Proposed topic:
How do you pitch VIVO to leadership? What’s the best way to convince the Provost and others that VIVO is the best solution for your university?
Please share your experiences and strategies. Whether you’re in a leadership position, or you’ve discussed VIVO with your institution’s leaders, or you're working on a VIVO presentation to your organization's executives – the community needs your input.
Filling in some notes from this meeting, Tessa at VCU asked us to talk about tips for talking to senior leadership. Mike Conlon contributed his perspective which is primarily to be very well-prepared for these meetings. Know who you're talking to and what they want – what their goals are. How will VIVO fit into their world view (after figuring out something about their world view!)Look for information about this person like meeting minutes, notes, articles, remarks.
Perhaps VIVO can serve their mission or address an item on the strategic plan. Maybe VIVO can help senior hires get up to speed or support a key academic program?
This leader may not care about open source and open access. Perhaps they want a better faculty or more collaborations: see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25788258 for thoughts.
VIVO can test social networks – it's a platform for understanding how the university works. Be sure to bring a solution, not a problem.
Timing is important. Try to get as many touches as possible, such as faculty mentions, presentations, meetings. But sometimes timing is just off and you have to try again later.
Most senior executives triangulate so be sure to call on other senior leaders who might perhaps have a stake in a research networking system. Plant the right seeds with the right people. The top leader shouldn't be the first to know or the last to know about your project.
If you need faculty to be involved, it's a good idea to get the faculty senate involved.
