Successful efforts to communicate topics as complex as global climate change and ecosystem and economic resilience should use language and imagery that match the mental models of audiences being addressed. Importantly, communication must reflect an awareness of from whom and in what form do disparate audiences customarily receive information they consider important to them? Communication efforts not coming from trusted sources or respected information platforms are unlikely to reach more than a small percentage of people. 

This panel discussion will provide three different approaches that may help build shared core values and expectations. These approaches draw from efforts in both Arizona and Europe which integrate cultural and social constructs together with storytelling and visual perspectives. These approaches are among the new ways we might find common ground on complex scientific, economic and social problem statements, recognizing that not all audiences can be engaged by communicators who are outside the cultural and social construct in which an audience receives, and chooses to believe or act upon new information.  Successful outcomes will also be described.