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Collaborations should be more effective if groups share a common language to describe the topic of their joint efforts. This common language may be most critical when the collaborators have different priorities, and have been adversaries. We developed the on-line SPI Explorer Tool to build a common language about drought among the Tonto National Forest rangeland managers, ranchers with permits for livestock grazing in the Tonto, and the University of Arizona faculty and staff convening workshops about increasing preparation for drought. We focused on SPI, Standardized Precipitation Index because a minus 1 SPI (12-month window) triggers on-site evaluations of conditions for all livestock grazing allotments in Region 3 of the National Forest system. The Tool (https://uaclimateextension.shinyapps.io/SPItool/) builds a precipitation history since 1895 for any user-selected location in the U.S. based on the 4km-grid estimates in PRISM (Parameter-elevation Relationships on Independent Slopes Model). �Outputs include 1) annual precipitation and temperature history, 2) SPI values for 1 to 48 month windows of record, including a multi-scale plot reporting 1 to 48 month windows simultaneously, 3) the amount of precipitation and departure from average associated with each SPI value, and 4) conditional probability of future conditions given current conditions which is based on the historic record rather than forecasts (this was especially effective at stimulating increased drought preparation). Workshop evaluations and post-Workshop surveys and interviews suggest that the Tool helped develop a 1) better understanding of drought information (97% or workshop participants reported greatly or moderately improved understanding), 2) common language for discussing drought (common theme in open-ended responses was �drought information tools provided a common framework that allows us to be on the same page so we can make decisions together�, and 3) better working relationship� between Forest managers and permittees (66% of Workshop participants agree, only 42% of non-participant ranchers agree).