As professionals, we’re often told we need to network better and that who you know is just as important as what you know. This is certainly true, but typically our vast networks remain underutilized and largely inconsequential to one’s everyday work. Siloes are a persistent and even natural outcome as we focus on our own tasks and missions. However, purposeful network engagement is now more important than ever in building trust with stakeholders. Social media, remote work, and complex issues such as climate change demand a deeper look at how to put an effective, purpose-driven effort behind such efforts, especially in digital settings.

To start, it’s essential to build teams with the right skill sets to facilitate ongoing adoption of digital strategy and workflows. Reports from the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and others have repeatedly acknowledged the need for improved technology-based stakeholder engagement with recommendations falling into four general categories: training, ongoing support, coordination, and innovation. Training currently exists but ultimately falls short in that skills are forgotten if not used immediately. Particularly where virtual interaction is concerned, skill sets are built over time and are a mix of technical, programmatic, and interpersonal. Training courses are certainly helpful in providing skill set foundations, but there is no substitute for practice and hands-on coaching to develop habits and confidence.  

The solution is to create a group of dedicated facilitators who provide integrated training and support across the agency, particularly at the post level. These professionals - let’s call them Digital Stakeholder Facilitators, or DSFs - act as on-site consultants at posts. As embedded, hands-on specialists focused on support and coordination, DSFs greatly enhance training effectiveness. Such dedicated coordination functions have precedent; I myself served as the Public Diplomacy Network Coordinator in the U.S. Mission to the European Union. Media hubs are another example of offices who have a coordination function. 

A key advantage of the DSF role is its immersive nature and focus on problem-solving. Extended temporary duty assignments enable DSFs to gain contextual knowledge and understand local needs first, before designing solutions.  Embedded for terms for three-four months, they act as a specialized resource to address training, support, coordination, and innovation challenges specific to each local context. The best DSFs have an interdisciplinary skill set combining policy and issue knowledge with technical expertise in digital media, strategic communications, and public diplomacy program design. In addition, DSFs act as a dedicated coordinator between posts and Washington, DC offices, improving lines of communication and resulting in more effective resource use. 

Innovation is soft power

Addressing complex, risk-multiplying issues such as climate change requires the ability to absorb and deploy technology-driven public diplomacy methods. Success depends not just on technical knowledge, but understanding the processes to efficiently sustain these efforts. As the power of innovation becomes a strategic advantage, public diplomacy practitioners must have the right mix of support to deploy technology for maximum effect. Experienced professionals whose role is to assist in building local capacity and coordinating resource deployment can play an important role, particularly in under-resourced posts. 

Moreover, in the future, public diplomacy staff will need the ability to absorb and deploy new technologies such as AI that are already impacting how we engage with stakeholders.

Cultivating the ability to innovate and out-compete adversaries may best be summarized by the Napoleonic maxim of “S’engager, puis voir”. In day-to-day public diplomacy practice, this means adopting iterative project management processes found in approaches such as Agile and Lean. These methodologies have a bias for action, direct stakeholder relationships, and adaptation -- you learn as you go. To scale that process, making full use of virtual engagement is critical. 

Senior staff don’t necessarily need to know the granular details of the technology itself; that’s the job of specialists and locally-employed staff. However, knowledge of the strategic implications of virtual programming, distributed content production, influencer networks, and many other public-facing technology-driven trends is an absolute requirement for counselors and their officers. Sufficient time should be allocated for mentorship-based capacity-building so public diplomacy practitioners can appropriately advise and seize the potential of these technologies to engage stakeholders and leverage networks. 

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