How communications get complicated

Still harping on about communications…Take the current situation of the swine flu vaccination: the NHS is advocating that those in ‘at risk’ groups take advantage of having the jab.  However, some medical experts are opposed to the vaccine, saying it’s not been tested sufficiently, and with actions speaking louder than words, media reports of considerable numbers of health service staff opting out of the vaccine are significant.  Then we all know someone, a friend, or friend of a friend, who’s had a serious adverse reaction to a vaccine in the past, and someone else who’s had swine flu but wasn’t really that ill – in fact, it was no worse than a cold.  But then there’s another friend for whom we have great respect who’s decided that they are definitely going to have the jab….

With such conflicting evidence, speculation and rumour, a simple decision is suddenly made complicated.  And from a communications perspective, the best and most strategic efforts of the NHS Communications Team to put their advice across may be railroaded by other sources of influence more significant to the recipient of the information. 

Whilst I use swine flu as an example, I guess my point is that whilst we can be ’100% sure’ of the facts and what they mean, what we cannot control is the way people will interpret them, how their beliefs, history and prior knowledge will affect their views, and what other sources of evidence we are competing with.  The Holy Grail for us in communicating our research must surely be for what we discover to be transmitted, unadulterated, into what other people hear and come to know.  But perhaps a more realistic target is to get our stuff out to a wide audience in the first place, and accept that whatever is ‘heard’ is better than it not being heard!

Communicating research

This afternoon I’ve been drafting a marketing and comms plan for Ashridge research for 2010, and in doing so, referred back to old marketing plans.  It stuck me just how much things have moved on in terms of research communications in the last couple of years.  We now invite people to take part in research projects via web-pages – and all our surveys are web-based.  We  broadcast the keynote speakers from our recent Future of Learning Conference via the web, albeit not sychronously - though that’ll come soon! - we ask research project leaders to talk to a camera and share the findings of their research via podcasts, and although we still produce research reports in traditional formats, we’re also up for various informal ways of talking about our research – my colleague was recently contacted via Facebook about her article in Harvard Business Review, for example. 

I’m not sure of the exact relative effectiveness of each of the communications channels we currently use to share the findings of our research; I suspect different combinations work best for different audiences and purposes, and this changes over time as the appetite for new technologies grows. 

However, it does seem that speed over perfection is a trend, and I’ve got a keen interest in how paper-based peer review journals will adapt their lengthy review process.  On the subject of academic journals, I’m noticing more invitations to submit to online journals, and for conferences, simply more invitations overall, which leads into another theme: how to select out from the mass of information bombarding my inbox just which bits are worth delving into more deeply, and which to discount at first sight!

Research at Ashridge

Lets start with an introduction……what is research at Ashridge? Well, the overall mission of Ashridge is to improve the practice of managers – and this too is the focus of the Ashridge research strategy. In short, research at Ashridge aims to make a positive impact both upon management practice and management learning.

We use our research to inform the design of new programmes and provide content for new sessions. We translate our findings into learning principles, practices and products that will help our faculty design and deliver state of the art interventions.

There are five research centres within the research portfolio and each focuses upon a specific strength of Ashridge. You can find out more about these research centres via the Ashridge Research Centre Home Page.