Giving Compass' Take:

· Jonathan Schwabish at the Urban Institute explores the "pyramid philosophy" and how it can be used to better communicate your research and get it into the right hands. 

· What is the pyramid philosophy and how can it help with communication?

· Check out these communication tactics to make an impact across different cultures


Great research—whether it comes from academia, nonprofit organizations, or business thought leaders—needs a plan to make an impact. A good communications strategy can ensure that the biggest audience, and ultimately the right audience, engages with the findings and applies them.

The Urban Institute’s communications team structures dissemination efforts around what we call the “pyramid philosophy,” which pairs the complexity of research with the size of the audience.

This pair of pyramids helps researchers understand the value of communicating their work and how communications efforts are not intended to cheapen or dumb down their work, but rather to get it in the hands of people who can use it.

This and other strategies are explained in a new book by Urban’s communications team, Elevate the Debate: A Multilayered Approach to Communicating Your Research, coming out in January 2020.

There are myriad ways to communicate research: reports, briefs, interviews, blog posts, social media, presentations, and more. Not all approaches may be appropriate for all research content.

Think of these different output types not as a list of options, but as a hierarchy. Communications efforts should not pit one type of audience against another or trade sophistication for simplification. Rather, communicating research requires a multilayered approach.

Read the full article about using the pyramid philosophy to communicate research by Jonathan Schwabish at Urban Institute.