The second annual conference in the Mistra Geopolitics program held on 30 – 31st January 2019, has come to an end. Eva Krutmeijer reflects on the conference from a communications perspective. What have we learnt? How can we strengthen our communications efforts and add value to the program at the same time?
Eva’s 10 take-home messages:
- With cool visualisation tools we can take storytelling to new levels.
- Stakeholder dialogues are important processes and by keeping them active we can become even more relevant for our stakeholders and feed into their discussions and strategies.
- By using a world map as a backdrop to our research-based stories, it becomes natural to highlight various geopolitical aspects.
- Storytelling is a process surrounded by ‘story-shaping’ and ‘story-selling’. Researchers are most important in the first phase – the shaping of the storyline.
- The researcher has an important role as an interpreter. This goes in both directions. What does this study imply? How can we understand today’s challenges from our research perspective?
- Instead of adding more ideas, we can build upon what we already have. By connecting ideas and findings from our different work packages, our communication can be more relevant to Swedish stakeholders and political decision makers.
- By using simple language tools like “on one hand…” and “on the other hand…” in interviews for instance, we can emphasise how an issue can be understood from different perspectives.
- We must remember to communicate not only risks and uncertainties, but also opportunities.
- When processes move fast, like in international negotiations, it is necessary to maintain the richness and varieties in the various levels of knowledge – we can add geopolitical complexity and trust that policymakers appreciate it.
- We can start communicating with unexpected actors, even people and organisations that do not agree with our conclusions at all, and learn from that dialogue.
Author: Eva Krutmeijer
