Internal Communications Challenges

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Internal Communications Challenges Best
Practices

• Communications Key Function Committee
• 1 April 2009
• Julie McKeel

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DTMI Administration
DTMI Organizational Structure
Education and Training
Ethics
Pediatrics
Biomedical Informatics
Biostatistics
Nursing
Core Laboratories
Regulatory Affairs
Project Leadership
Site-based Research
Discovery science
First-in-human
Application in the community
Preclinical research
Phase IIIV
Proof of Concept
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Challenges

• Communicating within the DTMI.
• We have an incredibly large, matrix organization
  composed of many components, teams, and pillar
  organizations that span the campus.
• It is a constant struggle to find efficient ways
  to communicate with each component while also
  ensuring that each participant sees itself as
  part of the larger whole.
• At the same time, each contributor has tremendous
  value outside of the whole, and we have to be
  sensitive to that as well.

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Challenges

• Allowing existing organizations, centers,
  institute, departments to maintain autonomy,
  while working to create opportunities for
  collaboration to leverage individual
  organizational strengths.
• Working to build bridges to (and among) the
  well-established "silos" within the campus, to
  better communicate funding, training, and
  consultative opportunities.

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Challenges

• Solving the branding issues.
• Should there be a brand for this new
  organization? If so, how does that brand get
  integrated with existing, enterprise-level
  brands?
• Finding practical and effective ways to introduce
  the concept of a new academic home for clinical
  and translational research at Duke.
• How do we communicate the support provided for
  this type of research? How do we find the right
  audience?

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Challenges

• Finding ways to efficiently and economically
  capitalize on the endless opportunities available
  (via the internet, through websites, on-line
  conferencing, wikis, surveys, and list servs)
  without causing more "pain" and confusion with
  the necessity of extra log-in account
  requirements.

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Challenges

• Finding ways to communicate messages driven by
  important, but sometimes conflicting, agendas in
  ways that respect the complexity of the science
  yet remain accessible to a wide variety of
  audiences.
• Determining how to use technology to support
  communication efforts. Is communication
  referring to technology or to words? Technology
  should support communication efforts (e.g.,
  building a useful and maintainable enterprise
  mailing list!)

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Best Practices

• Use existing communications resources, where
  possible.
• Our CTSA takes advantage of the services provided
  by a well-established Communications department
  to develop and maintain a variety of media to
  support communication efforts across the campus,
  the community, and the consortium.
• Skills represented in this department include
  writing, editing, web, database, and graphic
  design, videography, and event management
  services.
• Weve developed newsletters, flyers, brochures,
  websites, videos, and webcasts. Weve also
  supported or coordinated workshops and seminars.

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Best Practices

• Use existing communications resources, where
  possible (continued).
• Note We opted to stay away, at least initially,
  from e-newsletters. Our faculty and staff are
  inundated with electronic newsletters from all
  over the planet, and had begun to tune them out.
• This group cannot supply ALL of the
  communications needs for the DTMI, though, so we
  decided to hire an additional staff writer to
  (mostly) support our local CTSA needs.

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Best Practices

• Create a Communications Planning Committee that
  includes members from the administrative and
  financial office of the main DTMI office, the
  communications team, and the two pillar
  organizations that provide the most services for
  campus researchers.
• This is critical to defining purpose, audience,
  message, and deliverables. (We meet bi-monthly.)

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Best Practices

• Establish new (and maintain existing) networks
  among the news and communications offices for
  each of the schools, centers, departments, or
  institutes across the medical center and
  university. Keep others informed, share
  articles, ask for reciprocal links, etc.
• Implement a broad sweep strategy designed to
  reach and appeal to a wider audience by featuring
  diverse projects/initiatives, and using case
  studies and testimonials to highlight service
  offerings.

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Best Practices

• Set and keep a consistent publication schedule to
  build expectation for the next issue.
• Encourage word-of-mouth communication from
  satisfied customers to potential customers.
• Establish and maintain a consistent brand,
  delivering a consistent look and feel for all
  materials produced to reinforce identity within
  the larger academic community.

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Best Practices
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Best Practices

• Create a Business Strategies Working Group to
  enhance communication about strategic initiatives
  within the DTMI. This group meets bi-weekly and
  offers an opportunity to discuss potential
  synergies across the pillars. It includes
  operational leaders from each pillar and business
  strategists.
• Advertise (OFTEN) the consultative services
  offered, via newsletters and websites include
  contact names, numbers, email addresses, and
  URLs. We make it easy for research teams to find
  us.

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Best Practices

• Use web-based forms to collect requests for the
  biostatistical, regulatory, data management, and
  biomedical informatics consultation services
  offered, and follow up! Again, make it easy for
  them to submit a request for assistance.
• Attend grand rounds, departmental meetings,
  research conferences, workshops, team meetings,
  etc. We keep our ears to the ground to find out
  whats going on and whos doing what, and then
  seek opportunities for collaboration.

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Best Practices

• Support the entire enterprise, not just one PI or
  group.
• By offering to support a variety of initiatives,
  projects, and members within our CTSA, we get
  more than just the PIs view of the work being
  done. Very often, by working with teams across
  our CTSA, we become the conduit through which
  other teams find out about projects, leading to
  unintended but valuable collaborations.

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