1. Be clear about who your audience is.
2. Think about how your audience sees reality now.
3. Consider how your audience is feeling and reacting now.
4. Decide to speak American by using simple language and familiar
images and avoiding:
5. Recognize that mainstream Americans want answers to the following practical questions:
6. Start developing your own message as answers to these questions,
following the simple language rules given in point 4. above.
7. Review the elements of the American story and American metaphors
found at <www.metaphorproject.org>.
Pick out images and metaphors that fit your message in an empowering
way.
8. Reframe the message elements you created in No. 6 in terms
of these images, sayings, and metaphors.
9. Check your mainstreamed message against the criteria
for success at <www.metaphorproject.org>
and revise as needed.
l. Start by asking your audience how they see the issue now, or introduce a question about a current topic that can lead to your subject: what do they think of a current book, movie, news item and so on?
2. Explain your position with the reframed message elements you have created in advance.
3. If your conversation partner does not respond well, try a leading question that appears to be a tangent from the initial topic, but leads to new ground. For example: if the topic is pre-emptively attacking another country, ask, "How can we build greater international support for the United States?"
For more on mainstreaming in conversation, see:
www.ourpla.net/cgi/pikie?MainstreamingOurConversationsOnWar
Additional information about how to mainstream your messages is
to be found in the Mainstreaming Your Messages Now Kit or Workshop.
See <www.metaphorproject.org>.
Susan C. Strong, Ph.D.
Founder
The Metaphor Project
www.metaphorproject.org