HOW DO YOU CONNECT WITH TOTAL STRANGERS?

"I usually ask them where they are from, what they do for a living, and perhaps what their leisure-time pursuits may be. I try to relate my experiences to theirs if I can."

"I try to read people's actions."

"Eye contact. Smile. Questions. Open gestures."

"I make mention of the sports team or town displayed on their clothes. It's an immediate connection — the wall between us is immediately down."

"I use empathy, I try to put myself in their shoes."

ARE YOU GOOD AT IT?

"No. I always feel as if I'm prying."

"Somewhat, I'm sometimes too focused on the resource to be completely at ease with the visitor."

"I don't feel very confident at it so I brace myself, but I'm a fairly good listener and enjoy learning about the visitor and conversing with them about the resource."

"Yes, because I sincerely try to make the interpretive presentation something they will remember and enjoy."

"Yes. I'm not as self-centered as when I was younger."

"Yes. I can read people very well. Just instinct I guess."

"Yes, because I enjoy what I do and believe in it."

See Part 7 of the video, More Relevant to More People, or read Section Nine of the text, An Interpretive Dialogue.

Brainstorm a list of concepts you believe are universal. Your list will be different than your colleagues' lists. A definitive list of universal concepts is probably not possible or even helpful to the profession. It's important though to check the validity of your ideas.

To be universal, any concept on your list must mean something significant to almost anyone. Test your concepts by considering a variety of audiences. Would this concept mean anything significant to them?

"I often ask what my audience hopes to get out of guided tours before we start."

"Partly from listening to the questions of past visitors. Partly because I ask people. Partly because I evaluate and compare the feedback that I get on a variety of products."

"I know what's relevant to my audience by observing different audiences interacting with the many different aspects of the resource."

"I try to pick up on their current stresses — kids, weather, time, etc."

"It's not always easy, 26 million visitors and every one has different ideas of what is relevant. I ask. I guess. I point out many meanings."

"I assume the material related to the resource is in some way relevant to them. I also ask them what they think."

"I think we can presume there are certain things in life that are common to the human experience."

"That's a hard question. I don't know that you can always know what is relevant to your audience."

"You don't. You can get a sense of your audience by talking to them but relevance will be different for each person."

"After 30 years I don't know what is relevant to my wife. The question is monumentally egotistical and there are no real answers. One tries to find interest through clues like age, language, geography, demographics, subject-matter interest, repeat visits. Be diverse, don't generalize too much, invite participation, clarify complicated information, and interpret universals."

Look at the list of meanings you linked to a tangible resource on Page 110. Are any of these meanings universal concepts? Can you add more?

Think about your lists of universal concepts. How does each universal apply differently to the natural and the human world?

Analyze your most successful interpretive products — the programs that most visitors respond to most of the time. Do they use universal concepts? What are they?

Analyze your less successful interpretive products. Do they use universal concepts? What universal concepts can you apply to those products to make them more successful?