Transcript Communicating Foresight A Proposed Strategy

Foresight Communication
Strategy
Lisa Pace
Malta Council for Science & Technology
[email protected]
Foresight Communication Strategy
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Barriers for the use and application of
Foresight as a tool for Policy-making:
• Shifting from the conventional planning process,
which is backward looking and relying on current
experience, to a foresight mindset which is about
“linking long term vision-building process with
immediate action planning and implementation”.
• Understanding the concepts of foresights.
• Linking foresight applications to policy-making
and management at different levels: regional,
national, company-levels.
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Overall Objective of a Communication
Strategy:
“To generate a process of dialogue - high level of
interaction and learning - among all those involved in
the foresight exercise or in some way targeted by it
through various media over the lifecycle of the project
from start-up to implementation and diffusion”.
Broad lines of a Communication Strategy:
• Moving individuals and groups away from predetermined paths and patterns of behaviour to
explore ways forward – a core “learning”
objective of a foresight exercise. Persuasion.
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• Factoring in foresight’s capacity of addressing and
unveiling the constraints to society’s acceptance of
the impacts of science, technology and innovation –
establishing a science-society dialogue.
• Fostering an actor-oriented and participatory
approach in the foresight exercise and more
generally in the policy- and decision-making cycles.
• Targeting communications and interactions between
stakeholders, specifically leading to consensusbuilding and commitment of stakeholders.
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Importance of Communications in
Foresight
• Moves beyond one-way interaction (the
supply demand chain) and generates
interaction and mutual learning among
participants.
• Helps embed the FOUR core defining
elements of foresight i.e. learning,
processes, skills and creative thinking
beyond the project implementation phase.
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Planning a Communication Strategy
The Communication Strategy delivers Information
as:
• Data
• Knowledge (analysis and recommendations)
• Visions (future projections based on knowledge).
Communication is about developing stakeholder
specific communication tools and media to
encourage interactions and learning among
different stakeholder groups and evaluating the
learning generated.
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What to Communicate?
3 Types or levels of Communication defined:
• Communicate information on the broad aims of the
foresight exercise – “setting the scene” and
securing a level of interest of participants.
• Communicate information on foresight as a
process, sets of approaches and tools, and as a
mindset.
• Communicate information on the specific theme or
issues being addressed – focussing on the core
theme of the foresight exercise. Market Research
and Technology Watch.
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Provide tailored information specific to the needs or
profiles of different stakeholder groups by using:
• Simple easy-to-understand language used in presenting the
information – use of images.
• Use of specific keywords which target specific audiences.
• Amount of quantitative versus qualitative data provided
(quantitative data may more appealing to experts whilst
non-experts prefer descriptive data).
• Use of graphs and diagrams to complement text.
• Presentation of case studies on foresight and/or success
stories which emerged from similar exercises.
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Planning a Communication Strategy
When is the right time to communicate?
• Communication must be on a regular basis throughout the foresight
process and beyond its completion (diffusion stage).
• A pro-active approach is needed as stakeholders are often busy, not
available at all times and may lose motivation.
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A Phased Approach to Communication
Pre-planning stage of exercise
Start-up of Foresight Exercise:
Scoping and stakeholder mapping
On-going Foresight Process
End-Phase of Foresight Process
 Appointment of Communications Officer and
 Formulation of Communications Strategy
 Profiling and clustering of stakeholders.
 Communication skills training targeted at technical
secretaries/champions/leaders.
 Distribution of generic information to stakeholders.
 Launch events; media coverage; press releases.
 Dissemination of information on process/content of
exercise in the form of publications, reports, press
articles.
 Increased stakeholder involvement through
workshops/awareness-raising events/training.
 Publications relating to methodologies.
 Participating of Project Implementation Team in
international workshops, conferences (externalisation)
 Reporting (by technical secretaries) on the effectiveness
of the communication strategy.
 Dissemination of results/recommendations.
 Evaluation of Communications strategy through an
analysis of level of learning and interactions (networking)
generated and spin-offs which emerged.
 Reporting back to the Project Implementation team on the
effectiveness of the Communication Strategy.
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Who should be involved in the
Communication process?
• The Project Implementation Team as coordinators through a Communications
officer.
• Technical secretaries and Champions as
facilitators within the panels.
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An Outline for a Communication Strategy
A Foresight Exercise often lacks a formal
Communications Strategy. This
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Step 1 : Management
Project Implementation Team - Focal Point to drive
the Communication Strategy & Foresight
programme
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Communications Officer within the Core
Implementation Team:
Tasks:
• Formulating a tailor-made strategy which is compatible
with the objectives and context of the exercise and which
can be implemented in a reasonable timeframe.
• Providing communication skills training to the technical
secretaries supporting the work of the panels/steering
groups.
• Acting as the focal point for collection and dissemination
of information on the exercise as this proceeds towards
completion.
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Step 2: Analysing the Communication
Needs:
• What are the needs/expectations and concerns of the
stakeholders? Mapping these needs help determine the
objectives of the strategy.
• Sponsors and clients (politicians) impose pressures to
produce tangible foresight products by the end of the
exercise in terms of visions, priority setting etc.
• Stakeholders involved in the process impose different sets
of needs:
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• The need to be convinced of the utility of foresight and to be
kept engaged in the process;
• Varied foresight training and learning needs which change
over time;
• They demand space and attention for their concerns/interests
• They generally also demand tangible results for their area of
interest in the short-term.
Society as a whole is not in a position to impose pressures or
needs. Foresight exercises can easily be captured by shortterm pressures and needs. The challenge is how to ensure that
in practice the long-term perspective and societal “learning”
challenges are truly addressed.
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Step 3: Setting-out the Objectives of the
Communication Strategy within the context of
the Foresight Exercise
What is the purpose of the Strategy? What are the goals it sets out to
achieve? These could include:
• Embedding a foresight culture.
• Instilling a sense of ownership in the foresight process at various levels
including the political, organisational and citizen levels.
• Enhancing participation in the foresight process.
• Encouraging learning
• Raising awareness on a particular issue being addressed by the
exercise.
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Embedding a Foresight Culture
The Communication Strategy should aim to
broaden that group of stakeholders who bear the
necessary mindset, skills, and tools to (1)
participate in and or implement a foresight
exercise and/or (2) transpose the above in their
respective organisations or institutions.
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Step 4: Mapping & Profiling Stakeholders
In the context of a Communication Strategy, a stakeholder is an
individual or group to whom a message is to be presented and
elaborated in an effective manner using one/more tools and
media throughout the duration of the foresight exercise.
The message could be in the form of:
knowledge/information/knowhow/recommendations/prioritised generated at any stage of
the foresight process.
A vital phase of the Strategy is the Stakeholder Mapping and
Profiling exercise which provides information on the
characteristics of the participants in the exercise. This
influences the entire communications approach.
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Step 4: Mapping – Identifying Stakeholders
the process of identifying stakeholders has been
described as an “art” in itself. The politician and
decision-maker are vital enablers of the foresight
exercise though they are not the only stakeholders.
A key success criterion could be the involvement
of new actors beyond the well-established players
or “usual suspects” in the domain being addressed.
Seek to engage specialist local knowledge.
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Step 4: Stakeholder Profiling
• Producing a stakeholder profile requires knowledge of the
stakeholder individual/institution and could be based on an
analysis of the following traits of the stakeholders mapped:
• Background knowledge on the foresight process.
• Level of expertise on the topic/theme being addressed by the
foresight exercise.
• Level of expertise/awareness on foresight.
• Level of interest in foresight
• Profile of person/organisation: is he/she a strategic player? Is
he/she representing private/public sector interests and at what
level: decision-making/policy-implementation.
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Stakeholder clusters (groupings):
The profiles enable the grouping of
stakeholders into clusters which describe
their level of interest, competencies and
mindset in the foresight process and the
theme being addressed by the exercise.
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Stakeholder clusters (groupings)
Examples:
• Socio-cultural clustering of individual stakeholders
and representative organisations.
• Public-private sector clusters.
• Academic clusters.
• Power-interest clusters i.e. mapping the level of
interest of the stakeholder versus the level of power.
• Expert and non-expert clusters – assessing level of
expertise in the theme(s) being addressed.
• Foresight practitioners and “newcomers” – level of
know-how.
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Aim of Profiling & Clustering:
•
Specific communication tools (media) should be used for
interacting with and engaging defined stakeholder groups or
clusters.
• The choice of the tools (media) is often determined by sociocultural considerations. Individual interviews versus
discussion forums. Small groups versus conference set-ups.
• Identifying connectors between clusters. Concept of targeting
institutions, industry and individuals in parallel. Creating an
industry-Public-Private Triad of Stakeholder involvement.
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Step 5: Identifying cluster-specific
communication channels
The aim is to identify methodologies and tools to
promote improved communications and social
learning within the identified/targeted cluster groups
and thus enhance stakeholder engagement.
The Communications Strategy aims to take
stakeholders from Cluster level 0 to level 3
throughout the lifetime of the foresight exercise and
beyond.
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Stakeholder
Cluster
Stakeholder
Characteristics –
Examples of possible
permutations
Cluster-Specific Communication Tools or Media
Level 0
Foresight knowledge 
Thematic Expertise 
Awareness/Interest 
Media coverage providing generic information; Television/radio
interviews,
articles
and
press
releases
by
foresight
experts/practitioners and project implementation team.
Foresight Knowledge 
Thematic Expertise 
Awareness/Interest 
Website updated with conference proceedings, videos of
conference presentations, links etc; public web-forums; brochures;
awareness-raising
events;
training
in
foresight
basics;
brainstorming events; one-to-one interviews; newsletters
Foresight Knowledge 
Thematic Expertise 
Awareness/Interest 
Training in foresight basics; Scenario workshops; involvement in
panels’ videoconferencing; recording the foresight process.
Foresight Knowledge 
Thematic Expertise 
Awareness/Interest 
Mailing lists; Delphi questionnaires;
document and recommendations.
Lay public
Public sector
newcomers
Level 1
Decision-makers in the
public and private
sectors
Policy-makers
Level 2
NGOs
Industry, including
SMEs
Level 3
Academia/researchers
Level 3
Foresight
Experts/Practitioners
Foresight Knowledge 
Thematic Expertise 
Awareness/Interest 
preparation
of
vision
Face-to-face communication via one-to-one interviews;
Interaction with experts may be sporadic and necessary to seek
expert advice. Expert workshops and one-off reports.
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Step 7: Evaluating the Communication
Strategy
A system of reporting by technical
secretaries/champions on key outputs in terms
of:
• Formal and informal learning processes established during the
foresight exercise.
• Knowledge created and shared.
• Creativity elicited in the form of spin-off events.
• Networks consolidated and/or born during the foresight
exercise.
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Iterative nature of Foresight also apparent in the
links with the Communications Strategy
Communication
Strategy
Foresight
Exercise
Start-up and
Implementation
OUTPUTS
 Proactive dialogue
feedback loop
amongst stakeholder
clusters.
 Investment in foresight
Skills and facilitation
in foresight
techniques.

Prioritization of
key issues in theme
addressed.

Action lines
proposed.
 Mobilization for
investment in R&D
funding.
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Potential Constraints/Drawbacks:
• Time
• Specific communications skills lacking
• Resources availability (human and
financial)
• Socio-cultural barriers.
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Thank you for your attention
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