CPWF survey April-May 2012 Sophie Alvarez, Peter Ballantyne, Ruvicyn Bayot, Tonya Harding, Ewen Le Borgne, Ilse Pukinskis, Michael Victor

Outline Rationale Results Reflections Recommendations

Rationale for the Yammer survey ?

A relatively significant network: 191 members and over 2000 messages in 2011 Rationale: How to understand the current use of this network and its members’ communication preferences? How to improve the relevance of this network? 39 survey respondents (20.4%) with many comments

Results

Results (1): Personal use A majority (28%) check Yammer 1x/day. 13% never check it 51% lurkers – 28% part-time and 13% active participants Nearly half access Yammer on the web interface or (41%) via digests

Results (2) Others’ use of Yammer (Very) useful: to get updates on activities (73.7%), for sharing info across CPWF (71.8%), to follow events (59.4%), to hear about links and ideas (69.5%). (Really) not useful: to discuss issues (47%), to share what I’m doing (37.2%) to obtain feedback from others (35.3%) Comments: Useful for things that escaped our radar, and across basins but needs more participants. To some, feels like flooding people with comments

Results (2) Others’ use of Yammer

Results (3) Barriers and incentives Barriers: Time!!! (56.8%) Not sure what to write (21.6%) Not confident in posting (16.2%) Nuisances: Small talk/chatter (34.2%), Lack of focus in posts (30.3%), Too many posts in a day (15.6%). Also long messages and auto-congratulatory tone Incentives: Better discussions (43.2%) More relevant content (37.8%) Training and improved usability not an issue nor request

Results (4) Alternative channels/uses 44.4% think Yammer is useful to share information – 66.6% when (very) useful Most useful: 1. Face to face (97.2%), 2. (94.4%) 3. CPWF e-letter (75.6%) 4. Yammer (66.6%) And also Skype, Dropbox, FlickR, GoToMeeting…

Results (4) Alternative channels/uses Comments received Too much information! More guidelines to write on Yammer More emphasis on technical / expert content More updates from basins Have smaller groups? « For me the current yammer service is flawless. » More people should provide updates and basin leaders should encourage the use of Yammer

Reflections

We are time- and attention-starved How to prioritize use of Yammer to show the value? Some are not authorized to post on Yammer How does management see the use of Yammer? Too many communication channels? How to make sense of what to post where? Too few people provide inputs In order to work, Yammer needs everyone’s presence/inputs Good (technical) content, lessons learned and stimulating questions are needed to fuel good discussions How can we invest in this? Have we explored all the uses of Yammer? Do we understand how to converse on Yammer?

Reflections: Lessons learned CPWF-CRP5 Yammer works to share information, CPWF updates, links, ideas. Perhaps not so useful for discussions, feedback, personal updates Rather than comms to researchers it should be seen as a peer network: researchers to researchers Find champion researchers who are willing to post Yammer etiquette matters: Post short, crisp, focused posts Lurking is a normal phenomenon: many don’t post but read Everyone should be on Yammer or it doesn’t deliver its potential Training only required initially. Coaching might help afterwards s and face-to-face contact still rule – complementary in nature? Building trust to share more confidently

Recommendations

Recommendations (1) At Basin level: Each basin (comms person?) to share updates once / week Form smaller groups to kickstart discussions in trust / branch off into specific basin networks (e.g. Nile/Andes BDC) Look for research/MT champions to post – see this as a peer network not as comms dissemination network. At global level: Tease out questions and issues that matter for all basins and post them on Yammer Continue with targeted s (E-letter) Organize webinars (outside of Yammer) to stimulate critical technical discussions

Recommendations (1) At everyone’s level: Invest in face-to-face contact to build trust among Yammer users More coaching (by comms) for better use of Yammer Encourage critical questions and lessons learnt? Turn CPWF Yammer into a reflexive network Communication specialists to share information on ‘Comms4Uptake’ Yammer more, to avoid overcrowding the CPWF Yammer Give it a try before judging Share your opinion about how to use/improve Yammer in whatever way, including… on Yammer ;)