A Comms Strategy in four days

Time is not always of the essence, of course, but if it is, and you need a communications strategy in a hurry, it can be done. Even from scratch, if you have access to the right information... I know because I just did it.

This is how it happened.

Day One
I read everything that I could find that might be relevant, looking for the context of this piece of work. Presentations, reports, plans, research findings. Of course not all of it made complete sense - it's like being handed a few pieces of jigsaw puzzle. You can see they do fit together, it's just not exactly clear how yet. I started a mindmap (in pencil).

Then I spoke to as many people as I could. They gave me more jigsaw puzzle pieces. I asked them what outcomes they were looking for, who they thought the key stakeholders where, what information needed to be shared and how things were communicated at the moment. Specifically, what was working well and what wasn't. I scribbled furiously. In between meetings I browsed the intranet, saw what was already there. Made more notes.

At the end of the day, I re-read the stuff I'd read at the beginning of the day. More of it made sense now. I was grateful I'd used a pencil for the mindmap.

Day Two
More meetings with people, more pieces of the jigsaw - because of the conversations I'd had the previous day I could ask more informed questions. With the senior people I asked if it was ok for me to record the conversation so I could listen to it again later and make sure I'd captured everything. I gathered more presentations, more reports.

I was able to listen in to a teleconference where some of the team dynamics became more obvious. A  picture of the end game was forming.

Took a first stab at the scope, objectives, key stakeholder groups, types of messages that needed to be communicated, channels to use, channels to avoid, potential channels to introduce.

I went back over the initial paperwork again and gleaned as much on timescales as I could. Then I emailed everyone I had met, plus others they had nominated, saying this was what the timing and milestones looked like, asking for comments, additions, amendments. Updated that part of the mindmap. I did the outline of the Briefing Deck I would be using to share the Comms Strategy with my sponsors.

Day Three
I caught up with the key people whom I had met on Day One. I ran my initial thinking (i.e., first stab) past them to get their reaction. It was mostly favourable, some amendments needed, some changes in emphasis.

More work was needed on looking at feedback mechanisms, how they worked and whether more would be required. I thought a bit about the culture, where the open and closed doors were. Considered what might open the closed ones.

I met with the people who had the detail of what needed to be communicated. I hadn't wanted to meet them at the beginning as I knew what they told me would make more sense now.

Each of the key areas I had been working on could now be fleshed out. It was clear that one of the key stakeholder groups was going to be the people managers. They had no consistent, regular communication so their knowledge was patchy. That impacts on all three main comms elements (stakeholder, messages, channels - but you knew that).

I could now take an in initial view of risks and resources. I updated the Briefing Deck.

Day Four

I listened to the taped conversations again and I re-read everything. Some of the things I'd scribbled down made sense now so I could refine what I'd written. I re-visited the mindmap.

Then I spent the rest of the day concentrating on the Briefing Deck. I was looking specifically for where I had gone into too much detail, and where I hadn't explained enough. I showed it to a friendly colleague and asked for comments, took those on board.

I checked to see who had come back to me on my timescales email. As you'd expect, some had, some hadn't. There were a couple of "don't know yets". I'd kept the timescales high level in the strategy (the detail would be in the plan), and fortunately nothing contradicted what I had included. I had, though, gained some useful information that I could build into the assumptions and risks.

At the end of the day I took the sponsors through the deck - they were happy with the strategy and asked me to go forward to the plan. Result!