“Sally” is the name we give to a local person who lives “down the street.” She is our figurative representation of the public at large. Often, when we are considering a proposition we want to present to the public we ask this question as a litmus test to check the verity and clarity of our thinking: “Can Sally down the street understand this?” If this was a partisan blog, she would be a plumber named Joe.
Interestingly, Sally has changed. From neighborhood Sally, she has become community, Wisconsin, and “I’m here to tell you, Mr. President” Sally. It used to be that when Sally didn’t understand something, she didn’t want to draw attention to herself so she allowed herself to fade into the background. She let those who understood, or at least said they understood, form a group opinion and she would nod in agreement. Sally and the non-understanding followed along behind those who understood. Not so much anymore. Today, when Sally, especially “Consumer Sally”, doesn’t understand something, she demands that someone explain the proposal again and as many times as it takes so that she can understand it. Sally “down the street” is no longer a passive citizen.
And, it used to be that when Sally looked at the source of new information and, if that source was known and previously trusted, then she would trust the new information without too much examination. “You’ve trusted me in the past; you can trust me now,” carried many accepting Sallys along in a speaker’s wake. Today, how many television advertisements use well-recognized celebrities or retired politicians who always smile when they say “Trust me.” Not so much anymore for Sally in the trusting department either. Trustworthiness for Sally is a short-lived effect today.
Public leaders have come to the realization that if Sally “down the street” doesn’t understand what they are talking about, their proposition is dead in the water. Sally no longer goes along to get along. Because of her importance, the need for Sally to understand now dictates both the substance and the form of every contemporary public conservation. Sally is who local politics is all about and everything today is political.
“Sallys” everywhere have changed the dynamic of acceptance and acceptability in our society. Consumer Sallys, individually and collectively, rise up today to demand safer products, higher quality products, more cost-efficient products, and to give product-providers everywhere fair notice that “no one shall take a consumer around here for granted.”
Sallys also have risen up to demand consumerism in education. Sally is the large and growing group of mothers who demand choice in education. Some started as home schooling Sallys, but the education choice market has exploded. She has formed the new political dynamic in most states. Governors and state party leaders know that they must have the Sallys on their side at the polls, because the Sallys have become a large voter bloc. For this reason, many governors favor school voucher plans, open enrollment, charter schools, more and more transparency in school governance, and any option that satisfies a parent’s opportunity to control their child’s schooling.
Local school leaders have become savvy about the Sally Moms. At least those leaders who will still be in their leadership positions next year have become savvy. They must, because everything about school and education is now political. In a local school issue, the number of children in fourth grade grew from the anticipated 21 per section to 26 per section. The increase in enrollment is good for this small, rural school district. However, a tradition of keeping elementary sections to a very small student to teacher ratio, usually around 20 to 1, set off the fourth grade Sallys. The number of community members who regularly attend board meetings can be counted on one hand minus the thumb. The fourth grade enrollment issue brought out more than two dozen Sallys, several with children in second and third grade who wanted to assure no such bad decisions in the future. Whereas, most school districts in Wisconsin would be pleased with only 26 children in its fourth grade sections, the local board was faced with demands to hire an additional fourth grade teacher – immediately. An administrative survey indicated that, should an additional section be formed, only a handful of the 52 children in fourth grade would voluntarily move to the new section. The reframed issue moved from a lower student-t0-teacher ratio to maintaining child friendships. The problem was settled with the employment of a teacher-licensed classroom aide to assist with reading and math instruction in each of the two fourth grade sections. Sally became satisfied with a lower student to teacher ratio in essential academic areas and child happiness.
So, why the local interest in satisfying Sally? The local School Board, as with each of the other school districts in this county, relies upon taxpayer support of frequent referenda that allow the school boards to exceed the state-imposed revenue limit of school levy amounts. Keeping Sallys satisfied better assures that the community will support these necessary referenda for additional tax revenues. Satisfied Sallys causes community support and that equals fully funded school programs.
Keeping Sally satisfied is not limited to local officials. Colleges and universities have learned the importance of Sally. In the past, they would publish their academic studies knowing that only those in the field would understand that material. Now, their publications must be written so that Sally “the state funding taxpayer” understands what she is paying for as well as the findings of the study that the colleges and universities hope will create new and important public information.
“Those who are involved in funding academic research are really keen to see that it’s going to lead to something practical,” said James Ryan, the education school’s dean, who was trained not as an academic but as a lawyer. “If faculty are interested in their work having influence, paying attention to the language that they use is really important.”
As an example, he cites research about the benefits of pre-kindergarten education that someone thought to explain in the simplest possible way: by calculating that providing it would save more money than it would cost.
“That was genius,” Ryan said. “It’s a brilliant way of making the research not only accessible, but compelling.” And compared to a dense treatise advocating for pre-kindergarten using terms such as cognitive development and holistic instruction, “which one is going to make a better case?”
Another strategy is assuring that those communicating with Sally are really focused upon her as an information consumer and not their own egos as communicators. Too often those talking with Sally focus upon themselves, their organization, and a self-importance that forgets Sally.
Stony Brook University has established an entire center for Communication Science, named for the actor and director Alan Alda, who inspired it out of frustration with the scientists he met as host for 13 years of the public-television series Scientific American Frontiers.
“I must have interviewed about 700 scientists,” said Alda. “I just listened and tried to understand what they were saying. But they were in lecture mode most of the time.”
The actor remains involved in the center—there he’s called Professor Alda—and uses improv and other techniques to teach graduate students how to better convey their findings.
“The improvising games and exercises we do force you to pay attention to the person you’re communicating with,” he said. “That contact, that intensified observation, and being forced to play by a set of rules forces you to concentrate on the other person and forget about yourself.”
http://hechingerreport.org/content/needing-public-support-academics-try-make-work-clear_18397/
A third strategy in making Sally understand is finding the right words that tie into her emotional understanding. Frank Luntz is a pollster and international political consultant. His specialty is “testing language and finding words that will help his clients sell their product or turn public opinion on an issue or a candidate.” Luntz uses focus groups and interviews to “cause audiences “to react based upon emotion.” He says, “80% of our life is emotion and only 20% is intellect. I am much more interested in how you feel than what you think.”
Luntz suggested and helped the G. W. Bush administration policy to craft the right words regarding environmental issues. It was his idea that administration communications reframe “global warming” as “climate change” since “climate change” was thought to sound less severe.
Luntz and every national, state and local political opinion-maker understands that Sally “down the street” has become the modern political play maker. The world of political decision-making has changed from wondering if Sally understands to assuring that Sally understands to sculpting her understanding and finally to changing the political agenda based upon what Sally wants and needs. Sally has become “the Man.”