Educators can reduce the effort required to conduct a programme by identifying groups of people who will themselves have an impact on others without a major investment of attention by the education programme. There is a strategic planning model that says all activities can be measured on two scales - effort and impact. If voter educators use this scale they will find they can define four types of work:
- programmes that take a lot of effort and have a high impact
- programmes that take a lot of effort and have a low impact
- programmes that require less effort for a high impact
- programmes that take little effort but also have little impact
"Effort" can be defined as the use of resources (people, money, equipment) and programme complexity. "Impact" can be defined as the achievement of the stated objectives where these have resulted in changes in attitude, behaviour, skill, or knowledge of the target audience. So, wise educators will obviously want to run programmes that reduce effort while increasing impact.
There has to be some humility in selecting high impact groups. Selection of such groups is an art rather than a science. And it is also possible for educators to convince themselves that they have chosen such groups when actually the target has been chosen primarily because of the reduction in effort rather than because the educator knows that there will be an increase in impact.
What Are Educators Seeking?
As a general rule, educators will be looking for people (or groups of people) who have ready access to others and already enjoy trust and respect within that constituency. When they speak, people take what they say seriously. Just as important, they have groups of people who want to listen to them.
Educators may also look for people who have the power to replicate messages to particular constituencies. By profession, they may be teachers, trainers, or communicators. Or they may be able to mobilize such people through their positions in a company or institution.
The advantages of spending time identifying such groups of people and then giving them special attention is obvious. But surprisingly, educators continue to prepare generalized programmes using "scatter shot" approaches despite the fact that this may be more expensive, although apparently cheaper per voter reached. Costs seldom take into account the free multiplier effects that can be achieved through specialized programmes for high impact groups.
