With a 25-point Complacency Gap looming in the midterms, Democratic Party groups across the country have begun voter outreach campaigns. In my county, our target is almost 1000 calls over the next two weeks.

We have a script, but as our outreach director told us: what we say matters less than how well we listen. (More)

Voter Outreach, Part I – Listening

As Democrats kick off our GOTV campaigns this week, Morning Feature will focus on voter outreach. Today we emphasize the importance of listening when we contact voters. Tomorrow we’ll discuss how to build and maintain our own enthusiasm when we meet rudeness or anger. Saturday we’ll explore a sample calling script and and how to use tools that make voter outreach more effective.

First let’s dispel a myth. Our challenge as Democrats in 2010 is neither that far more Americans support Tea Party Republicans, nor that far fewer support Democrats than at this time in 2008. Last week’s Gallup poll shows TGOP approval having recovered only slightly from an all-time low of 26% to 31%, a change barely greater than the poll’s margin of error. And at 32% approval, Democrats are only two points below where we stood in September 2008, a change only half the poll’s margin of error. Instead, our challenge is a Complacency Gap: in a midterm election with the presidency not on the line, pollsters expect many Democratic voters to take the election for granted, while angry Tea Party Republicans cast their ballots.

Those predictions are not cast in stone, and we can change those numbers with energetic GOTV efforts. Democratic Party groups across the country have begun voter outreach campaigns, and most have virtual phone-banking tools that enable you to help even from home. All you need is a computer, a telephone … and the confidence to make that first call. The good news: what you say matters less than that you listen.

Bouncing peas off a passing train.

Most phone-bank campaigns use a script, and most of this year’s will as well. But at least in my county, the structure of the script has changed. Many state Democratic parties have united our campaigns with Organizing for America. In Florida, OFA is now CFA – the Campaign For Accountability – and is the outreach arm of the Florida Democratic Party. We’re now using the techniques they refined in 2008, and one of the keys to their techniques is affirming a basic human impulse: the need to be heard.

Many frustrating conversations follow this pattern:

I talk: You should listen to the Very Important Thing I’m saying.

You talk: While I think of my next Very Important Thing to say.

When two people do that, they usually end up “talking past each other.” It’s not really a dialogue, but alternating monologues that include some of the same words and seem to be on the same topic. The danger of “talking past each other” increases if either or both are working from a script.

We do that often, although usually the script is not written. Instead we have our own lists of talking points on any given topic, and each of us tends to roll through his/her list whenever a given topic arises. Thus political discussions get heated, and repeated, with no one’s minds changed. We often walk away feeling as if we were bouncing peas off a passing train: we talked, but our words weren’t heard.

When one person does have a written script, with yes or no questions that must be answered for record-keeping, the danger of “talking past each other” is greater still. The person on the other side of the conversation may well feel the call was less a personal contact than a canned sales pitch. It’s only a tiny step removed from the ubiquitous and annoying robo-calls that do more to turn voters away than to bring them in.

A listening script.

In 2008, OFA’s data showed that how well we listen, not what we say, is the key to voter outreach. When we meet that basic human need to be heard, the voter is more likely to support us at the polls. While my county’s phone-bank script includes a few specific questions, it also asks us to record information we do not directly request, such as what issues the voter raised during the conversation. Call it a listening script.

Active listening is a skill. There are dozens of published methods for it, and different people find different ones work better for them. The method that works best for me is a four-step process:

1. Receive - Quite simply, pay attention. Don’t anticipate, or try to interpret, or ponder your reply. Listen to the words, and the tone of voice.
2. Reflect -  Once the person finishes, try to replay it in your mind – word-for-word – as if you had said it. This will trigger a cascade of thoughts-as-if, we imagine a situation in which we might say those words that way. Don’t try to ‘make’ that happen; just ‘let’ it happen.
3. Repeat – Clarify and confirm what you heard by repeating what the person said, exactly or with a generous paraphrase. The point is to ensure that you heard and understood what the person said.
4. Respond – Only now do you actually reply, if you need to reply at all. And often you don’t. You may move on to another part of the phone-bank script, or if you have covered it, simply encourage the person to vote this year.

With a well-structured listening script, and some practice, you’ll find the impulse to think of your next Very Important Thing fades into the background. Instead, you’ll more often have an honest conversation with a voter. And that personal contact, more than anything else, is the key to voter outreach.

You don’t need to be a policy wonk or have memorized reams of facts. You just need to care, and show that by listening.

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Happy Thursday!