Creating a Communications Plan for Seamless Implementation
Why create a communications plan?
Communication plays a crucial role in the success of any project. A well-structured communication plan ensures that all stakeholders are informed, aligned, and engaged throughout the project lifecycle.
As an Organizational Change Management professional, I use the ADKAR model to guide the OCM process. The acronym stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement, which represent the five stages individuals need to go through when undergoing change. This model can help you keep in mind the psychological and emotional process of change, as well as help you to plan when and how to engage individuals as you help them adapt to new ways of working. With your stakeholders in mind, you can plan your communications and training to bring them through this process from start to finish.
Using an OCM practice, tools, and creating change plans that are integrated with your project plans increases the likelihood of successful implementation. Well thought-out plans will make people feel like they are aware, invested, involved, and confident. And those feelings drive positive behaviors like increased feedback, reduced resistance, and ultimately adoption.
Many people just reach out to their communications support team when they feel it is time to communicate. However, the first step you should take with that team is to review your communication plan. This helps them understand your audience(s), methodology, and the experience of your audience(s). Understanding this context helps them make recommendations to improve the effectiveness of your strategy, messaging, and execution choices. This means that you need to have a communications plan to review, so let's take a step backward.
How do you get started?
Step 1: Identify Stakeholders and Communication Objectives
The first step in creating a communication plan is to identify the project stakeholders. Here are a few past articles that may help you:
Make sure you consider all the stakeholders for a project and what they need to know. Once the stakeholders are identified, determine the concerns they may have and the communication objectives for each group. For example, the project team may need detailed technical updates, while sponsors may require high-level progress reports, and end users may need awareness communications followed up by training. Think about it from the perspective of the stakeholder and think about these questions:
What do they already know about the project/issue?
How technical are they and what language will they understand?
Do they require translations to understand fully?
What actions do they need to take and what are the deadlines?
Step 2: Define Communication Channels and Frequency
Next, determine the most appropriate communication channels for each stakeholder group. Common channels include emails, newsletters, social media posts, videos, meetings, platforms used by the stakeholders, and collaboration tools. Consider the preferences and accessibility of each stakeholder when selecting the channels. At some companies, employees find Teams channels and SharePoint informational sites particularly helpful. Others rely heavily on meetings and emails. Remember to include knowledge articles and user guides, FAQ, and posts to your internal intranet platform.
Additionally, establish the frequency of communication for each group, ensuring that it is sufficient to keep everyone informed without overwhelming them. Typically, awareness should begin a few weeks before a change is due to happen, then a reminder a few days before is sufficient. Some groups like a Service Desk will need up to 3 weeks advance notice to prepare for increased call volumes and updated knowledge articles and procedures. Also make sure to include any meeting or training invitations and when those need to be sent.
Step 3: Create the Plan
There are lots of different templates available to create a communication plan. I like to use something integrated with my Project Management platform or I might use a spreadsheet to lay it all out, then transfer to-do items to a Kanban board.
Start at the beginning with internal communications. List all of the regular communications that will need to go to those stakeholders and when. Then move on to UAT or test communications. Then finish up with go-live communications. Think chronologically about how your communications will build Awareness and Desire and when different stakeholders need to receive which information. Make sure you include multiple channels like newsletters, social media and intranet pages; don't just rely on email.
If you are a part of an Agile team, this is something you will need to do as a part of your Program increment (PI) planning. Think through which changes you have planned and how they will affect which groups of stakeholders. Think about when different changes will go live to production and how far in advance you need to start creating awareness, when users will need training or a demo, and how you will deliver these to them. Make sure you have a sprint-level checklist that includes at a minimum:
FAQ
Demo (live or video recording)
Training (if needed)
If you need help, contact me and I'm happy to share my knowledge or examples from other projects. You can also contact other teams in your company to see if they have examples of plans or templates, they have used in the past. I'm sure your communications team is also happy to help; they can make suggestions for which vehicles might be most appropriate and the timing of them. Taking them through your plan will help a lot when it comes time to execute your plan.
Lastly, think through what audiences you are targeting and gather distribution lists. When gathering distribution lists think back to your impact assessment and stakeholder analysis about who needs to know what and prepare these ahead of time. Sometimes including leaders high up in the organization is not advisable while other times they might need to know something but take no action. You may need to send messages to each group separately.
Craft Clear and Concise Messages
To ensure clarity, it is important to start by defining the purpose and objective of the communication. Letting people know why they are receiving the message is important along with being clear on whether there is action to take. Use the communications guidelines outlined for your organization. Make sure to choose a correct template so people don't mistake your message for phishing. Also make sure you understand the process for drafting and get the appropriate approval for your communications.
Focus on the stakeholder group who will be the audience for the communication and the key message that needs to be conveyed. Organize the information in a logical and structured manner, using headings, subheadings, and bullet points to make it easier to read and understand. Try to keep things simple; don't over-complicate the message with long paragraphs or multiple attachments when a link to SharePoint will due. Make sure you follow the content and tone norms for your organization. Some companies use a more casual tone. Others use a more professional tone of voice. Reach higher than just telling people a message: strive to delight, educate, and engage your audience. Avoid using jargon, acronyms or technical language that might confuse the reader. It is also important to consider the audience and tailor the communication to their level of understanding and familiarity with the topic. Finally, proofread and edit the draft to eliminate any errors or ambiguities, ensuring that the message is clear, concise, and easily comprehensible to the intended recipients. If possible, get a member of your target audience to read it first and give feedback.
We have a plan; how do we use it?
Use your plan like a checklist. Review it in weekly stand-ups or check it regularly to ensure you know what communications are coming up next. Add reminders to your calendar making sure to leave the requisite amount of lead time for requests to IT communications or corporate communications for execution. Update your plan to reflect the status of different communications so it is always current.
Your plan is also helpful to present to execution teams and project leadership to let them know what your strategy is and to get feedback on it prior to execution.
When possible, gather analytics on receipt, open, and action rates to understand how effective your communications have been. Gather feedback from groups who have already received some communications and ask about the effectiveness of your communications and make changes leading up to the next round or go-live communications. Update your drafts with changes and update your project team/sponsor on improvements.
Execution
Different audiences and channels may have different timing or different execution processes so it's always good to review your organization's communication guidelines prior to sending any communications. It is especially important to use the recommended templates, follow the step-by-step instructions and make sure you follow guidelines.
After you have your plan, your drafts, and your distribution lists, you may need to request help with execution from your communications department. Make sure you give at least 3 business days (more if possible) lead time so our communication team can get it processed, assigned, and sent on time. Then check it off your list and update your communication plan.
Feedback is the last step. Take time to gather feedback from your audience to make sure they understood and to make improvements for any future communications. If you've missed a stakeholder group, make sure you circle back and bring them up to speed as soon as possible.