August 7, 2006

Communication Planning Made Simple

Creating a strategic communication plan may seem overwhelming. But, you may be surprised to find out that everything you need to know about planning you learned in the third grade. Here's a quick refresher:

• Do your homework.
  Compile existing research (satisfaction surveys, culture audits, etc.). Analyze the data from a communication perspective so you're leveraging real information to build your plan.
  
  
• Work with others.
  Don't develop your plan on your own. Instead, invite a cross-functional team. When a team is involved, they share in creating a common understanding and commitment about how to achieve communication needs. As an added benefit, group planning inadvertently creates communication advocates: When a team builds the plan, they own the plan.
  
  
• Eliminate distractions.
  No matter what, holding your planning session at the office means participants will be in and out to check e-mail and attend to other business matters. Schedule an offsite, one- or two-day planning session so you and your planning team can focus on the task at hand and have the rich dialogue essential to building objectives and strategies, instead of focusing on tactics.
  
  
• Remember your crayons.
  Make your planning session a visual process. Use the walls, sticky notes, colored paper, flipcharts, markers and the knowledge and expertise of the people who know the work.
  
  
• No cheating.
  There is no such thing as a plan-in-a-box. Plan templates may help you get a handle on communication tactics, but solitary planning is never a good idea. Each company is unique and has unique needs, variables and audiences that plan templates don't take into consideration.
  
  

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