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  • 1.  Communication - Panel Session for JSM 2013?

    Posted 09-05-2012 18:37
    Hi everyone,


    Regarding JSM 2013 in Montreal, I was hoping to put together a panel session tentatively titled
    " Secrets to Effective Communication for Statistical Consultants", with the following tentative abstract:

    "Effective communication is a key ingredient of successful statistical consulting.  As statistical consultants, how do we put our best foot forward when communicating with clients and colleagues? How do we acquire and refine communication skills in important areas such as listening, inquiry, empathy? How do we build rapport with our collaborators and establish a respectful environment of trust when consulting with them?  How do we adapt our communication style to the personality and needs of our clients and colleagues?  How do we keep the communication alive throughout the lifetime of a consulting engagement, especially when things don't go as planned?  How do we overcome barriers to communication imposed by the lack of statistical sophistication of some of our collaborators?   How do we learn from our communication mishaps in order to strengthen our message and its delivery? How do we handle and solve conflicts generated by miscommunication?  How do we use technological advances to further enhance our communication and how do we best tailor our communication skills to take advantage of these advances?  This session will highlight valuable communication skills that will enhance the practice of any statistical consultant and suggest ways to apply them to achieve maximum communication effectiveness."

    I am not aware whether our Statistical Consulting Section has put out a call for invited sessions for JSM 2013 - if anyone knows anything about this, please e-mail me with any information you may have.  From what I understand, the deadline for submitting abstracts is September 6, 2012 (11:59 pm ET).  

    Presuming the Statistical Consulting Section is interested in sponsoring this session, can the consultants interested in becoming panelists for this session let me know the following via e-mail (isabella@ghement.ca) asap:

    1.  Your background and interest in communication;
     
    2.  Why you think you should be included in this session (e.g., what strengths/experience you will bring to the table);  

    3.  Your e-mail adress; 

    4.  Your affiliation (i.e., organization + address). 

    Thank you in advance for your interest in this session - I hope we will be able to get it off the ground even though time is not exactly on our side.   I know you are all committed to a variety of other things, but I hope the session sounds interesting enough to tempt you to consider becoming a part of it. 


    Kind regards,

    Isabella

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    Isabella Ghement
    Ghement Statistical Consulting Co.
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  • 2.  RE:Communication - Panel Session for JSM 2013?

    Posted 09-06-2012 10:02
    Hi Isabella,

    Your proposed session looks good. I teach communication in statistical collaborations to undergrad stat majors and first year stat graduate students at Virginia Tech. I also supervise 10-35 graduate students every semester doing statistical consulting and collaboration for LISA (Virginia Tech's Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis). The three things that work best for us as far as communication is:

    1. Applying the fundamental law of statistical collaboration (appropriated from Stephen Covey): "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."

    2. Using Doug Zahn's POWER model to provide structure for an effective interaction between the consultant and client.

    3. Video recording meetings with clients and reviewing them afterward.

    I have already agreed to speak in another invited session, so I can't join your session. It's a worthy topic for JSM. Good luck!

    -------------------------------------------
    Eric Vance
    LISA (Virginia Tech's Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis)
    Director and Assistant Research Professor
    Blacksburg VA, United States
    -------------------------------------------








  • 3.  RE:Communication - Panel Session for JSM 2013?

    Posted 09-08-2012 00:11

    I included the information below in private correspondence outside this thread, but should have included it in my original response to Isabella and the entire listserv regarding her invited session.

    The ASA has a Career Success Factors Workgroup led by Bob Starbuck (I think) that has initiatives to teach statisticians "essential non-technical skills" such as effective communication http://community.amstat.org/CSFW/Home/

    At JSM in San Diego, I participated in their "Train the Trainers" workshop to develop a short course to train statisticians in effective communication. The workshop was led by Jennifer Van Mullenkom from DuPont and Jeanine Buchanich from the University of Pittsburg. As soon as I hear more about short course in communication for statisticians I'll share the info with this listserv.

    February 21-23 in New Orleans is the second annual ASA Conference on Statistical Practice. http://www.amstat.org/meetings/csp/2013/index.cfm The poster submission deadline for the conference is next week, September 13, 2012.

    The conference is designed to aid applied statisticians in improving their abilities in consulting with and helping customers and organizations solve real-world problems.

    • Learn statistical techniques that apply to your job as an applied statistician!

    • Learn how to better communicate with customers!

    • Learn how to have a positive impact on your organization!

    At that conference, I will be speaking (I think) about how to use video to improve your communication skills. 

    -------------------------------------------
    Eric Vance
    LISA (Virginia Tech's Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis)
    Director and Assistant Research Professor
    Blacksburg VA, United States
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE:Communication - Panel Session for JSM 2013?

    Posted 09-06-2012 13:32
    The communications topic is very appropriate & timely. I teach a course in the stat department at the University of Michigan--Effecitive Communication in Statistics. It's a seminar for stat majors (mostly seniors) that has a project class (sampling or design of experiments) as a prerequisite so that students have work of their own to write/speak about. It has been especially useful for students pursuing applied statistics careers. I would be pleased to participate in such a panel if it would be helpful.
    Regards,
    Mary Ann

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    Mary Ann Ritter
    ritterma@umich.edu
    Statistics Department
    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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  • 5.  RE:Communication - Panel Session for JSM 2013?

    Posted 09-06-2012 14:29
    Greetings,
    I am currently a full time faculty member at George Mason University (Dept. of Mathematical Sciences).  I teach Mathematics and Statistics.  Besides my long teaching experience, I have also worked as a statistical consultant, for consulting companies and individually by organizing corporate training workshops for using statistics and statistical software.  In all these cases, I had to communicate statistics to very diverse audiences and I would be happy to participate in such a panel regarding effective communication skills.
    I can be reached at erantou@gmu.edu or rantou.elena@gmail.com.

    Best Regards,
    Elena Rantou, PhD

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    Elena Rantou
    Adjunct Professor
    American University-George Mason University
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    Original Message