The Book I Wish I Read 10 Years Ago
Source: https://twitter.com/DrAAlBahrani/status/1226527845721296896?s=20 #ElevateTheDebateBOOK
I was supposed to be in London to present my work on Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging and Financial Literacy . Sadly, winter storm Ciara had other plans. Rather than sulk, I spent my day the way I had envisioned sabbatical would be like. I spent it reading a book at a pub in Dublin.
I read Elevate the Debate by Jon Schwabish and the Urban Institute team. I highly recommend the book.
If you are an academic interested in increasing your research impact you would benefit from reading the book. If you are a coauthor, please pick up the book now! If you work as a researcher for a think tank or government organization, pick up the book. For all my students enrolled in my class, Research for Economists, this book will be part of your reading. This book needs to be part of every professional development program, and especially for graduate students.
I have been guilty of what Bridget Lowell describes in the first chapter as:
“Too many scholars and analysts write a report, memo, or blog post and expect that by virtue of its quality alone, it will find an audience and generate positive impact.”
I have never explicitly thought about the communication strategy to distributing my research. If I did, I had no idea what to consider. I expect most academics have not received any training on communicating their work beyond conference presentations and seminars. As a policy driven researcher, and as a supervisor of policy research, I have the opportunity to start thinking about my audience(s) and how I want to communicate with them. Elevate the Debate provides me with the framework to develop an effective communication strategy. The book provides checklists and tangible tasks to help you move forward.
Elevate the Debate made me realize that I was passive in sharing my work. I walked away with the following thoughts:
Think of multiple ways and formats to share my work. Journal article, a blog post, op-eds tweets…etc. While this might seem intuitive, Elevate the Debate provides a framework for me to revisit.
Presentation design. It has also made me realize that my presentations are not only for those in the physical audience. I need to share my slides and the resources after I present. My presentation can have an impact long after it is complete. This will allow stakeholders to amplify my work to a new audience.
There is a good discussion on social media use. While I am comfortable in this space, I often present to graduate students and new faculty on how to use social media to build their brand. The chapter by David Connell is a great way to complement my advice. His advice is focused on developing your research communication via social media. I picked up some new tips on how to use social media for research communication. If you are an educator interested in social media use in the classroom, read my paper with Darshak Patel.
Two graphs that I will have printed and posted on my office wall are 1. Complexity-Audience Pyramid (see below) and 2- Stakeholder-mapping graph (conceptualizing your audience is not pictured here )
I look forward to implementing changes to my approach as a researcher and communicator of scientific information. As I implement new changes to my communication, I will update via twitter, make sure to follow me.