Communicating
in the Policy Process:
Introduction
“In public policy work, if you can’t write it or speak it, you can’t do it.”
The undergraduate who said that (after experience in a public policy internship) is right on target. Writing and speaking are not sufficient to make public policy, but they are necessary.
Communication enables the process in two fundamental ways:
- Communication produces useful information.
- Communication makes information intelligible in context.
Communication produces useful information.
Useful information in a public policy process has four major characteristics: it helps to solve problems, it is action-oriented, it has consequences, and it is publicly accessible.
Helps to solve problems. Information is needed at every stage of a policy process—to frame problems, to analyze issues, to debate approaches, to find and decide on solutions. Only relevant information is useful, however. In deciding whether to provide information, always ask and answer this question: how will it help to solve the problem? who will it help?
Is action-oriented. In policy work, information makes things happen. In deciding whether and how to inform in a policy process, always ask and answer this question: what do I want this information to do? what effect might this information have?
Has consequences. A problem and its solution affect other problems and solutions in many contexts. Consequently, a policy’s effects can be wide-ranging. In deciding whether and how to inform in a policy process, always ask and answer these questions: what is likely to happen as a result of this information? what impacts might this information have?
Is publicly accessible. Policy makers are answerable to the people who give them authority. Therefore, information used in public processes must be publicly available. Officially, it is recorded and preserved by government as an authoritative public record. Unofficially, news media and people in everyday social interactions distribute information, as well. In deciding whether and how to inform a policy process, always ask and answer this question: how will this information be made public?
Communication makes information intelligible in context.
As it is meant here, context is, narrowly, the public policy process for which information is produced. (The wider meaning of context as anything that might influence a communication is a bit too broad for the purposes of this practical guide to communicating in policy making contexts.) Intelligibility is the two-way transaction by which communicators use shared knowledge of expectations to create and interpret useful information.
To make information intelligible in context, writers (and speakers) must assure that recipients can recognize the type of communication underway. Writers (and speakers) do this by knowing, themselves, typical purposes (for instance, problem definition) and the range of document or speech types conventionally used for the purpose.
Sometimes called genre knowledge, this kind of know-how involves general ability to understand forms of communication in relation to their function in a context and their effect on the context. To develop that kind of know-how in order to enable appropriate choices by writers (and speakers) is an overall aim of this guide.
Writers (and speakers) and their recipients must share knowledge of expected standards, if a document or talk is to accomplish its objective.