Commsplanning jan2014

ILRI Comms

Planning Meetings Addis Ababa, January 2014

Konso Auditorium

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Agenda 23 January 2014

• 09.00 Welcome / introductions / speed updating on current projects.
• 09.30 Our ILRI Comms presence and practice:

How can we update the ILRI comms wiki to make it work better? Identify people to work on specific wiki pages. Identify who needs edit rights. Identify who will be the individual reviewer for each page. What could we publish on the Maarifa website and how to use it? Identify topics that we could publish about / take stock of possible blog posts (and who could draft them)? Identify who is not yet signed up to it and who needs edit rights. How can we resume and improve our Yammer practice to share, engage and learn collectively?

• 10.00 Individual work on specific pages

(In parallel) 'Finalization of ethical guidelines for informed consent in PA (Tarni Cooper)': Tarni, Susan, Muthoni, Paul, Apollo + (tentative) Albert, Fanos, Simret...

• 10.30 Break
• 11.00 Individual work – continued
• 12.00 Speed presentation of updates and what more work/support is required
• 13.00 Lunch break
• 14.00 Marketplace of tools and approaches (helping each other) 1h + major updates 1h

Publishing strategy update (prompted by Tezira Lore - provided by Peter Ballantyne) Comms support to events: Based on the list of events for 2014, what support can ILRI Comms provide (light/heavy, at different stages of an initiative and in relation with comms functions) generically? (Susan and Ewen) Final update on the ethical guidelines (Tarni Cooper) Where are we with getting all our Blip.tv films up on Youtube? (Liya / Paul?) Yammer ILRI Comms: how do we ensure we communicate well internally? (ALL)

• 15.30 Break
• 17.00 Close (probably before)

Preparations required: ALL, generally, to look at the ILRI comms wiki (this wiki) and the Maarifa blog to get familiar (again) with it and specifically:

• (wiki) Identify pages that relate to your work – either there is one or more pages that relate to your work or there should be. You need to know what is there and what needs to be done to update them;
• (wiki) See what needs to be done / how much needs to be updated for those sections related to you;
• (wiki and Maarifa) Keep good ideas for what we might want to do with this wiki collectively or what posts to prepare for the Maarifa blog (and ideally) let me know about this prior to the meeting;
• All to mention what tool / approach refresher session you would like to offer on that day on http://ilri-comms.wikispaces.com/commsplanning_jan2014
• SAll to have a quick glance at the previous P&C meeting minutes (and the more recent Nairobi September 2013 Addis May 2013 and Nairobi March 2013 comms meetings) to see if there’s no good idea hidden in there we might want to use again.

FYI, these sessions are highly recommended for all ILRI comms staff, however they are not compulsory.

Possible Tools & approaches marketplace sessions:

• Wikis (Ewen)
• YouTube (Paul / Liya?)
• CG Space (Abenet / Sisay??)
• Digital signage (Abenet / Daniel??)
• Rebelmouse / content curation (Ben / ???)
• the tool / approach you offer to introduce (your name)
• the tool / approach you offer to introduce (your name)

Participants

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Notes 23 Jan

After identifying the needs around the three main channels we use as ILRI comms, we split ourselves. Some updated the list of possible Maarifa blog posts and other ideas; most worked on specific wiki pages; some of us discussed Yammer and our ongoing sharing and learning as one ILRI comms team. And a group worked on the 'Informed consent and release' guidelines under the leadership of Tarni Cooper.

Conversation / work results follow hereafter

Maarifa work / Possible blog posts

• (Ben) Mapping the process landscape at ILRI to identify those research collaboration processes where social tools can add value.
• (Ben) Supporting virtual research teams (We have a very mature process of online publishing once the final product is there. This would be about supporting the collaborative process that leads up to those final publications, posters, videos, etc).
• (Ben) Another blog post I would hope to contribute to is for the launch of the social media guidelines, once they are ready to go.
• (Ewen) How we work with this ILRI Comms wiki (in this workshop and generally - reflecting on it) DONE
• (??) The best of 2013 (possibly a comparison between 'most popular' and 'best according to editors/authors')
• (Paul) AAS communication review
• (Muthoni) ??
• (Tarni) Guidelines on informed consent and release
• Tsehay / Dani / Sisay: overview of thesis work
• (Liya) CTA stay story
• (Jane / Susan) Pinterest work
• (Peter?) Aggregation of content on the website around keywords etc.
• (??) When done: ILRI comms plan overview
• (Ewen? Low priority) Feedback on content from our ILRI comms channels, linked with work by Elias, Wubalem etc.
• (Ewen) Possibly presenting initial ideas about ToC for Comms and why we use it this way?
• [added after the meeting] (Ben) Recent integrated comms efforts around vaccine platform / bio-tech team

Other issues related to Maarifa blog:

• Update banner/picture with more representative pictures from Comms work
• Highlight more recent pictures (current ones from 2011)
• Present / share more communication tools
• Promote own work and build ideas
• Promote collectively what is shared on Maarifa through Yammer, Twitter etc.
• Define what goes on on Maarifa (e.g. comms work - whether done by ILRI comms staff or not).

ILRI Comms Yammer discussion notes

A small group (Dorine, Evelyn, Tezira, Tigist, Ewen) discussed our use of Yammer and ended with the following results (see image on the left hand side). Generally the felling is that Yammer usage is not dipping - any dip could be seasonal.

How do we access Yammer? Through the email feed, daily digest in the morning, or periodically through the website.

There is quite some useful content on Yammer: Experiences (inside and outside CGIAR), articles, blog posts, reports by other organisations, how others are using social media (and struggling with it), connections with others via larger groups e.g. Comms group.

What is positive about Yammer: It's informative; it helps us know staff we wouldn't know otherwise; it helps us find useful resources (e.g. the list of journals recently shared by Tezira), what events are happening; it is informal, contains some funny stuff, smileys etc.; The comms group works quite well on it.

What could be improved: The daily digest layout with sometimes long updates; irrelevant updates (e.g. mentioning short leave or sick leave for a day); management at ILRI is not using it; going to Yammer every day is a difficult practice.

What we suggest to improve our use of Yammer: We recognise there will always be some stuff that is more relevant to some than others and that the beauty of Yammer is that it's easy to go through updates anyway.

• Share more stories through Yammer
• Share insights from other networks to the main Yammer (e.g. periodic Africa RISING update)
• Share more links and files - rather than copy/pasting the whole text
• Avoid long updates and if we can't, mention it upfront (long updates are particularly laborious to read on the daily digest)
• Restrict updates about short (sick) leave - even though we need to let our managers know about this
• Poke/stimulate others to chip in on a conversation, making use of Cc: and asking them directly to share their opinion, examples etc.
• Elicit more feedback on problems we are facing rather than sharing them face-to-face or bilaterally by email - some sort of online peer assist mechanism
• Praise the Yammerer of the month (or most prolific, or upcoming, or most promising, or new, or most improved Yammerer of the month... ?)
• Test and filter new tools we come across together on Yammer
• Use proper headings in Yammer messages
• Use Hash tags (#) to put keywords to conversations
• Update the Yammer master guidelines since they were not updated since 2012 (Ewen to do)

What about other ways to share information? Facebook could work but seems to work better for personal use; Google groups might work but they tend to be more focused on certain specific issues / focus areas. The D-space Yammer network (formerly just a group) is really useful for simple users too, to find out what's going on.

Wiki work notes

We worked on the following pages:

• CG Space guidelines [Abenet, Sisay - review by Tsehay] (NEW)
• Citation guidelines [Abenet, Sisay - review by Tsehay] (NEW - not started but planned)
• Slideshare [Bizu - review by Abenet]
• Publishing [Emaelaf, Betty, Meron - review by Peter ?]
• Blogging:

Content [Dorine, Jane - review by Susan, Ewen] Technical pages of setting up a blog [Tsehay - review by Simret]

• Video [Liya, Paul - review by Ben]
• Events [Ewen - review by ??] and events logistics [Abeba A - review by Ewen and Angela]
• ILRI Acronyms page [Tesfaye - review by Ewen, Simret, Peter]
• FlickR [Paul, Liya - review by Susan]
• Web content [Dani - review by Liya]
• Social media guidelines [Ben - review by Tsehay, Ewen]
• Categories and countries [Abenet, Bizu - review by ??]

We ended with the following results (% of completion, who's working on it with whose help): See image on the right hand side.

Final updates and discussion about working together as one team:

We had a final session with some important updates again and ended with the following:

Engagement ethics guidelines for informed consent and release: (Update by Tarni and team to come up)

Blogging conversation: The day before, a small team (Susan, Muthoni, Paul, Peter, Tsehay, Liya) discussed the facelift of the ILRI news blog. Highlights: there is a new interface, the PA team is commenting on it; there are ideas for future content usage (e.g. use of picture caption); we will use excerpts (in WP blogs) to generate a summary; we no longer host the ILRI news blog, it will be another WP-hosted blog like all others; the Markets blog may move to WordPress; we will use thumbnails for pictures on the ILRI news blog - and only on that blog.

Video updates: Blip.tv has gone; we have been migrating content to YouTube (interviews from events etc.); there is still quite some work to be done (Updated links to update in Mahider too, raw files to go to YouTube particularly from Clare's collection, 100+ videos to move from Blip to YouTube in addition to the 200 done so far); playlists have been created on YouTube for every country and important category we use; we may use Vimeo also. Everyone is invited to a) check the YouTube playlists and b) spot bugs (links to Blip which should now be to YouTube).

Publishing strategy: See Presentation Peter B.

Yammer for us: We will need to use Yammer even more consistently as we move to become one team so this is not optional, really. When it comes to sharing files, Ben offered to compare Google Drive and Yammer on this feature. Paul/Apollo have access to our current Google Drive to share videos and that could be an option - to investigate later.

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Agenda 24 Jan

0900	Welcome and objectives of the day	Shirley
0910	Agenda	Peter
0915	2013 Achievements - PA - KMIS - Individual round	Susan Peter all
1030	Break
1100	ILRI Comms 2014 - Reorganization - Principles - Refocusing - Operationalization - Change process	Shirley
1300	Lunch
1400	ILRI Comms 2014 - Priorities - Big projects - High level deliverables
1530	Break
1600	Working as a team - what do we need to be able to put in practice all our plans and ambitions?	exercise
1620	Summary, Wrap up, next steps	Shirley
1700	Close

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Notes 24 Jan

Our achievements

Presentation by Susan about our achievements in 2013 (PA). Discussion about annual reports - coming up with a large report or (as planned for 2013) a tri-fold with a few stories... How to engage our donors etc. throughout the year, not just as a one-off activity/output for the year. How to balance large events between corporate coordination and theme's coordination?

Achievements for PA in 2013:

• Branding conversations and work
• Social media AASW6 (and face-to-face event)
• Comms meeting in Montpellier and praising about quality blogging and KM etc.
• Growing as a team by being together in the information centre
• Knowledge Day
• Livestock Live Talks
• Two big news conferences, the first one on big diseases, the other one on aflatoxins

Challenges for PA in 2013:

• Being intentional (and did it make a difference?)
• Being social: keeping up with being 'social' in various ways, dealing with multiple media and platforms - which ones are yours?
• Being one team: focusing on the 6 key activities and working together on a campaign for these key activities...

Our KMIS achievements in 2013:

• Comms Stats: 19 million views of all stuff, 55000 reports distributed, 31000 visitors/telecenter users, 180 events in our spaces, 1800 Mahider additions, 37 facilitated/supported events, 180+ publications...
• Accomplishments: publishing products (forms, quantity, quality), communicating in webs, accessible knowledge, supporting meetings, supporting projects, supporting internal KS and comms, better spaces...
• Redesigning blogs (15-20 done), CG space updates and WLE, Consortium Office moving to it, CIMMYT and ICRISAT interested too
• CGIAR Knowledge Day
• Aggregation on the website around keywords (e.g. Kenya)
• Huge changes on FlickR collection and many more people accessing them

Personal achievements in 2013

• Working better in teams with tangible outputs.
• Increased visibility for LGII / the blog, wiki and program profile
• Branding our products
• Better use of social media tools
• New blog design
• Learning from different organizations
• Model for closing a project (NBDC) in various ways
• We have done a lot of capacity building
• Handling many upcoming big events and adding value to KMIS unit
• Created and populated new wiki for team. It has become popular with scientists in the team.
• Documentation support on trainings> Lives, ILRI/ICARDA, Gender workshop
• Published >180+
• Sharing knowledge resources
• The number of publications has increased
• High number and quality of blog posts
• Improved internal communications completed the major plans for 2013 (Annual learning event, PCt, Photofilm...)
• Documenting and reporting on LaF activities esp. the Annual Review Meetings
• Self-learning on new software (digital signage)
• Better collaboration with colleagues in creating communication products - blogs, films, events, etc.
• Enjoyed being the backend for the output of CGSpace/Slideshare
• Collaborating with other projects / CG centers in using CG Space
• Knowledge day success
• Website aggregate page
• Food Safety and Zoonose program comms strategy developed

Personal challenges for 2014

• Analyzing our success and challenges with proper M&E
• Chasing budget codes from units for recharges
• Balance comms support to all (most) LaF country activities
• Gearing up the alumni network
• How to motivate researchers/ scientists to communicate more an Yammer, blog, pic...
• Since there are a lot of different tools and websites and blogs available, it's hard to follow them all
• Keeping up with so many tools, ways...
• Respond to opportunity> many channels, intentional / prioritize
• Unclear work responsibilities/boundaries
• Being more strategic on comm activities and clear about strategy
• Lagging behind to achieve some tasks on time, i.e. due to github
• Lot to do, little time
• Better manage time in multi-tasking
• Not able to meet deadlines
• Being active in social media
• Support virtual teams
• Need more staff helping in editing and quality checking
• How to efficiently manage a growing social media agenda
• Consistency
• Lack of time to make Slideshare more interactive / searchable
• Possibility of decentralizing some functions> e.g. slideshare uploads
• Streamlining Mahider workflow to reduce turnaround between submission and archiving
• CGSpace resource person on the technical side to move projects faster
• We are good at creating attention but what next? How do we ensure success?

Ongoing issues:

• 'Explain and train'
• Contacts and relationship management
• ILRInet 2
• CGSpace scale up
• Web site
• Publishing - quality and workflows
• Collaboration 'package'
• Engagement 'package'
• Comms physical spaces
• Team / staff development
• Digital signage

Comments: Prezi stats - Pinterest stats to add. Not enough blogging or bloggers? One posting on ILRI News and on Clippings every day seems a pretty good amount.

ILRI Communications Plan

(Presentation by Shirley Tarawali) ILRI has grown but our comms staff has not grown much. New ways of working with CRPs and ILRI new structure. New areas and opportunities. Role of Comms in outcomes & impact. Stretched staff.

ILRI strategy: Work on CSFs, consultations early 2013 on comms & research. Teams across ILRI. 3 principles:

1. One team
2. 'Mixed model' (embedded and specialized)
3. Key skills at institute level

Reflection on our core identity: ILRI creates knowledge about livestock to benefit rural poor in developing countries in a way that has global application and draws on knowledge from around the world. The Comms plan fits in the overall strategy to reach our CSFs.

Three communication functions:

1. Publish and curate knowledge
2. Engage people and enrich knowledge sharing and learning
3. Influence decisions and enhance research uptake

Other principles: porous boundaries, everyone has a home, ILRI Comms is one CoP, internal and external focus, paying for comms (basic 'driver', direct costs for specific activities/outputs, institutional costs)...

Unit plans with indicators and metrics required (needed for BoT).

Q&A about the new structure:

• Q: To whom and how will embedded staff report? Will embedded staff continue to be embedded in the programs?
• A: The idea is that the embedded staff have a home in their program, report to their program leader but 10-20% of their time is dedicated to central comms. There is a first level and 2nd level supervisor. In many cases, it makes more sense to have a first supervisor (program leader) and a second supervisor (different, not necessarily supervising your first supervisor) looking at your other thematic work.
• Q: How practical is it to work with 4 teams ie. a) publish, b) curate, c) influence, d) engage with dedicated supervisors for each?
• A: You need to have a home but that doesn't mean that you will do all your work in that team. Your KRAs would likewise relate mostly to your home but some others to other operations... Raise your questions with your supervisor to discuss these issues. A key part of working in a matrix is negotiating etc.
• Q: Paying for comms - how manageable is it to draw finances from the three?
• A: Very manageable because it works like that already - though in an ad hoc manner... It's about being transparent so that people know what they're paying for and what they're getting. That's why we need to define packages - some of them would be paid as a levy e.g. IT package - and others would be additional packages. We have to define what are standard and what are additional packages. In future proposal development, we will earmark some resources for comms...
• Q: Wearing different hats - how does it focus on where our home will be. Who decides where you sit and will our contracts change? re: appraisal, JD etc. will it be the same person doing all of this. At global level, will we have a masterplan with all our workflows etc. to ensure we are porous - as compared with now when we have one person giving us direction...
• A: There will be a comms plan which will indicate the rational of comms, what are main objectives for the comms team, targets, planned activities and publications. This will fit in the bigger whole... There will be one set of objectives and deliverables and everyone will be working towards the same goal. Re: contracts, JDs, our home etc.: our JD is not likely to change much. We have to think for ourselves where we sit re: our skills etc. The choice of a home is based on your a) skills and aspirations and b) what ILRI needs. We have to serve CRPs, regions etc. better.
• Q: What processes might we want to organize to keep the porous boundaries porous when we will be naturally pulled in one direction rather than a sub-team only?
• A: That's part of the conversation you had yesterday - communicating as one. We have to be communicative about our work. We might consider 20-30% of our time to dedicate to other teams than our home.
• Q: Maybe we will have topics etc. for the year, events for the year etc. so will all activities previously happening in one location be taken up by the whole team?
• A: Yes, we'll have to be more intentional, plan together, reflect collectively about it and keep some un-allocated time so we can take up spontaneous opportunities along the way and use extra time to buffer transaction costs.
• Q: How did you arrive at this division between the 3-4 teams?
• A: Inputs from the consultations, from work with this team in May 2013 - and wondering about what we need to provide. This is a weaving between the 3-4 teams...
• Q: Will we have time management to account for it?
• A: We're looking at OCS to do some time management on this and that and help people juggle with competing demands (for negotiation).
• Q: Someone will be managing the 4 units. Who will be heading communication? Will this person be a comms director?
• A: That person will be a head of unit.
• Comment: It seems this is adding structure.

We don't expect one person to do one activity alone but they have to ensure - if that activity relates to their home - that the activity gets done.

What are the risks of this new ILRI Comms structure?

• Risks of managing the staff reshuffling
• More clarity on the structure?
• We need more negotiation and understanding
• Teething problems with structure and management style ==> create a common comms plan
• 'One team' concept and ...
• New job descriptions
• What will be the name of this unit?
• How to inform programs about this new structure?
• New positions - where will it be? Space? Budget?
• We need time to adjust to this structure

Comments:

• This has been shared with IRMC but to what extent has it been shared with other scientists etc. who work closely with KMIS/PA etc.? What is changing is the supervision...
• (Shirley) Raise, share your concerns, talk with your colleagues...

Outline plans for 2014

Publishing & Curating - Engaging - Influencing - Our own Change Process. Big projects for 2014:

• Influencing:

Influencing 'package' (including content strategy) Big events (ILRI 20:20 and high profile event; TropenTag; World Food Prize & Borlaug) High profile VIP presentations Photofilms and multimedia (e.g. L&F) Press & media Blogging Global livestock agenda and alliances Profile work of 3.7 in Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania Big livestock facts

• Engaging

Collaboration 'package' Engagement 'package' Internal communication Posters, postcards, exhibits, giveaways etc.

• Publishing and curation:

Publishing and curating package 'Explain and train' Contacts and relationship management ILRInet 2 CGSpace Web site and plattforms Digital signage Publishing - quality and workflows Open access roll out Re-branding

• Monitoring, evaluation, impact (what is success, indicators, targets) by April
• Change process management

Planning process and timelines/milestones Addressing all the hurdles

Engaging group work results

Key activity area	Outputs / deliverables
A. Collaboration package	1. Benchmark 2. Strategy on research collaboration 3. Collection of best practices on E2.0 4. Offerings (from light to deluxe services) 5. Co-working spaces 6. CRM roll-out 7. Proposal development process
B. Engagement package	1. Strategy / plan 2. Offerings (from light to deluxe) 3. Facilitation training course/coaching 4. Innovation platform/process engagement maps and case studies 5. M&E of engagement: indicators + ‘white paper’ / social network analysis
C. Internal communication	1. Coffee mornings 2. ILRInet 2.0 vs. Yammer: Engagement komms klinics (see E below) 3. Seminars 4. Fail fair try-out
D. USB keys, posters, calendars, give-aways etc.	(to develop further with current PA team)
E. Capacity development on collaboration and engagement	1. Komms Klinics / new offering 2. Bilateral support: updated FAQ + log of requests
F. Shaping up this team’s process	1. Definition of engagement 2. Map and plan 3. Roll out task management software 4. Map and plan
G. Blogging and social media work and presence	1. Social media tool & content strategy 2. Regular blogging and social media dissemination
H. Network engagement (e.g. KM4Dev, CIARD etc.)	1. Ongoing cooperation 2. Quarterly KM4Dev gatherings
Meshetas ;)	Fun and team building ;)

Who would be involved? (tentative)

Internal communication-focused people (e.g. Meron), knowledge managers (e.g. Liya, Ewen). Possibly involved: Ben, Ethel, Ewen, Fanos, Meron, Tsehay.

Who would this target? In some cases ILRI researchers, in some cases program/project partners.

Timeline (tentative) See the GANTT graph on the bottom of the picture here on the right.

Publishing and curation group work results

Project	Deliverables	Responsible person
1. Website - collect feedback - develop prototype - news blog	- changed look and feel (home page) - revamped blogs (new look)	- Dani, Liya - Tsehay, Liya
2. ILRInet 2.0	- new intranet page (depends on OCS)	- Dani, Liya
3. CGSpace - upgrade to v 4.0 - thumbnail generation by system - batch import with pdf - discovery module - new communities set-up - finalize migration from InMagic - quality checking	- latest version with new features/ - new features/functionality on CGSpace - increased collaboration on CGSpace - high quality data on CGSpace	- Sisay, Alan, Mahider/CGspace team
4. Digital Sigange	- new design	- Dani, Abenet
5. Contact and relationships management system - review the old system - look other CG centers' contacts management systems	- new system	- Ben
6. Open access roll-out - collect feedback	- final guideline	Peter
7. Publishing - quality checking - consistency and branding - workflows	- consistently high quality outputs	- publishing team
8. Publishing and curating package - identify minimum free offer - identify extra offer (rechargable)	- package with list	- publishing team
9. Explain and train - identify training areas