Communicating with diverse international audiences, from policy makers, to students, to fellow researchers, Prof. Raphael Cohen-Almagor sure knows the importance of customizing his messages and tailoring them to each “who it’s for”, for the explicit instance of “what it’s for”. As my beloved teacher during my undergraduate communication studies in Haifa University, Israel, over 20 years ago, I learned a lot from Rafi about speaking and writing with clarity, so that your audience get’s it the way you intended.
Fortunate as I was to be his research assistant, helping Rafi organize conferences, edit and proofread his books and articles, I was always inspired by the range of topics about which he is extremely knowledgeable and curious, his value-driven mindset and how devoted he’s always been to multiple public issues and causes close to his heart. From politics to philosophy, media ethics to medical ethics, law, sociology and history – each discipline requires careful articulation to ensure that readers and listeners are able to receive Rafi’s ideas, interpretations and implications as intended. Far from easy but well worth the effort.
Join us for episode 17 of Let’s Clarify It in which Rafi shares: How addressing an audience from an entirely different set of geopolitical circumstances requires sensitivity to implicit assumptions about motivation and root causes; Why the success of public committees’ work is contingent upon compromise among its members; And why one of his favorite public speaking role models carried a yellow legal pad to every lecture yet it always remained blank…
Curious? Let’s Clarify It!