View source for Nairobi Feb-Mar 2017 IRMC communications discussion

From ilri-comms ilriwikis

← Nairobi Feb-Mar 2017 IRMC communications discussion

You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reason:

---

You can view and copy the source of this page.

[[:File:17MacMillan_IRMC_CKMdiscussions_Notes.docx]] <span style="text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Communications and Knowledge Management</span></span></span> <span style="text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">‘Working Together Better’ session at the</span></span></span> <span style="text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">IRMC workshop 27 Feb–1 Mar 2017</span></span></span> <span style="text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ideas (in no particular order) from the general discussion</span></span></span> <span style="text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> following the presentation by Shirley Tarawali and from</span></span></span> <span style="text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> the World Café table group discussions</span></span></span> <span style="text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> on media news and social media that followed.</span></span></span> '''<span style="color: #941100;">COMMUNICATIONS AND FUNDRAISING</span>''' Send email letters to donors of news clippings about work funded by those donors '''<span style="color: #941100;">WEB PRESENCE</span>''' Consider adding new tag words for ILRI tagging of materials Consider moving some wiki sites to pages of the ILRI main website so that this content gets more professional housing and a broader audience Redo the look and feel of the ILRI website, and improve the content published on the research and regional pages Centralize the management of ILRI Flickr and other sites to ensure there are no redundant sites Make the websites of ILRI collaborative projects more professional; be more flexible about modifying these as requested by project staff Find ways to continuously update ilrinet content Do not oversaturate readers with ILRI information '''<span style="color: #941100;">SOCIAL MEDIA</span>''' Do more to target individuals and specific donors and partner organizations on social media platforms '''<span style="color: #941100;">EMBEDDED COMMUNICATIONS STAFF</span>''' Improve the evaluation and empowerment of the communications staff embedded in program and regions Corporate communications staff should always copy embedded communications staff in communications issues related to their programs/regions and vice versa Ensure clear action points and clarify the broader communications roles of the embedded communications staff Improve networking among the embedded communications staff Note that the qualifications of the embedded communications staff vary greatly Clarify who is responsible for project communications '''<span style="color: #941100;">ALL COMMUNICATIONS STAFF</span>''' Occasionally invite program leaders to participate in the regular meetings of communications teams in Addis and Nairobi Reinvigorate communications teamwork among embedded and corporate communications staff '''<span style="color: #941100;">REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS</span>''' Raise ILRI’s regional visibility through promotion of launches and other high-profile events and through publication of policy and foresight materials Regional communications request fewer ‘approval hurdles’ and more flexibility and independence Find ways to hire communications staff to be embedded in each region Do more to highlight regional success stories Try organizing the next corporate report along regional structures and stories '''<span style="color: #941100;">TRANLSATIONS</span>''' Raise the priority of translating materials into French (for West Africa) and other languages, as appropriate, by (1) project putting such translating work into their budgets and (2) being more innovative about how to get these translations done (e.g., get co-authors on papers to do the translations cheaply) '''<span style="color: #941100;">COMMUNICATIONS ETHICS</span>''' Create an ethics policy for how to handle situations where there is pressure to suppress publication of research results due to national concerns and/or political considerations, in awareness of the fact that some government agencies are unlikely to favour giving the green light to publications including results that could alarm their constituencies or make the governments look bad in some way Ensure that stories that do not originate from ILRI staff are attributed correctly, e.g., by highlighting the first authors of papers with non-ILRI first authors. Make sure ILRI does not appear to hijack the work/results of other organizations, e.g., stress donors and partners rather than ILRI '''<span style="color: #941100;">COMMUNICATIONS INTEGRITY</span>''' Note that the rush to publish results can threated the integrity of that data and the reputation of ILRI Improve the ‘Self-critical culture’—evidence-based—at ILRI Note that English scientific writing talent is lacking among many ILRI communications staff and scientists Note that virtual communications have serious limitations Better balance the tendency of communications staff to ‘hype’ reality Find ways to disrupt the normal ‘homophilic’ tendencies of people so as to enable staff to ‘hear new things’ and ‘get new perspectives’ '''<span style="color: #941100;">STORY DEVELOPMENT</span>''' Develop and institute mechanisms to collect and highlight the ‘big stories’ from ILRI ILRI communications staff should regularly request program and regional staff to provide them with their ‘big’ upcoming stories Programs should provide lists of upcoming events, story ideas. Do more to get others in other countries to tell our stories, including having ILRI staff based outside of Kenya and Ethiopia to inform ILRI communications staff of such opportunities Do more to ensure that ILRI communications do not appear too bitty/fragmented—lacking the larger context '''<span style="color: #941100;">MISCELLANEOUS</span>''' Use Up Work to hire consultants, especially for such work as transcription and multimedia Be prepared to give extra communications support to the launch of ILRI’s new Genebank at the April Board Meeting in Addis ILRI scientists should work for higher presence on Research Gate.

Return to Nairobi Feb-Mar 2017 IRMC communications discussion.