Dee Armstrong
Westinghouse Waste Isolation Division
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

The task of communicating inside and outside a company, government, or project -- controversial or not -- is a challenge for any communicator. And rightfully so, because good communicating should be a challenge, a constant effort to communicate the right message, in the right manner, at the right time, to the right audience. People tend to distrust big business, big government, big industry. People also tend to invalidate anything coming from a "PR" person's mouth. "PR" communicators are often perceived as used car salesmen who tell you anything you want to hear to get your buy-in. Many people feel we aren't accountable for what we do, say, or write.

How can we expect the public to believe what we say without evaluating and documenting the quality of our communications efforts? No matter how knowledgeable we are or how well we perform, the public will not necessarily gain knowledge from us if we are not a credible source of information -- if we are not believable. Education is only as good as its source.

In an effort to enhance the communicator's image, both externally and internally, business, industry and government must launch a qualification program for communicators with the same vigor and quality as the programs for nuclear reactor operators. This program must be designed to boost credibility and propagate efficiency through cross-training and team-building. It must evidence our ability to accurately communicate in a variety of ways, to a variety of audiences, and under a variety of circumstances.

Program Objective The Project-Specific Communicators Qualification Program is a process by which management can enhance the credibility and professionalism of its communicators in the eyes of all customers, including fellow employees, stakeholders, and public audiences, by establishing a communicator qualification program that parallels the operator qualification program.

Participants Any employee or contractor who communicates with the public, the media, governments, and Indian tribes will benefit from the qualification process. Participants may include public and media relations specialists, project tour escorts, emergency response trainers, government and community liaisons, exhibitors, speakers bureau members, and project spokespersons.

Time Restraints The Program is self-paced, with a requirement to qualify within one year from enrollment.

Enabling Objectives This Program will

• Identify and set communication standards specific to the industry, project, business, or government organizations
• Better ensure accuracy of site/project-specific written and oral information
• Better ensure creative, effective, and appropriate delivery of information
• Identify communicators' strengths and areas for improvement
• Verify communicators' skills, knowledge, and experience
• Document compliance with site/project-specific standards
• Implement a site/project-specific soft skills qualification program
• Ensure a broad range of available knowledge, skills, and experience by cross-training each communicator in all aspects of communications, thus strengthening the communication team
• Document communication knowledge, skills, and experience for employees with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise

Without this program,

• Each communicator sets his or her individual standards.
• No evaluation tool exists to document consistent, accurate, and professional public interaction.
• Each communicator can remain inside the comfort zone, restricting and specializing each communicator's work scope.
• No site-specific credential exists to build credibility with the internal and external customers.

Program Development Team The qualification program is developed by a team, comprising representatives of technical training, a communicator who will be a program participant, and three subject matter experts, who are collectively called the Communications Qualification Board, or CQB.

Step One The technical training representatives complete the first step in establishing the program format: they conduct a task analysis. Using a process standardized in the nuclear power industry, they complete the analysis by interviewing communicators and managers, asking them what tasks a communicator must do in the execution of the job. Then they list skills and knowledge necessary to complete these tasks.

Step Two The next step is to identify and document subject matter experts (SME). These experts could include the on-site communications department manager, a corporate headquarters communicator, and a communicator from another location or organization. Even an external representative of Toastmasters, Inc. could be considered. As reflected in the nuclear power industry, technical training procedures require all three candidates for the SME position to submit evidence of their qualification, such as previous training, education, and/or experience. Collectively, these three SMEs form the Communications Qualification Board (CQB), which sets the specific standards of excellent communications and evaluates the performance of program participants. The Board is also responsible for conducting periodical qualification maintenance evaluations and identifying refresher training for qualified communicators.

Step Three The CQB meets and concurs on the program standards, and the references and objectives that support the standards. Each standard addresses a skill or knowledge covered in one of the seven training modules. An example of a standard, its references, and objectives is as follows:

Step Four The communicator and technical training representatives develop program materials: qualification card (see attached sample), subject modules, instructional guides, and knowledge and skills measurements, such as tests, writing assignments or papers, presentation assignments, evaluation checklists, and oral examination questions.

The basic program consists of eight self-paced subject modules and associated documentation of competency (examination and/or performance).

Modules A module includes (1) the standards of competency communicators must meet in that subject area; (2) objectives that state what they will learn or must know to meet the standard and on what skill or knowledge they will be tested; and (3) a reference list of required reading, subject matter experts, and resources to satisfy the objectives. The module may also include instructional guides; that is, a handout that supplies need-to-know information. For example, approved fact sheets or booklets on the project, company, or industry could be required reading and instructional guides to ensure accuracy and consistency of information on general company information or on specific topics.

Module Completion Each module may be completed through training, required reading, research, and interviews with a subject matter expert (someone whose skills and knowledge as a subject matter expert are formally documented in training records).

Challenging Modules Participants may challenge the training portion of each module by submitting evidence of knowledge, skills, and/or experience specific to the module's subject and by requesting the CQB to recognize that evidence. The CQB determines whether or not the evidence substantiates exemption from training; if the evidence exempts the participant, he or she may accelerate through the program by testing out on select subject matter.

Regardless of challenges, all participants must pass written examinations, writing assignments, presentation evaluations, and oral boards to complete the qualification card, as is done in the operator's qualification program. The training may be skipped, but the testing cannot. Testing is the hard evidence that the communicator knows what is necessary to do the job at hand and is also capable of applying that knowledge. This documentation is a critical part of the validity and substance of the program and its parallelism to the operator's world of qualification.

Maintenance In addition to completing an annual evaluation of writing and presentation skills, each qualified communicator must document one formal training experience, chosen by consensus with the employee's manager.

Module Subjects Although each business, project, or industry can customize, expand, or enhance its modules, the eight foundational modules are

1. General writing skills -- identifying audiences, researching, composing, drafting, editing, applying proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation, formatting (speech writing, fact sheets, strategic plans, testimony)
2. General presentation skills -- identifying audiences, planning, tailoring, practicing, delivering, following up
3. Risk communication techniques -- knowing what to say and do and what NOT to say and do
4. Working with media -- writing news releases, developing and implementing media outreach activities, analyzing news coverage, knowing media's needs and tools
5. Public participation -- understanding the who, what, and why of citizen advisory boards, public hearings, and public participation requirements
6. Professionalism, ethics -- knowing when to say "I don't know" and how to admit a mistake, clearly understanding the value of telling the truth, and recognizing the difference between ethical and unethical "spin"
7. Issue identification techniques -- knowing about what makes surveys and polls valid, responding to, dealing with, and diffusing controversy and anger
8. Site-specific knowledge -- historical background and mission specific to the company, project, or plant; operational and political issues, including actual, potential, and perceived; emergency communications procedures; current activities and future plans.

After standards have been set, and subject modules, tests, qualification card, and supporting materials have been developed and approved, the pilot program can be implemented. The manager develops a brief syllabus of the program with presentation materials to support a general overview of the program.

Step One The communications manager recruits volunteer participants. In the presence of the CQB and the volunteers, the manager conducts an introductory presentation, distributing the syllabus, explaining the qualification process and presenting the program materials. The manager assigns each participant a qualification card and instructs the participant on its use. The manager sets a follow-up date for the CQB and volunteers to conduct a progress review and problem-solving session.

Step Two Volunteers submit supporting evidence of their expertise in any of the seven subject areas for CQB consideration. The Board reviews this evidence and determines its value to satisfy the qualification card requirements and exempt the volunteer from training.

Step Three At the follow-up session, the volunteers and manager concur on a completion schedule for each module. Those who were credited for experience, education, or previous training may set up an accelerated examination schedule for those subjects. The CQB and the volunteer arrange a date and event at which one board member may evaluate a presentation delivered by the volunteer to a real audience.

Step Four After the volunteers complete all components of the qualification card, they meet with the CQB, which conducts an oral board. The board may ask questions that verify knowledge on any of the qualification card sign-offs. Board members concur on "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory" and indicate so with their signatures.

Step Five The final step to any worthwhile program is evaluation of the program itself. The CQB interviews pilot participants for their input and evaluation of the process. With input from board members, program developers, and participants, the board recommends revisions, and the program moves from pilot program to formal qualification program.

With support from a technical training facility, communicators can qualify and document their qualification in detail and validity parallel to that of plant operators. A project-specific communicators qualification program ensures consistency of communicators' knowledge, skills, and experience specific to their immediate positions. This qualification process not only establishes standards for "soft" skills, but also enhances the communicators' credibility inside and outside the project. In the name of efficiency and effectiveness, such a program ensures work scope enhancement, cross-training, and teamwork among communicators.

Everyone benefits from this program. The public and media get a consistently clear, accurate message; the communicators understand the standards they must meet, how to meet them, and how to document that they meet them; and the company employs communicators who can wear each others' hats, establishing a more valuable, flexible, cost-effective, efficient, and, competitive communications team.

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