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