The Boilerplate Communications Plan

An on-line discussion group about employee communications recently elicited the following panicked, clearly last minute call for help: “Does anyone have a good communication plan they'd be willing to share?”

The notion that there is a one-size-fits-all approach to communication planning is absurd and flies in the face of rational thought. A boilerplate plan will never work because no two situations are the same. Like trying to sell wingtips to the customer that needs running shoes, they may be shoes, but they’re not what the situation calls for and can’t fulfill the intended purpose.

Think of the multitude of possibilities. Are we talking about a financial institution or a process industry; unionized employees in a single factory, or field salespeople working on commission spread across a continent selling medical equipment? Are we trying to communicate with mid-level managers at an international insurance company, or non-commissioned US Army officers based outside the country?

The point of any communications plan is to ensure that the right information gets to the right people at the right time through means that reach them effectively. There is a practical way to develop an appropriate communications plan for any given set of circumstances. But it requires some legwork, along with serious thought and analysis. The initial steps are always the same, regardless of the circumstances.

• Who is your audience? Define it both specifically and generally, in ways that mean something to you and your management team – such as those variables cited above.
  
• Make sure you know as much as possible about your target audience, especially how they prefer to get information.
• Determine what it is you want them to know, and what you want them to do and/or feel as a result of getting your communication, and why.
• Is there any time sensitivity in the communication?

If you can't answer these simple questions, you have no reason to communicate. Answering these questions will put you in a better position to develop an appropriate and effective communications plan consisting of what (content), when, how (through what vehicles) and, specifically, to whom.

The default approach should always be face-to-face communications from immediate supervisors where credibility is highest and where there is the best opportunity for dialogue and question-and-answer. Everything else you may do (e.g., newsletter, email, Twitter, blogs, Intranet postings, bulletin boards, posters, etc.) should come later to reinforce and supplement what was already communicated directly by supervisors.

Your first communication then would be to the supervisors themselves, face-to-face from their superiors, to ensure that they are fully informed and on board – with no doubts or misunderstandings. Also, the supervisors must know what needs to be achieved, and what the employees need to know, do and feel, and – most important – why they need to know it.

Avoid the path of least resistance (i.e., the easy route), a trap that many fall into. Don’t rely on impersonal vehicles like emails as the first and/or only source of communication. Focus instead on getting supervisor understanding and buy-in first so that they will be confident in conveying the necessary information to their direct reports, able to field both pertinent and extraneous questions.

Also, prepare the supervisors with questions they may likely get, along with the appropriate answers. Supervisors should also understand that if they field questions they can't answer, they should promise to get the answer and then follow through.

I hope that’s what the on-line inquirer was looking for. But by the tone of his question, I think he wanted a shortcut and, when he didn’t get the boilerplate plan he was looking for, probably just fired off a bunch of emails to his target audience with his fingers crossed, hoping for the best.

That would be a shame because, really, the answer to his question is pretty straightforward. The key to successful communications is understanding your audience and what you want them to do with the information you give them. It really is that simple.