Alda and his brilliant colleagues have been of great help to 15,000 scientists. These were individuals who had the opportunity to learn the Alda Method. Alan Alda and his colleagues have been teaching this method for more than a decade.

How the Alda method works

At the heart of the Alda Method is building relationships to create trust. When there’s an absence of trust, it becomes very difficult to persuade the public to take some important actions. In the absence of trust, one also can’t persuade people to change their behaviors under certain social situations.

The best example of this is the communications from the community of scientists during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many individuals still didn’t wear masks, they didn’t maintain social distancing, and were avoiding vaccination. This was mostly the result of a lack of trust in the methods that the scientists were suggesting.

The Alda Method helps scientists in explaining their work in a more relatable and clear language. This involves certain training exercises. One of them is improvisation, which is incredibly powerful. It has some valuable lessons that the government agencies, scientists, and healthcare professionals can benefit from.

Initially, the ones attending the training think that it’s all about acting or being on a stage. After all, it is a Hollywood actor who was instrumental in developing this method. However, this is far from the truth. Now let’s take the example of the exercise of improvisation.

It’s all about being present in the moment, listening, and empathy. This is one of the powerful exercises that Alda had the opportunity to learn during his theater training.

The ‘YES, AND’ principle

Many individuals don’t really listen as well as they think they do. They are simply waiting for their turn to begin their speech. As a part of the improvisation training in theater, an actor has to ‘hear’ what the other actor is saying. Hearing here implies paying attention to the words of the speaker. It’s like saying, “Yes, I’m listening to what you’re saying, and I’m going to act on it”.

This is the ‘YES, AND’ principle. The best example of this putting this principle to practice is the remarks from Jerome Adams, the US Surgeon General. He acknowledged that there was a lack of trust in the vaccines among certain communities. He also pointed out why there was a vaccine hesitancy. Then, he added something to ease the concerns of people.

Making the other look good

This is one of the prominent aspects of improvisation. It’s one of the responsibilities that people need to have in the world of interpersonal interactions and communications. They must make the other look good during the communication. Building trust is more about how one makes people relate to what he or she is saying.

People relate well only if they feel valued and uplifted. According to Alan Alda, communicating effectively involves treating people with respect. Listening to their objection and finding what they care about is extremely important in communication.

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If you neglect this important part of science communication, you’ll fail to create an impact. It is, therefore, extremely important that you keep your audience in mind. You must do this while writing and practicing for your speech.

1. Know who is your audience

While you’re writing and preparing yourself for the speech, you must think about who you’re going to speak to. If they’re a group of elders, talking to them about topics for the youth won’t really help. Although this may sound a bit too obvious, many speakers do make this mistake. There are some brilliant science communicators out there who often give some wonderful speeches.

However, they are completely out of context with regards to their audience. It is important for you to learn how to customize a speech for different audiences. You can enroll for a highly effective training program, which teaches you how to make this happen. Today, some of these programs are available online.

2. Don’t miss the context

Another great aspect of any form of communication is context. This helps especially in science communication, where understanding your audience is extremely important. Consider the venue where you’ll be speaking. It can be a corporate office or a classroom in one of the colleges. This will help you in deciding how to make your speech appealing to that particular audience.

Let’s try to understand this with an example. A woman giving a speech at the wedding of her best friend won’t need to try too hard. What she says can be personal, humorous, and entertaining. Now, let’s say the same woman is to speak in one of the corporate conferences. Here she needs to be more formal and speak in a structured manner. Of course, this will need a certain amount of preparation before the speech.

3. Understand what the audience might already know

Imagine that you’re about to speak to the students of molecular biology. Now, they might be already knowing many things related to the topic. So, if you spend quite some time explaining things that they already know, they’ll obviously lose interest. To prevent this from happening, it’s essential that you know how much they know about molecular biology.

You can ask their professors about the topics they’re well versed with. This will help you to come up with topics you know that might be fairly new to them. When you come across certain things that they might already know, don’t explain them in detail.

4. Consider the size of your audience

Your way of speaking to larger audiences will be somewhat different from how you speak to smaller groups. When you speak in front of a small crowd, you’ll not even need a mic. You’ll have the opportunity to be a little more informal. There’ll be more of a personal connection with your audience.

When you’re speaking in front of a large crowd, things will be quite different. It is important, therefore, to consider the size of your audience before you practice your speech.

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These women have become role models for those who are aspiring to become science communicators. Here, we’ve listed some of the popular women in this field that you must know:

1. Emily Calandrelli

She hosts an educational television streaming series, Emily’s Wonder Lab. Calandrelli is an American science communicator and former engineer from MIT. She is also the producer of the show. When she was a student, she was a winner of several academic awards. While she was in college, she was working as an intern at NASA. Her work involved simulation design. This was a part of the soil testing experiment for the Phoenix Mars Lander.

While at NASA she was also doing research on using lasers for reducing jet engine emissions. As a professional speaker, she gives presentations on important scientific topics.

2. Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabháin

Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabháin connects the youth with key topics related to science. She does this through The Science Squad. This RTE television series has been successful since 2012. She is one of the show’s hosts. She is also among the most popular scientists of Ireland.

Ní Shuilleabháin graduated in 2005 with first class honors in Theoretical Physics from University College Dublin. In 2014, she completed her PhD from Trinity College Dublin. Currently, she is a lecturer in the college, from where she had graduated.

3. Sylvia Leatham

She is the co-founder of Scibernia. It is an award-winning podcast of Ireland. Leatham is also the coordinator of the STEPS program at Engineers Ireland. This non-profit program educates students of the primary and secondary level in STEM careers. STEPS works on Smart Futures. It is a collaborative government industry education program. It does this in strategic partnership with Science Foundation Ireland.

Smart Futures highlights STEM careers to Ireland’s post-primary students. The volunteers at STEPS dedicated over 15,000 hours to the program in 2014. As a part of this initiative, they had around 80,000 interactions. They interacted with parents, teachers, and students. She also organizes Engineers Week. It promotes engineering and its importance to children in Ireland.

4. Niamh Shaw

This award-winning STEM communicator wears many hats. She is an engineer, performer, writer, and scientist. Shaw has also nurtured the dream of going into space since her childhood. In 2014, she created a multimedia theatrical piece called To Space. It was a part of the Tiger Fringe Festival.

Shaw’s work was an astounding success, which allowed her to travel across Ireland. She is truly passionate about igniting the curiosity of people. She also has a book with the title Dream Big – an Irishwoman’s Space Odyssey to her credit.

5. Ive Velikova

Velikova is a podcaster and video host who is extremely passionate about science communication. She is makes scientific topics fun, accessible, and quirky. She is currently studying for her Masters of Science Communication at Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada. On her radio show called ‘Science Sucks’, she explores the latest scientific research.

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