Framing Essentials: Values and Metaphors

Framing Essentials: Values and Metaphors

two-part, interactive workshop series

In today’s polarized and fast-moving political landscape, it’s easy to feel like our messages are getting lost or dismissed. Framing with values and metaphors aren’t just old strategies — they’re powerful, time-tested tools that give you a fresh edge right now. Values connect with people’s core beliefs, shaping how they make sense of information and decide what to support, even when conversations feel divided. Metaphors build on that foundation by turning complex ideas into vivid, relatable stories that people can easily understand and share. Together, they give you a practical, proven way to break through noise and motivate real action when it matters most. In short, values anchor your message in meaning, and metaphors make that meaning tangible.

In this two-part, interactive workshop series, you’ll learn how to identify and use values that engage different audiences, and harness the power of metaphor to make complex or abstract issues vivid, memorable, and actionable. These skills will give you a versatile framing toolkit you can apply to any issue—whether you’re speaking to policymakers, the media, or the public.

Part 1: The Power of Values: Communicating Across Political Divides

(60-90 minutes; remote)

Values tap into what really matters to people, helping them make sense of information and decide what to support. However, not all values are equally effective for every issue or audience. The key is to practice communicating with those values that connect with your audience's priorities while steering them toward systemic solutions. In this workshop, participants will learn how to:

  • Identify values that are already present in public thinking about your issue.
  • Identify and practice using values that connect with different audiences.
  • Use tested strategies to frame issues around values that drive public support for policy and systems change, not personal responsibility.

Part 2: Metaphors That Move Minds

(60-90 minutes; remote)

When the issues we work on are complex, technical, or emotionally charged, it can be challenging to promote understanding and action. Metaphors are one of the most powerful tools we have to make the abstract concrete, connect with audiences, and frame problems in ways that inspire solutions.

This interactive workshop equips leaders, advocates, and communicators with the skills to identify, use and test metaphors that translate complexity into clarity - without oversimplifying or stoking fear. In this workshop, participants will learn:

  • Strategies to generate metaphors that fit your audience and message.
  • Hands-on practice adapting candidate metaphors to your own issues, so you leave with usable language.
  • Case studies showing how metaphors have shifted thinking in public health, social policy, and advocacy.

In our work, we’ve helped organizations:

Frame the system of food and nutrition support as a "power grid"

– a network designed to deliver healthy food through communities and schools, but where connections are strong in some communities and patchy in others.

Frame budget cuts as "tectonic shifts"

that have left cracks in our infrastructure, destabilized foundations and require resilience-building strategies.

Frame shared administrative services

among early child care centers as a way to pool resources to feed the mission of early care and education.

About Your Framing Coaches

Lynn Davey, Ph.D. is a former psychology professor turned social issue framing and communications strategist. With years of experience both conducting and translating social and framing science research into actionable strategies for advocates, she has worked with scientists, public health experts and policy advocates to improve public understanding of complex social issues like child development, racial equity, violence prevention, mental health and poverty.

Lynn’s approach is rooted in science, not PR and marketing, and she specializes in helping advocates use storytelling to advance meaningful policy change.

Dr. Michael Erard is a linguist and non-fiction writer. He has deep expertise in communicating a range of complex ideas to diverse audiences through metaphor, narrative, and persuasive argument. He has published in a variety of mainstream and specialist outlets and spoken extensively on radio and in public nationally and internationally. He is also the author of three books about language. 

The product of a robust civil society, Michael seeks to empower and protect that society for the next generations. 



Pricing Options & Packages

Now booking into 2026.  Click to schedule a meeting and learn more!

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Helping experts and advocates improve public understanding of social problems and build support for social change.
428 Fore Street, 4th Floor, Portland, ME 04101 | Phone: 207.773.6356