Scripting your Data Story – Taking Control of the NarrativeTM
Richard Hartman, Ph.D.
Co-Founder
11 Jun 13
Setting the Stage
GovExec Headlines (Jun 2013) “Plan for 10 Percent Budget Cut in Fiscal
2014, Defense Official Says” “White House Unveils First-Ever Inventory of
Federal Programs” http://www.goals.performance.gov/
federalprograminventory
“Where are the Low Priority Programs?”
Setting the Stage
FedTimes Headlines (Jun 2013) “Deeper Cuts are Threatened in 2014”
As agencies wrestle with the fallout from this year’s sequester-related budget cuts, many face an even steeper round of reductions starting in October under a recently approved blueprint by the House Appropriations Committee.
“Flying Blind: The Impacts of Sequesters” In the public media, escaping furloughs has become a
proxy for a well-managed agency, able to avoid the worst effects of this challenging budgetary year.
“For agency executives and program managers, the one certainty is likely to be
continued uncertainty.”GovExec Jun2013
Current playing field
Sequestration is particularly painful Indiscriminant nature of the across-the-board cuts
Executives are loosing control without the opportunity to defend Integrity, impact and mission related
accomplishments At some point executive need to regain
control of the process Be prepared to defend their programs and
budgets to internal and external stakeholders
Navigating through Uncertainty “Big Picture”
Navigating through Uncertainty
Understand your mission and the internal and external forces
Identify and focus on your stakeholders (staff, congress, public)
Make time to monitor and control operations on a regular basis
Understand the significance of technology as the prime drive in today’s digital world
Take Control of the NarrativeTM
Making Communication more quantitative and data-driven Establishing clear points to enhance your story Tying your story to the organizational mission
Let the data drive decisions Recognize and always be prepared for change
Predicative analytics
Embrace New technology
Elected leaders are/or want to be very attune to their constituents (their concerns, deepest desires, and what they support or do not support)
Now federal leaders can take that message to them directly using new technologies
That is, to take control of the narrative and get ahead of the story, event, campaign or issue
IRS turns over to Congress video of employees line dancing
In a written statement, the IRS said the video was "unacceptable and an inappropriate use of government funds." It said the agency has new policies in place "to ensure that taxpayer funds are being used appropriately.”
What is Digital Media?
More than just sharing pics of yourself online...
What is Social Media?
More than just pushing information...
It’s the single LARGEST data source
of public perceptionEVER created
It’s the single LARGEST
data sourceof public behaviorEVER created
“The dynamic manner of their future billion dollar decisions will be based on the
massaging of masses of data that will decide the winners and the losers of the future.”
Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM
POWER OF A TWEET
What Do you see?
LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND
“For the first time in history everyone has a voice that can be heard with access to the
influencers.”Richard Hartman, COO of OMG Inc.
Analysis of Obama’s Twitter Townhall
July 6, 2011
Case Study - Treasury
Hot on Twitter:@BreakingNews: US blocks $30 billion in Libya assets, the largest freeze ever, Treasury Dept. says
RT @zacharykarabell: Treasury Dept reports that China owns even more US debt than we thought. That's a lot of debt
http://tinyurl.com/49nxwuz #china #economy
Treasury Dept. Analysis March 1, 2011
10/12-10/18 Social Media Analysis (N=150)E-VERIFY PUBLIC DIALOGUE
LANGUAGE MATTERS…
TELLING STORIES WITH DATA…EXAMPLES
News Broke on Twitter
Osama Dead
15
30
45
60
75
Approval Rating
VHA Facebook Comment Analysis
=
Negative
PositiveNegative
Positive
=
Negative
Positive
Negative
Positive
VA SENTIMENTANALYSIS
• 17.5% of comments came from current VA employees.
• Almost all negative.
• VA missing opportunity to create evangelists of staff through better internal
communications.
VA Staff
Non-VA Staff
VA Employees
Non-VA Employees
VA SENTIMENTANALYSIS
• Complaints were lodged about services provide in:
1. Dallas, TX
2. Denver, CO
3. KC VAMC
4. Los Angeles, CA
5. Manchester, NH
6. West Haven, CT
7. San Diego, CA
• Compliments in service improvements were noted in:
1. Hampton, VA
2. West Haven, CT
3. Houston, TX
4. Worcester, MA
Where will future problems arise?
(+)(-)
VA SENTIMENTANALYSIS
COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS
Social media analytics provides instantaneous insight about an agency in comparison to other agencies based on the perceptions
of the public, congress, and the agency's own staff.
TARGETED MESSAGING AND LISTENING
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Analyze Social Media Mentions by Location
GEOGRAPHICANALYTICS
TSA
…by shutting out the noise and only listening to who you want to listen to e.g., politicians, public, and agency
…by shutting out the noise and only listening to who you want to listen to e.g., politicians, public, and agency
LISTEN INFORM ACT
Achieve insight into the real issues for public, politicians,
and staff
Monitor agency programs to see if national dialogue
about agency issues is becoming more
pervasive
Provide ongoing data and analysis without need for
survey instruments
Use data to inform outreach, such as assessing drugs to
target in educational campaigns
Identify influential sources and better prevent the spread of misinformation
about this community
Use trending stories among this group to
determine how better to shape communication
materials
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS
Twitter Used to Predict Box Office SuccessHuberman, Bernardo A. Asur, Sitaram
• 2010 Study
• Rate at which messages were produced used to accurately predict opening weekend box-office takings before the film had opened. Movie Prediction Reality
The Crazies $16.8M $16.06MDear John $30.7M $30.46M
• Percent Change in Facebook Fans by Political Affiliation Over Time (US House)
+61Seats
Facebook Used to Predict 2010 Election Outcomes
Einhorn, Hartman, Nelson
+6Seats
Percent Change in Facebook Fans by Political Affiliation Over Time (US Senate)
PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD
Imagine heading to a meeting with a congressional authorizing committee or the Office of Management and Budget to explain the impact budget cuts will have on
services and staffing. Your insights are based on limited data regarding critical programmatic outcomes and
insufficient staffing and workload projections. On top of that, you cannot explain how the cuts will affect the
economy and the welfare of constituencies within specific regions, states, counties, and cities.
This is a recipe for disaster that would not serve you or your organization well.
Now imagine that you prepare for this meeting by arming yourself with insights from a variety of sources, including
FedView Survey results, program performance and workload data, targeted public opinion research, specific
media reports, statements from the Congressional Record and thoughts from constituents and stakeholders collected through social media, including Facebook and
Twitter.
Having access to this level of information will shift the dynamics of the conversation and allow agency leaders
to influence the budget process through targeted messaging and solutions.
“By collectively using information from surveys, digital media, the Web and internal
data mining you will be able to not only defend decisions for targeted cuts, but make the
business case for sustaining programs that work and ensure they are properly staffed and
resourced.”Hartman and Salamone, NextGov Dec 2012
How are you going to address?
Furloughs Sequestration Program Cuts Staffing The survival of your Agency
“Taking Control of the Narrative” TM
Using Big Data to Prepare for Budget Cuts and Beyond http://www.nextgov.com/big-data/2012/12/commentary-
using-big-data-prepare-fiscal-cliff-and-beyond/60300/?oref=ng-HPriver
Using Social Media Monitoring for Government Operations http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/212007-
social-media-monitoring-is-critical-for-government-operations
Catching the Social Media Wave: Using Data To Drive Decisions https://www.seniorexecs.org/action_newsletter/
catching_the_social_media_wave_using_data_to_drive_decisions/
Scripting your Data Story – Taking Control of the NarrativeTM
Richard Hartman, Ph.D.
Co-Founder
11 Jun 13
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