These notes are for the thousands of development workers whose education and training had nothing to do with mass communication. Most likely it was the boss who woke up one day and decided that you would make the perfect communication expert. That should teach you to spend so much time at the water fountain.

The first thing to understand is that you are not alone. There are thousands just like you struggling along all over the world. Each is trying to get important messages across to developing communities many with out the slightest idea what they are doing, or how to go about doing it. In fact many do not even know what success with a campaign actually means. That’s not because they are dumb- most are highly educated people. It is simply because they have been tossed off the deep end, into a profession they are not trained for, by organizations who themselves, usually, haven’t the slightest idea of what’s really involved.

 Development communications, behavioral change, capacity building, community empowerment, and all the other techniques employed have one thing in common. They all want to convince other people to do something they are not currently doing.

 The basic premise is that one group has knowledge which if properly understood by another group could help that group raise its standard of living. This applies to the whole range of development communication.

 The trick is in how to get the message across effectively.  Doing that is an art form which has spawned a whole group of highly paid professionals - the best paid are working for companies like COKE, Mercedes, Microsoft, and the other big budget giants.

 Get this clear right from the start. This is a cutthroat business where the competition is brutal. Competition you ask? That’s right, you have just entered into direct competition with all those highly paid professionals, and their big budgets, for peoples attention. Trust me when I say, that getting the public's attention and keeping it, even for a few seconds, is fully 3/4 of the battle.

 Long gone are the days when development messages could be childish drawings poorly printed on cheap quality paper. That worked in the days before globalization permeated every nook and cranny on our planet. It does not work now. Like it or not, you are competing for peoples attention against a multitude of others who also want that attention for their own ends. You can be as nostalgic as you want, but that will not bring back the “ good ole days” when a health poster might be the only poster in a village.

 Don’t panic. If that last paragraph got your attention, then you are half way to getting it right. These notes are meant to be a survival kit chocked full of practical experiences that get results. Have faith. Follow the rules. Resist all the naughty temptations, and you will produce really powerful materials right from the beginning.

 To start with print this and put it on the wall in front of your desk. “ I don’t know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone”, Bill Cosby.