Communication Mind

You are about to start off an exciting new project and you’re bursting with energy! You want to write the first social media posting right now, you want to call the journalists and you want the world to see how amazing this new business / product / service is going to be. But you have to start with a communication plan. And there, some of your spirit died. Recognize this? For some people, I know this is true. 

The trigger-happy ones, they want to get to the action RIGHT NOW. They despise the analysts, the overthinkers. Those, who plan for an eternity and spend hours in meetings and never get anything out there. Well, you are both needed. And none of these “types” are so stereotypical as the other part sees them.

With a little bit of adjustment, both perspectives work to get a conscious and well underbuilt communication “out there”, without it taking months. 

You have most of the information you need, from the presentations of the new project / business, and from your interviews with key-persons and managers. Now, write that down. And structure it in a more or less simple template. This way, you have the document ready for approval in a day. If you want to. And then you can start to deliver. And the point of making it this official is that you will have a handshake from your peers on that this is what should be done, how it should be done and in what order. 

For me, I work with two different templates. One “short communication plan” for narrower scoops, and one more advanced; “Communication plan” or “Strategic communication plan” for broader and more complex scoops.

In my “short communication plan” I typically only work under the headlines of  Background, Communication scoop, Objectives, Target groups, Messages, Timeline & activities. For the more “advanced” one, or the fuller communication scoop, I normally develop a template that fit the organization I work for, but the basics are pretty much the same: 

• Describe the background; The projects effect target and implementation of change. 
• State the Communication Mission in a short description and what the scoop is.
• Explore and explain the delimitations, risks and success factors. 
• Describe target groups, communication goals and communication strategy. Enclose main messages and message strategy, if you have such.
• Of course, the budget is of interest. 
• Timeline is usually the part more inexperienced communication practitioners look for. So, if you have one of those at your hands, prepare pedagogical and patient explanations for that you have to go through the main elements leading up to the time- och activity plan. For me, a 5 – 6 column table works, with the what, when, who, status in each column – and possibly “Comment” as the last. 

If it is a very complex and / or sensitive project, you might want to add a more full SWOT- analysis; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. 

Finish your plan off with assessment; measuring and evaluation, and you’re good to go. Or…. ? Well, sorry, no. If you’re in a large and / or complex organization, I strongly recommend a last part here; the “Approval” part. Here, you describe the organizational line that needs to be in place to approve the plan. Also, this part will explain the versions in the page header, if you use a document versions management tool. This may seem very overkill (and it is, if you work in a smaller organization). But it is often crucial for the communication success rate in larger organizations that the chain of command is clear and the mandate is clearly stated. Help yourself create this.

Of course, each of the above points deserves commentary on its own, and I will come back to these in coming blog posts.