Ways forward in Internal Communications at ILRI

1. Ways forward in Internal Communications at ILRI Or if I knew this existed Or a bit informal Or if I knew the right tools May be if you talk a little slower Abenet, Andrew, Evelyn, Ewen, Meron, Milcah, Paul, Tsehay

2. About this internal comms task force (and our work)

3. What happened since ParCom12? • Our task force was created as recommended in ParCom12: Abenet, Andrew, Evelyn, Ewen, Meron, Milcah, Paul, Tsehay • We had a Skype chat to go through the activities suggested in ParCom12 and more • And we prioritized them according to a) potential impact and b) easiness of implementation • We ended up with 7 priorities and 2 low priorities (presented here) • We worked individually or in pairs on each of these • We had a final Skype chat to finalize plans • All details are available on the wiki

4. High and low priorities

5. Maximizing Yammer use Why Heighten Yammer use amongst existing users, whilst attracting new users, with focus on non-KMIS personnel • What • Develop a more visual guide to Yammer basics • Address existing fears and roadblocks to use amongst staff • Provide recognition to non-KMIS Yammer champions • Request management for more corporate messages What and how • How • Build upon existing content to build a basic Yammer guide with visual aids (Andrew) • Address potential fears on Yammer use through blog posts hinting at solutions to them (Ewen) • Support this through very short interviews with KMIS staff on challenges/opportunities of using Yam at ILRI • Develop a simple system to monthly praise a Yammer • Ask Peter to again push mgt. for more corporate messages

6. Improving ILRI Town Halls Why Make Town Halls more interactive, better structured and more regular • Interaction online on Yammer prior to Town Hall • Facilitated discussions / buzz groups • Good documentation + reporting • Planning of future Town Halls • How: • 2 test runs on 8 March and 28 March (Ewen / Peter + a) Jemimah and b) Board • Facilitation by Ewen / Peter / Alan Duncan • Discuss how the format is working and how to tweak it (Ewen, Peter, Jimmy + ??) after events • Organise a rolling list / calendar of events (??) • Manage the process and chase contributions (??) What and how

7. Week ahead email Why Make minor tweaks to the ‘Week-ahead email’ to make it more interactive and descriptive without making it too wordy (it's quite functional as is). What and how • More calls-to-action in the activities by including relevant hyperlinks (regional reps) • Improve the email design to bookmark the regions so it’s easier to navigate (HTML template?) • Meron to share the print template of the newsletter with regional reps. so they can replicate what is being done in Addis with the print version • Regional reps to post the regional summaries of activities on the regional Yammer groups weekly • Place more focus on regional activities as we presume ADD and NBO activities are always reviewed • Involve Peter or Bruce in securing updates from West Africa which have so far been hard to come by

8. Notice boards Increase the utilization of physical notice boards on our campuses, whilst also exploring the introduction of dynamic-content television sets as well. Why • Look into replicating the physical board set up seen in the Addis campus in NBO and Asia • Encourage the participation of ILRI campus partners • Further investigate the introduction of dynamic TV-sets throughout the Addis campus • Include a Twitter-fall/Yammer-fall on the sets What and how • How • Zerihun/Apollo/Bizuwork to follow up with their TV-set company for a demonstration on a TBC-date • Meron to share the week ahead template with the regional reps

9. KommsKlinic series Make KommsKlinic series more regular, more interactive, engaging and provide tailored solutions for comms needs via different packages Why • What’s new? We offer to assist individuals, projects and teams with comms issues/functions they are struggling with and plan tailored solutions for their needs. Showcases different comms packages we may provide. • Develop and distribute KommsKlinic flyer presenting this. • We aim to approach each team or project probably once a month to assess their comms need, provide solutions and may be give hand on tools training (KMIS team). • The first session might take place in the Addis campus with NBDC project team probably at the end of March. (Tsehay, Ewen...?) • Running a "KommsKlinic week”/ workshop once in 3 months to engage everyone in the campus into knowing the packages and also inviting some projects to share and reflect their insights on the comms package they benefited from. (ILRI staff + other hosted institutions) What and how

10. Jimmy’s Video Why Make what has emerged as a powerful communication of reaching staff across locations even more effective • Make them regular: e.g. monthly updates of significant developments at ILRI • Consider subject other than announcements: e.g. could be used by DG for thematic messages • Video messages for MC meeting reports: Have others in the MC give video highlights of meetings. Encourage others in management to use it? • Equipment: Nairobi needs better video camera, Flip camera now in use. • How: Meet with Jimmy and Bruce on above suggestions and implementation of agreed actions. What and how

11. Institutional Survey Why • Effective communications planning • Internal evaluation and trend analysis of our communication • Better targeting of information What and how • Carry an informal survey during Friday morning coffee across ILRI campuses • Explain procedure to staff via email prior to the coffee and during coffee • Consider using survey monkey to compliment the FMC survey • Facilitated by Evelyn & Milcah for Nairobi, Tsehay for Addis and maybe Andrew for Asia? • Tentative dates 26-30 march • Method, voting either by flip chats or pen & paper

12. Coffee Mornings Why Make them more lively and useful while keeping the simple coffee & talk element – low key activity anyway • Only applicable for Addis campus for now – discuss with Nairobi staff for similar process? • 8 March: introduce ideas behind updated coffee AM • Have a short discussion about International Women’s day and gender at the campus (Ewen facilitates) • 22 March: World Water Day – similar process (Ewen) • 5 April: Offer people option to map out issues they would like to discuss during these coffee mornings (Ewen) • Invite small committee to reflect on coffee mornings in May or June (Ewen to organise) What and how

13. Other considerations?

14. What about… • Scientific discussions with other institutions on the campus? Certainly relevant for Addis campus… • Innovative Fridays? Probably a good engine to keep this group going and innovation + creativity up! • Comms wiki revamp will happen anyways… • Organizing our own training and keeping our knowledge and skills sharp? Personal effectiveness survey? • What now? How to agree about this, make these ideas actionable and effectively act upon them?