While AI is changing the world’s communication style, there are many voices yearning to be heard in the farthest corners of our country and in the hearts of our busiest business quarters. Some of these voices can only be heard when we attune our ears and hearts to the pain and poverty behind these voices. To hear such voices, we need empathic communication. In the social and development sectors, communication requires a different approach: not the formal and automated kind, but the human and compassionate kind. While being trained in AI and digital communication tools, we should also be ready to put our ears to the ground. Within PGPDM, the course Communication Skills aims to do just that.
Why effective communication matters
The answer to this perennial question, particularly in the social and development sector, lies in the state of the sector itself. While its professionals strive tirelessly in bringing changes at multiple levels, the outcome most often doesn’t match expectations. One solution to this problem is clearer and more purposeful communication in all directions. The world needs to understand the sector’s needs.
Why should a farmer adopt a practice my organisation proposes? Why should a rural school teacher maintain records of her students’ performance? Why should a corporate house promise its CSR funds to an NGO? Effective communication strategies connect the two sides of the development sector: organisations and their stakeholders. This can not only improve organisations’ performance, but also attract more attention, and above all, deepen their impact.
What does our communication course do?
At the outset, we recognise that effective communication requires a clear purpose. Next, we understand the audience – different stakeholders. We then create messages that cater to the audience’s needs, channels, and their universe. As an academic exercise, we practice relaying such carefully designed messages to simulated audiences within the course and to real audiences later. We keep storytelling at the heart of our efforts, reduce clutter and focus on the message itself. Most importantly, we make sure that our participants understand the importance of non-verbal communication, including body language, attitude and attire.
What does the course discourage?
The course provides feedback and input to keep the vices of communication out of our messages. Lack of clarity and connections, insensitivity to differences, and lack of customisation and presentability are some such vices. We help participants realise that projects are constricted not only by the lack of funding and discipline, but also by the lack of attention to messaging practices.
Why does the social sector need a communication booster?
Social development professionals encounter many obstacles in communication. Good intentions in projects often aren’t translated into adoption, and therefore, delays or stunts the impact. Messages are often muffled by the noise created by social media and other channels of communication. Within its official communication channels, messages often lack the sheen of stories and end up being a list of tables and charts.
All these problems can be overcome through purposeful communication that connects with the audience at their level of knowledge and understanding. Our messages should be wrapped in compelling narratives that touch the lived experiences of the audience.
Prof. Vineeta Dwivedi, Faculty of Business Communication at SPJIMR, highlights ‘The power of storytelling: creating compelling narratives for the social sector’ in this webinar. Storytelling transforms abstract data into human-centred experiences. By introducing an identifiable protagonist facing real hardship, the narrative can:
- Evoke empathy and build trust with beneficiaries, donors and policymakers
- Anchor intricate issues in everyday contexts that audiences understand and remember
- Inspire action by showcasing tangible impact instead of faceless statistics
This narrative approach transforms messages from background noise to catalysts for collective effort. As Nancy Duarte puts it, stories are ‘more powerful and enduring than any other art form.’ Our brains are wired for stories. They help us organise information, visualise outcomes, and emotionally invest in ideas. Here are a few examples of how stories can elevate the impact of communication in the social and development sector.
Case studies in action
Rokia from Zambia
A field study by researchers Deborah Small, George Loewenstein, and Paul Slovic revealed that donors were far more likely to contribute to an identifiable victim—Rokia—than the general plight of a group of people or statistics about calamities.
Mumbai’s Dabbawalas
When the lockdown threatened the livelihoods of Mumbai’s iconic lunchbox delivery workers. By spotlighting one dabbawala’s quest to feed his family, they united employees and partners around rapid relief campaigns.
Narrative building and storytelling in the social sector
Any narrative is good as long as it touches the audience. Narratives touch the audience when the stories are relatable. Relatability is not accidental. The storyteller researches the audience and the issue at hand to find parallels and touch points. When stories align with the audience’s inner world and their lived experiences, they become effective carriers of the message we want to convey.
Narratives, therefore, should have a purpose. Every word used in the narrative should serve this purpose. For example, one must have a clear rationale for adding a graph when narrating the organisation’s growth story. If the story is narrated orally, incorporate images that can be visualised. If the story is written, use vivid descriptions. Give a face to the issue at hand and tell the story of a protagonist. The narrative structures discussed in our courses help us place incidents in the right places, creating impact. Understanding how human psychology uses narrative structures to mirror experiences in the brain helps tell better stories.
In other words, storytelling in the social sector is a skill that is different from actually making changes in the field. In the era of social media and artificial intelligence, it is not enough to do things – it is equally important to tell the world what you have done, and how it made the world a better place. Therefore, effective communication sits at the heart of every successful social development initiative.
Elevating communication: SPJIMR’s PGPDM
SPJIMR’s Post-Graduate Programme in Development Management (PGPDM) recognises that effective communication is vital to every social development sector organisation’s success. The curriculum embeds communication training from the first term. The course Communication Skills provides the necessary tools for its participants to become confident communicators who focus on meaning while nonverbally communicating purpose and commitment. The modules in the course include nonverbal communication, storytelling, presentation skills, public speaking and written communication.
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About the faculty
Sajit M Mathews
Sajit M Mathews is an Assistant Professor with the Organisation and Leadership Studies (OLS) Department at SPJIMR. He has completed his Ph.D. in English (language teaching) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and holds two Master’s degrees in English and Philosophy. His primary area of research is task-based language teaching and assessment. In addition, he is interested in marketing-related communication. He has presented papers at national and international conferences, and his research has been published in journals, books and teachers’ magazines.
