MKX Staff Meeting 1 December, 2011

1. MKX Staff Meeting1 December, 2011 Steve Brueske, MIC MKX

2. Meetings “Meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organizations. For one either meets or works. We meet because the knowledge and experience needed in a specific situation are not available in one head.”

3. Office Holiday Party • Thanks to Marcia! Look for more info from her soon • Tuesday, Dec 20th , 3-5 pm • Family & significant others invited

4. Agenda • Local Cline Awards • Steve – Weather Ready Nation • Morgan – Communications Seminar Summary (7 people) • Steve – Coaching Skills Summary (Steve B & Marcia attended) • Marc – Freezing Spray • Jeff – IDSS Winter Weather

5. Various Staff Members FOR:Various Activities

6. Local Cline Awards • Marc K. - Meteorology • Kathy - Program Management • Jerry - Engineering, Electronics/Facilities • Chris Kuhlman - Hydrology • AshlieSears - Leadership • Paul, JJ, Mark G., Chris Franks - Support Services

7. NOAA’s Next Generation Strategic Plan...Vision for the Future • Climate Adaptation and Mitigation • Weather-Ready Nation • Healthy Oceans • Resilient Coastal Communities and Economies

8. Roadmap Overview • “Living” document that implements the NWS Strategic Plan • Consists of four plans: • Services Plan: Move to Impact-Based Decision Support Services and integrate into the National Response Framework • Workforce Evolution Plan: Organize, train, and equip the workforce • Science & Technology Plan: Use science and technology to enable our workforce to provide IDSS • Business Plan: Build a sustainable business and cost model for NWS operations and services

9. Test Projects • Nine test projects designed to evaluate IDSS concepts contained in Roadmap • National Operations Center, NWSHQ – Silver Spring • Regional Operations Center, NWS SR HQ-Ft. Worth, TX • IDSS in coastal environment, WFO New Orleans, LA • IDSS in urban environment, WFO Sterling, VA • Ecological forecasting, WFO Tampa • Mesoscale science to operations, WFO Charleston, WV • Positions are GS-13 and GS-14

10. Additional Planned Test Projects • Environmental Information Systems and Aviation Research, Boulder, CO • Test R2O and O2R concepts nationally. Integrates Space Weather Prediction Center into local service outlet decision support activities. • Enhanced QPF Production: HAS production of higher resolution QPF data, MARFC • Enhance Flood Services by integrating high-resolution hourly rainfall analyses and forecasts to drive a Distributed Hydrologic Model • Emerging and Collaborative Service Sector Test: Golden Triangle Expansion, WFO Monterey, CA • Expands FAA project. 93% of all weather-related aviation delays in the NAS take place between NY, Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco.

11. Building a Weather-Ready NationVision & Mission Provide weather, water, and climate data, forecasts and warnings Protect life and property Enhance national economy Vision Society is Prepared for and Responds to Weather-Dependent Events Mission 11

12. NWS Strategic Plan: Improve weather, water, and climate decision services Improve accuracy and lead times for high-impact events Better communicate levels of confidence in our forecasts Help improve community preparedness and response Enable the Weather Enterprise Develop a sustainable business model Meeting the Nation’s Needs Building a Weather-Ready Nation NAS Committee: The Assessment of the National Weather Service’s Modernization Program

13. Improve warning accuracies and lead times for high-impact weather and water events Exploit probability information to communicate uncertainty Improve community emergency preparedness and response Meeting the Nation’s Needs Building a Weather-Ready Nation GOAL 1: Improve weather decision services for events that threaten lives and livelihoods

14. Meeting the Nation’s Needs Building a Weather-Ready Nation GOAL 2:Improved water forecasting services GOAL 3: Support climate services GOAL 4: Improve sector-relevant information in support of economic productivity (i.e. Wind & Solar energy, Aviation, etc) GOAL 5: Integrated environmental forecast services supporting healthy communities and ecosystems GOAL 6: Sustain a highly-skilled, professional and equipped workforce

15. Meeting the Nation’s Needs Building a Weather-Ready Nation What next?Expect more info in the following months...once Corporate Board and NWSEO agree on plan(s). Corporate Board meets next week. NWSEO is reviewing Roadmap and Strategic Plan (Roadmap = Services Plan + Workforce Evolution Plan + Science and Technology Plan + Business Plan)

16. Professional Communication: What message are you sending? Fred Pryor Seminar November 7th and 8th 2011 Morgan Brooks

17. Topics Key communication skills Listening skills How you express yourself The Platinum Rule Written communication

18. Key Communication Skills #1 Communication Skill: Listen Make eye contact Be empathetic Be clear Have humility Be confident Be approachable and friendly

19. Good Listeners • Make eye contact • Use “encouragers” • Focus • Stay open-minded • Pay attention to non-verbals • Paraphrase, clarify, and summarize • Use attentive silence

20. Bad Listeners • Don’t pay full attention • Tune out • Jump to conclusions • Finish peoples sentences • Jump in and cut off • Easily distracted • Ignore non-verbal cues

21. Types of Listening Inactive- Hearing not listening Biased- Hearing only what you want to hear Emphatic- Seeking a truer understanding Evaluative- Making judgments, seeking truth Therapeutic- Listening for clues, coaching and counseling Relational- Establish trust

22. Communication Blunders Talking about yourself instead of asking about others Hiding, i.e. “I don’t care” Belittling others Not knowing what you’re talking about Not using people’s names Gesturing too much/too little Using fillers, i.e. “umm…” “ you know…” Talk too loud/soft or being monotone

23. Expressing Yourself Tone of Voice 38% Body Language 55% Words 7% People pass judgment on you within 7 seconds How you convey yourself:

24. Body Language Establish rapport by subtly mirroring their body language If people disagree they will subconsciously mismatch their body language with yours Look for sudden changes in posture, gestures, and tone of voice as a sign that you have crossed a line

25. The Platinum Rule Forget the Golden Rule! “Treat others how THEY want to be treated.” Use personality to determine how to treat someone

26. Accept people the way they are Extrovert- Acts then thinks, welcomes interruptions, energized by others Ambivert- Understands needs of both but doesn’t tolerate extremes Introvert- Best work done inside head, get big picture reasons, need time to respond

27. Personalities Task Focused Get it right …the thinkers Get it done …the directors Passive Aggressive Get along …the relators Get appreciated …the socializers People Focused

28. Written Communication Don’t use “flowers” Avoid overuse of emoticons Skip sarcasm & don’t use humor Deleted emails are always retrievable Don’t email when you’re angry Don’t email when addressing a sensitive issue Don’t use abbreviations that might be confusing

29. 5 Things to Never Do Misspellings, poor grammar Negative statements about anyone Wrong person’s name after To: Unnecessary attachments Questionable jokes, photos, comments

30. Summary Listen well Pay attention to your body language Pay attention to others body language Be aware of others personalities and preferences Be cautious with emails, talk in person when you can

31. Questions?

32. Coaching Skills for Managers & Supervisors (Fred Pryor Seminar) • Coaching Model • One-minute Praise (document it!) • Be Specific • Be Sincere • Be Immediate • Be Personal (Ask...“how were you able to accomplish/do what they did?”) • Vent on paper before you meet with your employee • Assertive Communication Techniques

33. Coaching ModelSummary Why is the NOAA Seagull on my head? • Coach’s Mission: Ensure everyone on the team knows (is thinking about): • The Vision: Weather Ready Nation • The Mission: Protection of Lives and Property; Enhancement of the Economy • Their Role: Issue warnings, advisories, forecasts, collect data, maintain equipment Everything begins with a thought

34. Work Plan (Performance Plan) • Job description helps you write the work plan (performance objectives) • Should you delegate? Delegate anything your employee can do… • Better than you • Instead of you • Cheaper than you • Faster /more timely than you • To further their development (promotion potential)

35. Coaching - Eliminate these words from your vocabulary: • I – It’s not about you...it’s about them. • Attitude – Focus on Behavior(s) • You can see, hear, describe behaviors • Hard to know others attitudes • I understand...you probably don’t • I know how you feel...again, you probably don’t...and it’s not about you.

36. Assertive Communication Passive Assertive Passive/Aggressive Aggressive • “I won’t violate your rights; you won’t violate mine.” • Assertive • Calm & Emotionally Neutral • Confident/Poised/Tactful • Focused on a Crucial Conversation; solve the problem/resolve the situation Wimps Appropriate Danger/2-faced Bullies

37. Freezing Spray Returns • Initial Conditions to include Freezing Spray • Lake Water Temperature: 4C (39F) • 4 foot waves or higher • Heavy Freezing Spray Watch and Warning • No advisories • Watch – 2nd, 3rd, 4th periods. • Warning – 1st and/or 2nd periods. • Procedures: • “Freezing Spray_add_remove” under Populate Menu. • Initially remove FS from grids • Run GLERL wave prep. and script. • Run above procedure to add FS. • Freezing Spray Guidelines: • http://mkx-s-fileserv.mkx.noaa.gov/sdm-mkx/vol-2/part-1/v2-1-455.pdf

38. Thoughts on Morning IDSS at MKX for Winter Weather Jeff Craven, SOO WFO Milwaukee/Sullivan WI

39. MKE Snow Removal Planning • Decision Inputs • Forecast: • Wind direction & speed • Visibility & Ceilings • Precip type & moisture content • Snowfall • Timing & duration • Rate (hourly) • Accumulation • Temperature (Air & Surface) • Trend Analysis • Flight schedules • Equipment Availability

40. 8 am to Noon Weekdays • With the extended forecast process taking place in the afternoon, the morning is pretty quiet on the 08F (and at times on 08A) • Brainstorm: how much IDSS can be done by the forecasters, SOO and WCM, and Service Hydrologist? • How do we do this? (Top News, Multi-Media Weather Briefings, Live Webinars?)

41. What Information Could we Provide? • Confidence level in: • Storm Track? • Precipitation Type? • Timing of starting and ending? • Timing of the height of the storm? • Location of the heaviest band? • Hourly Snow Rates? • Timing in relation to rush hour? • Storm totals?

42. Graphics versus text • We provide some of that information on previous slide in our text products, but not all • Should we routinely generate graphics that contain this information? Picture is worth a thousand words. WSW does not always cut it

43. Start of Blizzard Conditons Possible - Mod Confidence 9 pm 6 pm Most Likely Band High Confidence 3 pm 8-14” Small chc – Low Confidence Period of Heavy Snow of 1-3 inches per hour Gusts 45 mph & 5-10 foot drifts & vsbys ¼ mile & 1-2” per hr 11 pm to 3 am 6 to 9 pm 8 to Mid Gusts 60 mph & 8-15 foot drifts & vsbys near zero & 2-3” per hr

44. Need to Brainstorm and Develop Recommendations • How could we accomplish this on shift? • What medium is most efficient and doesn’t severely impact workload? • Are SOO/WCM the best option for this on routine basis? Who should be the go-to option for the high-level customers?