife, and the resource. You know the solution to this complex problem will take time, lots of convincing, and money. Where are you going to find all that?
Goals--our great dreams and grand hopes--are the heart of interpretation, but it takes more than a good heart to make those dreams come true.
Objectives are the head of interpretation: logical, rational, action-oriented, and measurable. They point the way from where we are to where we want to be, giving us the feedback we need to make course corrections along the way. It's the same feedback that helps funding sources and management understand the value of interpretation to our site or organization. The same feedback that marketing and PR leverage to spread the good work of the site or organization even farther. The same feedback that fundraisers employ to persuade donors both large and small that their financial commitment really is making a difference.
Interpretive objectives answer the question,
"How do I know There are lots of ways to measure, and you don't need to measure everything.
 | this is working?"
To do that, they must be measurable, and to be measurable, they must be specific. Specific means targeting a clearly defined element that can provide useful feedback. For example:
Goal: I dream of leaping tall buildings in a single bound.
Program: Practice jumping for an hour every day.
Non-specific objective: I'll improve my jumping until I can leap a tall building.
Specific objective: The vertical distance I can leap will increase by 10% each week, compared to the previous week.
The non-specific objective will help a little--it keeps the goal in mind--but what exactly does "improve" mean? Height? Forward momentum? Gracefulness? Solid landing? How much "improvement" do we expect to see? And how soon? Is an extra quarter-inch in height at the end of a month enough to justify continuing the program, or should we change tactics? And if we need to change, what should we change?
The specific objective pins things down better. It tells us what to measure (vertical distance), when to measure it (weekly), and what result to look for (10% increase over the previous week). If we don't get the results we hoped for, we know to adjust the program. If the results were great at first but not so good a few months (or years) later, we know it's time to re-examine the program.
How specific do you have to be? Enough to gather helpful, useful information, not so much that you drown in a sea of minutia. Capturing the information should be reasonably easy and straightforward for you and painless for your visitor or reader. The goal for interpretive objectives is not to measure every possible impact or to quiz visitors to make sure they've memorized the theme. Strive for "good enough" objectives--ones that are simple, elegant, and inexpensive to implement.
A caveat: Objectives are important, but don't let them blind you to other things happening in your program. Your audience may respond in surprising ways that are in still alignment with your goals. In other words, pay attention to your results, but don't be a slave to them.
These principles apply to every interpretive program, regardless of complexity. Here are some of my favorite examples.
 After strolling through an exhibit on the piano in America, visitors exit via a wide hallway. The lighting in the hallway is brighter than in the exhibit hall, and there's a broad countertop with several large notebooks. Signs near the notebooks invite visitors to record their memories and family stories about music, and to read through what others have written. Pens, pencils, markers, and crayons are scattered around the countertop. Visitors sit or stand, thumbing through the notebooks, writing (or drawing) their stories. Someone nods or laughs at a story, points it out to another, and they share their own stories. Small groups, some families, some friends, some newly-met, ebb and flow.
This "story-exchange" is both interpretive programming in its own right and a simple and effective way to measure. The goal is to encourage people to think about music and the role it plays in their lives and culture. The objective might be that "about one-fourth of the visitors will make an entry in the notebook." Comparing the daily attendance with the number of new notebook entries gives us a rough estimate of how many people stayed long enough to share stories triggered by the exhibit. We're probably underestimating the actual number of people who are sharing stories since not everyone who shares a story will write it in the notebook, but that's okay.
At the end of an interpretive program, the guides recommend a particular book (carried in the gift shop) that covers the subject in more detail. Their objective is to have at least one person buy the book. The first time they tried this, the gift shop sold the half-dozen copies they had in stock immediately following the program, leaving many visitors empty-handed. Better coordination between the interpreters and gift shop manager led to a better supply and easy on-site ordering.
One of the great things about this objective is that it actually supports several goals. It gives us a good idea of how engaged audience members are during the presentation; more engaged means more book sales. Directing visitors to an appropriate source for more in-depth information is a great way to give them more. And having tangible evidence that the program is working--program delivery affects book sales--helps management recognize the tie between the interpretive program, enthusiastic visitors, and sales. An extra bonus with this approach is that interdepartmental cooperation is in alignment with the site's goals, too.
In 1998, Yosemite National Park faced two problems: 1600 reported bear incidents* involving $600,000 damage; and a major media storm focused on the Yosemite "bear problem."
The folks at Yosemite knew it wasn't a wildlife management problem; it was an education problem. They formed the Bear Council to bring together all relevant departments to create a solution. They secured funding (one possible advantage of bad press is that it can motivate elected officials) and in 1999, began their Bear Beware program.
This multifaceted program included hiring more people (wildlife biologists, interpreters, maintenance and campground staff, among others), adjusting schedules and logistics (staff on-site for later campground check-in, for example), installing secure food lockers at campsites, and changing regulations so that visitors could be cited for improper food storage.
The program has a strong interpretive core: the information visitors need to understand what to do (and what not to do) and why. These clear, concise Bear Beware messages are delivered frequently and consistently using a variety of media throughout the park.
In 1999, the year after the program began, the number of bear incidents dropped by more than half, to 768 reported incidents. According to Yosemite interpretive ranger Jeffrey Trust, Yosemite's first year results were probably even better than the incident reports indicate because in prior years, with only two wildlife biologists handling bear problems, many incidents went unreported.
Since that first year, the number of bear incidents has dropped to 400-500 per year for most years. Visitor compliance** is consistently 95-97%--not bad, but not good enough, Jeffrey points out-so they continue to tweak and adjust the program, looking for ways to make it even more effective.
The core messages of Bear Beware haven't changed much since 1999, though different messages have been more prominent during some years than others. Messages get rephrased, fine-tuned, and used in different media, too.
One new "old" message reminds drivers to slow down: Speeding Kills Bears, proclaim new signs. Ten years ago, Jeffrey created simple fliers with a similar message that were given to visitors as they entered the park. "More bears are killed by cars than by management decision," he notes. "Ten to 20 each year. Last year was particularly bad--more than 20 were killed." Noticing that uptick helps guide the decision about what messages need to be emphasized, resurrected, or rewritten.
Have a favorite objective that worked especially well?
How about a favorite "horrid example" or an objective with results that turned out radically different from what you expected? Send your favorites--I'll include them in future newsletters.
Questions or comments? email me!
Thanks to Roger Riolo of InterpTrain and Jeffrey Trust of Yosemite National Park for their "objective expertise"!
*A "bear incident" is when a bear causes damage or injury, or exhibits inappropriate threatening behavior.
**Visitor compliance wasn't measured ten years ago, so although we suspect current compliance rates are better than they were before 1998, we can't know that for sure.
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LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER:
Interpretive
Writing Intensive
at historic
Penn Center
April 19-24, 2010
ALL INCLUSIVE, 4-day/5-night workshop with optional 6th night at historicPenn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina.
Penn Center, St. Helena Island
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There are still a few spaces left in the Penn Center workshop!
This
highly interactive workshop is designed for interpreters who write. If
you struggle with writing--if you wish your writing were more powerful,
persuasive, and effective--if your creativity and efficiency could use
a boost--if you want your writing to make a difference--then this is
the workshop for you!
All-inclusive pricing:
Registration: $1690.00
Optional--Extend your stay a day! Saturday night lodging: $75.00
click here for MORE INFO ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
click here to REGISTER NOW.
or call Judy at 888/886-9289 (toll-free in the U.S.).
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Mark Your Calendars:
the first ever
Summertime
Interpretive Writing Intensive
week of August 9, 2010 in Taos, NM
Details coming soon! |
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