Levels of engagement: communication tactics for achieving consensus

In the first half of 2008 the University of Melbourne developed and adopted a new 10-year strategy for its scholarly information environment, collections, services and technologies. The new strategy forms part of the University's broader direction, the Growing Esteem agenda, which also includes long-term strategies for the 'triple helix' of research, learning and teaching, and knowledge transfer. The Information Futures Commission faced two complex communication challenges. First, adding a new dimension to the Growing Esteem agenda required the support of researchers, academic staff, students, professional staff and other key 'influencers' in the University community. Each of these stakeholders held different assumptions and preferences about the nature and value of scholarly information. Second, the Scholarly Information Futures strategy would be a response to highly disruptive changes in the external social, business, technological and academic environments. The strategy therefore needed to be based on both a broad view of those external changes and a detailed, up-to-date understanding of how those changes were affecting individuals and practices within the University. This paper describes the approach taken by the Information Future Commission in designing, implementing and evaluating a communication and engagement plan. We provide a brief review of some possible tactics from the fields of organisational communication, public policy development and user-centred design. (For complete abstract open document