...What you see is the only impact you're going to get from a wind project. Contrast this with other forms of energy - their impact is what you don't see.
...what you see is the only impact you're going to get from a wind project vs. when you look at other forms of energy in these states, their impact is what you don't see.
John Davies returns in this episode, to articulate the technique of contrasting the obscure truth from obvious falsities as they affect the wind industry. Contrast is a companion episode to the previous Acknowledge episode.
Takeaways and Teachable Moments
INTERACT WITH COMMUNITY MEMBERS ONE ON ONE.
DON'T SPEND TIME ON THE OPPOSITION’S NEGATIVES. SPEND YOUR TIME ON YOUR POSITIVES.
USE THEIR NEGATIVES TO CREATE YOUR POSITIVES; THE FOOTPRINT IS SMALL ON THE GROUND.
WE DON'T DISPROVE THEIR NEGATIVES. WE PROVE OUR POSITIVES.
BUILD POSITIVE CONTRASTS; THIS IS ANOTHER CROP TO HARVEST.
HELP THEM IMAGINE THAT THE PROJECT IS ALREADY IN PLACE.
BUILD FOR THEM A VISION OF HOW THEIR COMMUNITY CAN BE BETTER WITH THE PROJECT.
This episode fulfills John’s promise to carry the listener past the first step of the method into a functioning process. Episode 3 is the necessary companion to the previous show Acknowledge. In this episode we move to step two of the Davies Method. Contrast is about giving individual members of a community a frame of reference to what is and isn’t really about the wind industry. The best way to know where something stands is by knowing where it doesn’t stand.
The process of Contrasting is designed to take the credibility you have gained through telling the hard truth up front and provides the now attentive community with real examples of what their world will look like, both with and without the project. This episode talks about dispelling the noise claims put forth by the opposition through providing a calm and clear counter to their hype.
Overcoming the Opposition: Contrast
Mark Sylvester: John Davies has a method. An approach he systematically developed over a career spanning three decades. He's proven it to be invaluable for dozens of industries and thousands of projects facing public acceptance. Up until now, the method has only been available to his select client list. John is unpacking his insight and wealth of knowledge to overcome opposition and earn public support for the first time right here. Throughout these episodes, we'll take a deep dive, step by step with John into his strategies to overcome opposition and create support. Nothing is free in this world, but good ideas are priceless. This show could be just the thing you've been looking for. I'm Mark Sylvester, now let's get started and talk with John.
John, last week we talked about acknowledge and you made a point that you can't talk about acknowledge without talking about contrast, so we're going to spend this whole episode on contrast. Why don't you just review why they're so closely linked?
John Davies: Well, so in acknowledge you're building credibility and trust by acknowledging an obvious problem.
Mark Sylvester: Right, right.
John Davies: An obvious fault. So, wind, it's a big tall tower.
Mark Sylvester: Yeah, yeah.
John Davies: I mean, that's pretty obvious. There are other little things we can deal with from the impact on agros, but let's just say, we're gonna talk about the visual. But we can't talk about the visual, leave people saying, "Oh, oh. That's awful. Yeah. I don't want to look at that," without quickly contrasting to the other side.
And the contrast is that, because we're going forward doing something, what's a contrast of not going forward? If we don't do a wind farm, what happens? It can be anything from talking about where the energy comes from now. Where electricity comes from now, many of the Midwestern states are the areas where they still have old coal plants, and one of the things we know about old coal plants is they're not being modernized because they're gonna be faded out.
So, maybe you say that, we've said this and had amazing response, that here is, we're gonna look at this tall tower with propellers and all the things we talk about, but what you see is the only impact you're gonna get from a wind-
Mark Sylvester: So, there's no other impact.
John Davies: When you look at other forms of energy in these states, it's what you don't see.
Mark Sylvester: Oh.
John Davies: There are multiple. It's what you don't see. It's the air pollution, it's the issues you don't see that is getting to you.
Mark Sylvester: One of the things we've talked about a lot is around the psychology of persuasion and why is contrast such a powerful next thing to do after building trust?
John Davies: We value things in opposition or in comparison. So, as we look at something, how does that compare to something else that's happened in my life? How is that opposite to something? So, that's just human nature. If we don't do it, we'll do it the other way. If the comparison and the contrast of a wind turbine is no wind turbine, so, would we rather have a big wind turbine to look at, or no wind turbine to look at? That's a contrast. We lose in that contrast.
Mark Sylvester: Right. Right.
John Davies: So, when we acknowledge it's gonna be there and it's gonna be big and it's gonna change the visual look of the community, and then contrast it with the benefits of wind, not just the financial, but other benefits. The environmental benefits, the benefits to local farmers, the benefits to the community. Now we have a better contrast.
Mark Sylvester: Why is it though that there's so much controversy? Tell me about what's your experience with that.
John Davies: When we do our research, so many places, in so many industries, but especially wind, the controversy is that there's a controversy. It's make no sense, but the controversy is, I'm a Midwesterner, I'm just a solid citizen. I'm just someone who wants to get along. I live my life, I maybe farm, I live in a farm community but I don't farm, but I have those type of values. So, when people are upset, that bothers me.
Mark Sylvester: Oh, okay. Sure.
John Davies: So, that's part of the contrast is getting in there that we have to acknowledge, yeah, okay, they see that. So, those types of folks are like, "Okay, they're being honest, and they're contrast, I get that. I'm willing to stand up for them."
Mark Sylvester: Side question, but how long is this process when you're using the Davies method? Could you just give me a sense of kind of a min and max on these things?
John Davies: Well, in a presentation and a fact booklet, which is what we send out, and it is a fact booklet. It's not a bunch of spin, it tells the facts. It's one reading, one presentation, you should be able to get through the acknowledge, contrast, and the rest of the program. I mean, it's not a long process. The long process is getting the individuals to be able to pay attention.
Mark Sylvester: Right. Do you have a trick on that?
John Davies: Well, yeah. I mean, the trick is to get to them one on one. To get to them in the mail and on the phones. Getting through to them in digital media's great. Social media, it's who yells the loudest, and we have a little bit of a storm. So, when you're trying to deal with these steps and getting the contrast, it works, but it's also a lot of yelling and then we get back to that controversy.
Mark Sylvester: Are there questions that you ask in the research, because I'm getting a sense even more how important the research is, that leads you to conclusions of things to contrast?
John Davies: Yes.
Mark Sylvester: Give me an example.
John Davies: Well, it depends on what's going on in the community. What do they care about most? What do they really care about? What's happening in their community that they want to be protected, and we can help protect them? I mean, what's happening in rural America today is wind is coming in, in many of those places, and everything else is leaving. I mean, we used to have mom-and-pop stores, and it's moved to big box that's two towns away. Life has gotten harder in rural America, a lot more than those of us that live in more urban areas.
Mark Sylvester: What is the most compelling aspect of the contrast then?
John Davies: If I'm asking you to look at two different things, everything is done in contrast. So, you go into a movie. In the middle of the afternoon, because I know you would never do that.
Mark Sylvester: Never.
John Davies: When you go into the movie, it's 2:00 and it's nice. You come out of the movie, it's 3:30, 4:00, and the sun's still up. Your eyes are blinded when you walk out of the movie.
Mark Sylvester: Yup.
John Davies: Well, there's a contrast from the dark to the light.
Mark Sylvester: Right.
John Davies: That's powerful, right? It changes how you look at things and how you feel things, so that's why contrast is so powerful. How do we find something that makes people really realize something that quickly?
Mark Sylvester: When you're doing contrast, I'm thinking that a really powerful way to do that is visually. Am I right? Or is it really telling stories?
John Davies: Both. It's both. Visual is important, but one of the big issues of course is you're gonna use up all the farmland. Well, when we show visually how much farmland you use, and we show it different ways. 1% of the farmland is gonna be used for the wind farm. So, 1%.
Mark Sylvester: 1%. I didn't know that. I thought it was much more than that.
John Davies: Yeah, so, it's a pretty small footprint.
Mark Sylvester: Are there some kind of tried and true methods that the opposition is using that you know contrast is gonna go against, and is just gonna nail that?
John Davies: Well, their biggest issue is there's so much on the internet. There are so many websites, there's so much misinformation out on the internet, and there are powerful groups opposed to wind. They are paying people to put up these websites, they're paying people to go in and fight wind farms. They come and go. They don't do a sustained effort, but they do enough to make it hard, and most wind farms that have major opposition are defeated, or they quit. That's how they win.
But you go on, and they'll come out with the bird kills. It's interesting because more sophisticated states, people know that that's ... less contrast to bird kills by wind farms versus cats.
Mark Sylvester: Oh.
John Davies: When you show how many on a bar chart how many birds are killed by cats versus wind farms, you can't see the wind farm bar, because it's so little. Or cars, or big glass windows. I mean, the birds run into.
So, you're able to play off that, but that's one of the issues they're coming back to they haven't been on a while. But it's property values, it's noise, it's supersonic noise or whatever they're calling it now. They're saying that it's noise you can't really hear, but it's hurting your ears, which is just ... I mean, think about that. You can't see it, but it's gonna hurt you, type of thing.
Mark Sylvester: And you can't prove it.
John Davies: Right. Well, we can. You have to take those things down. But we don't want to spend our time on the negatives. We want to spend our time on our positives. We don't want to disprove the negatives. We want to prove the positives.
Mark Sylvester: I see. Okay. So, there's another area to focus on.
John Davies: That's a contrast. So, we're contrasting. So, property values. Well, there are studies that communities that have, farmers who have a wind turbine or a number of them on their property actually are more financially stable, they buy other farms, they buy new equipment, and they'll able to succeed where many farms in the Midwest are dying off. There's a decrease in family farms every decade.
Mark Sylvester: So, if you're a farmer, you're hoping you live in a windy area.
John Davies: Well, yeah. It's another crop to harvest, and you don't have to make any investment.
Mark Sylvester: John, one of the things that I love about the way we do this show is that you give us something that our listener could go do today. So, thinking about contrast, and they're probably working on a project right now. What could they do today to try to put this into action?
John Davies: So, you're in your community in North Dakota and you're looking around and you've met with a bunch of folks, and you've met with a bunch of landowners and you're signing them up. Think about what life would be with wind farms already there, you're through the controversy, they're built, they're operating. What's a contrast that makes life better in that community afterwards? It can't just be financial. Financial gets into it, it can't just be dollars and numbers. What can happen that is better? How is life better for them with the wind farm?
Mark Sylvester: So, do a little future-think.
John Davies: Yeah, exactly.
Mark Sylvester: And then make a list.
John Davies: Yeah.
Mark Sylvester: I love that. John, thank you so much. Again, we don't spend a whole lot of time here, but we get the nugget of that. Next, we're going to get into embracing and engaging our audiences.
John Davies: Yes.
Mark Sylvester: Thanks John.
Thank you for listening. It's now your opportunity and responsibility to use the method today. You've completed one segment towards understanding the Davies Method. We look forward to you subscribing. Join us as we uncover and explain the nuances of John's distinctive approach.
For more episodes, visit TheDaviesMethod.com. I'm Mark Sylvester, recording at the Pullspring Press Studios in Santa Barbara, California.
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