Transcript Communication and SEB Assessment Studies

WMO
SEB Workshop
COMMUNICATIONS AND
SEB ASSESSMENT STUDIES
Gerald Fleming
Mahé, Seychelles, Thursday, May 7th 2015
WMO; Public Weather Services, WDS Dept
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Vice-Admiral Robert Fitzroy
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Changing the Paradigm

Now we can produce many millions of forecast
products each day.

Do we know what people do with them?
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Changing the Paradigm

WMO THORPEX Project 2005 - 2012

Developed the SEA Group
Societal and
Economic
Applications
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Changing the Paradigm

WMO THORPEX Project 2005 - 2012

Developed the SEA Group
Societal and
Economic
R
Applications
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Changing the Paradigm

WMO THORPEX Project 2005 - 2012

Developed the SEA Group
Societal and
Economic
Research
Applications
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Changing the Paradigm
What is Communication?
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Changing the Paradigm
What is Communication?
 Information transfer??
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Changing the Paradigm
What is Communication?
 Information transfer??
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Communication
Communication
One Idea
Two Brains
Two different environments!
Communication
Western
Eastern
Communication
Female
Male
Communication
Elements of Personal Communication
Albert Mehrabian
Communication
Elements of Personal Communication
7% - What you say
Communication
Elements of Personal Communication
7% - What you say
38% - How you say it
Communication
Elements of Personal Communication
7% - What you say
38% - How you say it
55% - How you look while you are saying it
Communication
Changing the Paradigm
Which is the most important organ to use
effectively for good Communication?
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Changing the Paradigm
Which is the most important organ to use
effectively for good Communication?
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Communication
Communication
Excellence in Service Delivery
Communication of SEB Studies
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Draw up a communications strategy in advance
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Who will we deliver the message to?
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How will we deliver that message?
 How will we know if we are successful?
 It’s all about advocacy – building a case towards a
larger end (more funding, more staff, bigger
audience, better satisfaction rating etc)
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Who are the audience?
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Board of Directors
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Ministry officials
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Politicians / Ministers
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Funding / Donor agencies
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Partner agencies
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Media
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Public
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……………
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Communication of SEB Studies
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What tools do we have?
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Written reports
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Tables / numbers
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Graphs
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One-to-one briefings
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Presentations
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Interviews (radio and television)
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Website
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Social Media……
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Communication of SEB Studies
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General Principles:
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Match the tools, or methods, to the audience
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Stories / narratives are strong – use these in
conjunction with “hard facts”
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Have a clear objective in mind (preferably one
that can be measured in some way)
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Plan your communications campaign to use all
the (relevant) tools at your disposal.
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Communication of SEB Studies
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General Principles:
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Pick the best people to deliver the message
(this may not always be the Director or the
most senior staff!)
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Ensure that everyone who is involved in
communicating around a SEB study is wellbriefed and stays consistent with the message.

This implies that all the communicators need to
know and understand the SEB study
thoroughly.
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Communicating to Ministry Officials
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They will need detail – text and tables
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Not enough just to deliver these – try to
organise a briefing where you can deliver a
presentation and take questions etc
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Good graphics can make a big impact
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Be open about any assumptions
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Emphasise the rigorous nature of the work
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Communication of SEB Studies
Aviation Agriculture
Health
Water
Supply
Marine
Costs
$0.3m
$0.2m
$0.1m
$0.4m
$0.2m
Benefits
$1.2m
$1.5m
$1.0m
$0.8m
$0.7m
Ratio
4:1
7.5:1
10:1
2:1
3.5:1
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Communicating to Ministry Officials
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Employ professional graphics artists and
production people to help put together your
report
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Add in some stories about people
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Farming groups who will especially benefit
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Service workers to aviation or marine
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Health – many options here
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Communicating to Politicians
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What are they interested in?
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Voters!! Therefore publicity
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Lots of stories about people
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Especially if they relate to the politicians locality /
interest / speciality
Politicians will want a story that helps them to
look good.
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Communicating to Media – Newspapers
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Background briefings with friendly journalists
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Good graphics and a good story
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Headline figures to grab the attention
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Simple summary of survey results
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Nice graphic to illustrate benefits
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Story (with pictures) of e.g. a farmer harvesting a
good crop, or a meteorological observer with an
aircraft in the background
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Communicating to Media - Radio
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Don’t try to give a lot of detail – especially
numbers
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Stick to the broad outlines
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Emphasise the current benefits provided by the
Met. Service
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Have a narrative also – a story about some real
user
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Communicating to Media - TV
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Make sure to provide a good graphic (or
provide the numbers to the TV graphics person
in advance for them to work something up
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Broad brush strokes – simple story
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Try to include an interview with a user who has
a good story to tell
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Headline – User Story – Graphics - Interview
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Communicating to Media – Internet/Website
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Here we can provide lots of detail for those who
want it.
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Simple story on the home page
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Good graphics essential
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Detail can be hidden behind hotlinks
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Communicating to Media – Social Media
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Here is where you advertise your story
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Lots of mainstream media stories are sourced
from social media
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Simple headline messages, e.g. on Twitter can
direct readers to the full story on your website.
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Again – pictures, graphics, and not too much
text.
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Communication of SEB Studies
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Communicating to Users
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Great opportunity to tell a good story to users
and build the relationship with them
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Go to their functions; business/Rotary
meetings, farming association AGMs, annual
conferences or trade events for specific sectors
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As before – keep the story simple, have good
graphics, and some human interest narrative
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Communication of SEB Studies
 What would a communications campaign look
like?
 Let’s say we want to influence a decision in the
annual budget.
 When are the decisions taken? – Assume
November.
 Be ready to start in late September!
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Communication Campaign for SEB Studies
 Late September / early October
 Background briefings for Journalists
 Put the story on your website
 Talks to user groups
 Mid-October
 Social media campaign to highlight story
 First articles in the newspapers
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Communication Campaign for SEB Studies
 Late October
 Stories on TV
 Radio Interviews
 Presentation to Minister / Officials
 November
 More radio interviews
 Further articles in the newspapers
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Communication Campaign for SEB Studies
 Don’t forget the “internal” audience – the Met.
Service staff
 Background briefings for all staff
 Select regional staff to lead the
communications campaign in their regions
 Keep them up-to-date with developments
 Use their ideas and suggestions
 Build SEB studies into training courses
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Communication Campaign for SEB Studies
 Monitoring and Evaluation
 Measure as much as possible
 Newspaper articles / column inches
 Radio interviews
 TV interviews
 Personal presentations
 Website “hits”
 Set targets in advance and try to exceed them
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Thank you for your attention
www.wmo.int
Communications Exercise
 Based on Case Study 9 in Appendix E of the book
“Valuing Weather and Climate”
 Objective is to try and communicate some
complex information in a simple manner to an
audience that know little about either
meteorology or economics
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Communications Exercise
 Exercise A
 Invited to attend a “business breakfast” hosted by a
group of business people prominent in the banking and
financial sectors, you have been asked to give a 3minute talk (no slides or graphics!) on the recentlypublished economic assessment.
 Exercise B
 You will have a short (3 to 4 minute) interview on
National Bhutan Radio about the recent publication of
the economic assessment of meteorological and
hydrological services. Prepare notes for this.
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Communications Exercise
 Exercise C
 You have a half-page newspaper article to prepare for
the “popular press”. The article must be limited to 300
words. An illustration or photograph is also required.
 Exercise D
 Publicise the recently published economic assessment
through the social media. Prepare an article for
Facebook, along with some relevant illustrations, and
also to compose 6 messages for Twitter (140
characters maximum!) to direct people to this Facebook
page.
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