How can you set effective deadlines for Internal Communications?

Pull out your communication plan. Print it off or turn on track changes. It's about to get messy. Take a look at your outputs and deadlines. Are they SMART goals? Are they realistic? Who or what is driving the deadline? Take a look at your desired outcomes. How will you measure them? WHAT are you measuring? Is it a behavior change, emotion change, or other element? What does success look like and how will you know when you reach it? You have your objectives. Now work backward to see how you can make them happen.

Take a look at your resources. You need to take a look at time + budget but also the human side. Who are your stakeholders? Who are your decision makers? Who do you need to review your documents and approve your documents. Take your list of deadlines and deliverables and put them on the calendar. Now take a look of who is involved at each step and calendar when they are out of office. Mark that in your communications plan. By assessing early, you can avoid bottlenecks, holdups, and people having to work on vacation. It's a small step but it will help everyone in the long run.

Understanding that some tasks are more involved and require additional support is key. Give yourself enough time to write content, send it for review, and make any necessary edits.

To set effective deadlines for Internal Communications, I follow a process that involves assessing the urgency of the message, breaking down tasks into manageable steps, and allowing room for feedback and revisions. By incorporating these elements, I ensure that deadlines are both realistic and conducive to maintaining high-quality communication outputs.

We always had to cover major events like board meetings, customer meets, stakeholder visits, etc. The approach that helped us was to tie them to recurring events in our editorial calander.

You've made a plan, now it's time to work the plan! As the communicator, your role is often that of a project manager. Send weekly updates to everyone involved. Share what has been done, what is in progress, and where roadblocks need to be removed. Point back to your comms plan and share where you are in the comms plan.

Once the project is over, it's time to celebrate! Honor the people who worked on the project and let them know how grateful you are. If you have data on the impact of the communication, share it with them and let them know of their impact towards the goal. Hosting a reflective "Rose, Bud, Thorn" meeting can be a great way to learn and celebrate. It's a way to get feedback on what worked, what opportunities came up, and what didn't work. It's an often overlooked final step that can help everyone feel appreciated while improving for the next project.

Take your deadlines seriously. There are times when you can give grace to people who are running behind deadline, but as a communicator and project manager, you should meet every deadline you commit to. Take this seriously. This is your brand, reputation, and integrity on the line. Missing a deadline every once in awhile in human, but if that is what you are known for, it will be difficult to succeed in internal communications.

One important TIP to manage deadlines. Develop IC SOP (standard operating model) which includes: - Define SLA (service level agreement) for each task - Provide templates to receive requests - Build a process to approach IC team and track requests

Conduct a thorough reconnaissance of the mission – assess the objectives, the enemy (in this case, communication obstacles), and available resources. Assemble your A-team, each member well-versed in their specialized roles. Now, establish a timeline that resembles a meticulously choreographed military operation. Each communication phase should seamlessly segue into the next, leaving no room for information leaks or bottlenecks. Deadlines must be crystal clear and non-negotiable, like orders from a commanding officer in the heat of battle. Constant vigilance is key. Use metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your maneuvers, making real-time adjustments as necessary.

Quite often a deadline is set by the stakeholder, not you. In these instances you need to clarify what is possible and not possible in that timeframe. As much as possible there needs to be a discussion and mutual agreement on what can be realistically achieved. As the subject matter expert you should be able to make a cogent argument to explain why. You can outline the real challenges (e.g. timeline, resources) but emphasise the positives that can come from a revised approach (e.g. more joined-up strategic approach, building it into a phased cadence of comms, stickier message)