3 Steps to a Clear Message Strategy

Multiple communication channels available 24/7 are a mixed blessing. They allow to spread the message quickly and in multiple formats. However, it can be easy to lose sight of what really needs to be said. Hence, we could technology on a pause for a moment and focus on the message. There are three simple steps to shape the overarching communications strategy and prepare a clear message.

1. 👩🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏻 First, REALLY know your audience

2. 🌟 Then ask, “What do they need to hear?”

3. 🛣 Now for the fun part: building your strategy. Involve your internal stakeholders 👩‍💻 Contributors, 🕵️‍♂️ Reviewers, and 👩‍💼 Approver(s)

https://www.duarte.com/presentation-skills-resources/3-steps-to-a-clear-message-strategy/

5 Strategies to Rebuild Your Self-Esteem

By building your confidence as well as your competence, you build executive presence. True self-esteem doesn’t mean that one has to assert ourselves at the expense of other people. People with positive self-esteem can acknowledge their own worth and validate the positive qualities of others.

📖 Learn something new—there is no cut-off age for learning and in today’s pandemic online world, there’s no limit to what you can learn.

🤩 Adopt a mantra—a positive affirmation can sometimes serve as a reminder of your self-worth. Find a quote, affirmation, or mantra, print it out, and place it where you’ll see it every day.

🤗 Show compassion and self-respect—one strategy is to be more compassionate in the way you talk to yourself.

♥ Forgive yourself—everybody, without exception, makes mistakes. Healthy self-forgiveness involves the right amount of remorse, which helps you learn from your mistakes and fuel positive change.

📝 Journal your accomplishments—by articulating your accomplishments and recording them on paper, you force yourself to increase your awareness on the positive side of the equation.

https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2022/june/rebuild-your-self-confidence

Upside down map?

This chart of the week shows map of the World as seen from Australia, in Hobo-Dyer projection. Quite unfamiliar view, if you live in Europe—like I do—and are accustomed to Europe-centered, North on the top, Mercator projection maps.

Any map is a model of reality, imperfect representation of things, based on a set of assumptions and conventions. Mercator projection is very useful for certain purposes and it was invented for them. It is preserving angles, and thus local directions and shapes, making it indispensable for navigation. North on the top, South on the bottom is a useful convention. However, it comes with a cost—it inflates the size of objects away from the equator. Russia, Canada, and especially Greenland and Antarctica look much bigger than they are. XCKD jokingly proposed a Madagascator projection, which designed solely to exaggerate size of Madagascar through using unorthodox specifications of projection).

We keep similar mental maps for many things and navigate them so routinely, that we take assumptions and conventions for granted. Navigating complex issues requires comparing and aligning our mental maps. Such a comparison could help us to see the issue on various maps and find a joint way forward.

10 Fast and Effective Ways to Overcome Stage Fright

🧘‍♀️ 1 Get your head in the right place

😤 2 Belly breathe

🔋 3 Turn that negative talk into positive thinking

🦸‍♂️ 4 Stand straight and open up your chest

🛡 5 Let go of intrusive thoughts

☺ 6 Greet your audience. And smile

👩‍🎤 7 Talk . . . don’t present

✨ 8 Visualize a successful outcome

🔦 9 Turn the spotlight around

💃 10 Move!

https://www.genardmethod.com/blog/10-fast-and-effective-ways-to-overcome-stage-fright

Maping ecosystem services contribution to SDGs for Small Island Developing States

Marine and coastal ecosystem services play cruicial role in the economy and well-being in Small Island Developing States. These services could contribute to common challenges in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Fact-based solutions, based on linking ESS and SDGs, are essential for nature conservation and sustainable development in SIDS. The recent study developed an approach to capture the contribution of ESS to the achievement of SDGs in Aruba.

The study quantitatively capture the contribution of three ESS to the achievement of priority SDG targets, as well as interlinkages between priority SDG targets. Lack of data for many of the ESS is an issue widely by local stakeholders in Aruba. A shortlist of indicators provided appropriate metrics of the socio-economic value of fisheries and socioeconomic data on nature-based tourism. This chart, a hotspots maps provides information on how Arubans perceive the importance of nature for cultural and recreational activities and their well-being.

#SIDS #ESS #ecosystemservices #SDGs #SDG14 #chartoftheweek #Aruba

The Grand Finale: How to End Your Speech

A strong opening and a memorable closing are the most important parts of any speech. To craft a strong end, think about why and how you want your speech to be remembered.

🦸‍♀️ Call to action—tell your audience to take action, make it clear and specific

🌈 Close the story arc—set up a question at the beginning of your speech and use your ending to answer it

👨‍🏫 Tell them what you’ve just told—summarize main points of your speech, use a summary slide instead of a ‘thank you’ slide

Punchline—finish with a short, memorable sentence, an interesting quote, a cartoon or animation

👉 https://virtualspeech.com/blog/different-ways-to-end-presentation-speech

Networks and diffusion of agricultural innovations

Dissemination of improved technologies could play crucial role in increasing productivity in agriculture. Extension services, provided by governments and other organizations, could address existing information barriers by providing recommendations for increasing agricultural productivity and yields. Trained farmers may disseminate knowledge further to their peers. Hence, social networks could play an important role in this process—thanks to credibility of contacts and knowledge of local conditions.

This chart of the week from the recent UNU-WIDER Working Paper shows different types of networks in one village in Guinea-Bissau. The research brings several important conclusions. It confirmed that that agricultural information diffuses along social network links from project participants to non-participants. Different types of networks play different role. While chatting network connects virtually all families in village, farmer’s financial support networks are most relevant for information diffusion. Weak social links appear to be as important as strong links in the dissemination of agricultural knowledge. Finally, project has impact on farmers’ communication network, which expanded because of training.

Rute Martins Caeiro. Diffusion of agricultural innovations in Guinea-Bissau. From learning to doing. WIDER Working Paper 7/2022