The more things change…

By: John Muggeridge, Manager of Writing Services, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

John received the Master Storyteller of the Year award at the 2024 Government of Canada’s Communications Awards of Excellence ceremony.

Helping our stakeholders manage change is a big part of our job as government communicators. Having worked as an agricultural communicator outside and now inside government for almost four decades – I have seen first-hand that change is a way of life for our stakeholders – Canadian farmers. They live and breathe it. They have a hard-wired resilience to it.

They may wake up one morning to discover that the crop they invested well over six figures to plant and grow – has been wiped out overnight by a flash frost or flood; or that the price for their crops or livestock has gone into freefall because a sudden disease outbreak has closed the borders to exports. Farmers are the original ‘change managers’.

The daily challenges they face echo the challenges facing Canadians and the world: climate change, mental health, economic and environmental sustainability and food security.

So as speechwriters at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), we try to make sure that whatever Government measure or program or investment we are communicating to the farmers, answers the question: “How will it help me to better manage the challenge of extreme weather, high operating costs, supply chain disruptions, trade barriers…?”

There’s no doubt that the most effective way of making that message real for our audience is – storytelling. Everyone loves a story, and studies consistently show that stories are the main or only audience takeaway following a speech.

So we spend a lot of our time (deadlines permitting!) digging for stories that will give our message resonance and impact with farm audiences – while helping Canadians understand the agriculture sector’s massive contribution to our economy, health and food security.

There are any number of sources of good stories on agriculture – the media, word-of-mouth, social media, colleagues in the Department – and, of course, the Minister’s office. Our 20 research centres across Canada are a veritable goldmine of stories – for example, a project looking at the benefits of cranberries and blueberries in chicken feed to help producers fight bacterial disease in their flocks and reduce reliance on antibiotics.

The story needn’t be long and involved. We find that even the shortest anecdote or personal touch can make that ‘handshake’ with the audience and help give our messages maximum resonance. For example, in a recent speech to dairy farmers, we discovered our speaker shared the family name of one of the pioneers of their industry; and when it’s a farmer speaking to farmers, there is immediate connection and empathy: “I know – I’ve been there.”

Finding that perfect story with the perfect fit takes time and effort. But if it grabs and holds the audience’s attention, the payoff is, to quote the old credit card commercial, priceless.