Workforce Innovation Fund Grantee Meeting 2014
Session Title
Building Support through Effective
Communication Strategies
Presenters/Facilitators:



Date
3/28/14
Approximate
Attendance
130
Robert Kight
Steven Baker
Jacob Klerman
Topics/Issues Discussed or Presented:
 Telling your story
 Using evaluation to share a story
Highlights of Presentation and Discussion:
Robert Kight, Division Chief of the WIA Adult Services and the Workforce System Unit at ETA
opened the plenary session with a recap of the previous day’s events. Dr. Kight opened with
the five key ideas that Social Innovation Fund Director Michael Smith shared with the grantees
on the first day of the meeting. Those included:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Start with Big Bold Goals
Experiment Early and Often
Make Failure Matter
Reach Beyond the Bubble
Create a Spirit of Urgency
Dr. Kight also highlighted the “Innovating at the Speed of Business” plenary session and
Secretary Perez’ remarks were described as inspiring. He ended by encouraging the grantees to
ask questions throughout the day and especially at the afternoon Town Hall session.
He then introduced the morning’s speakers, Steven Baker, Vice President of Marketing and
Communications, Jobs for the Future and Jacob Klerman, Principal Associate/Scientist, Abt
Associates.
Steven Baker
Baker opened by outlining the key goals of the session. They were to: (1) cover the basics of
good storytelling; (2) frame the grantees’ projects into a story; (3) develop a working draft; and
(4) leverage evaluation results. Baker then gave examples of how grantees could use their
stories, including internal communications, talking points, speeches, presentations, funding
proposals, articles, and for social media.
Mr. Baker then delineated the fundamentals of a good story. He emphasized that telling a story
is very different from just reciting facts. He stated that “it is a narrative, which has a beginning,
middle, and end.” The fundamentals of a good story include:
• It is clear and understandable, no matter how technical the work may be
•
•
•
It is relatable; the story connects the work to people
It is compelling; the outcomes/benefits are easily understood
It is motivating; your audience wants you to succeed and they want to help you.
Grantees were then allowed to work together to develop stories around their projects. The
next speaker was Jacob Klerman of Abt Associates.
Jacob Klerman
Mr. Klerman opened his remarks by stating that the history of workforce development has
produced very little evidence of program efficacy. He encouraged the grantees to think of
themselves as the “vanguard.” He made the following points:
 Until recently, social policy in general and workforce strategies in particular have been
set and funds allocated based on “plausibility”
o And, rigorous impact evaluation suggests that impacts have often been mediocre
 Increasingly (Obama Administration’s Evidence Agenda, ED’s i3, CNCS’s SIF), we see a
move towards a new and better strategy: “Evidence Based Policy”
o Pilot, rigorously (impact) evaluate, replicate
o Broad scale rollout only after success at earlier steps
o Leading to better programs and (any and) larger impacts
He emphasized to the grantees the importance of turning the burden of being on the cutting
edge of this movement into a key selling point. He made the following points:
 In your materials, note that you are “doing the right thing”
o Stepping through the tiers of evidence
 And, along the way, showing that:
o Your program can actually implemented
(i.e., a successful pilot; see third part of talk)
o You are incremental tweaking your program
(again, see third part of talk)
o You can work constructive with an evaluator
o You have good internal data systems that can support an evaluation
o And, we hope building increasingly high quality evidence of impact
Mr. Klerman emphasized that the grantees should ensure that their evaluators produce
detailed reports that include an “Executive Summary.” He then gave them an outline of a
standard executive summary. He then pointed to a detailed set of slides that delineated how
evidence based policy is associated with tiered evidence. He emphasized to the grantees that
they claim credit for working through the tiers of evidence, but not to overstate the strength of
the evidence.
Finally, he emphasized the importance of precision and impact. He encouraged grantees to
determine efficacy by asking two key questions: (1) What is the impact? and (2) How sure are
we about that answer?
The teams then broke into an exercise which continued to the end of the session.