Communicating effectively when it matters
By David Bishop , Nick Clelland , Ahmed Iqbal and Calum Bardsley
Imagine you’re a government leader.
Your government has a clear strategy. You have a plan to deliver economic and social change to benefit your citizens. You have designed policies that are clear, robust, and ready to implement.
Without communications, the best-designed policy can fail.
You’re ready to go. But you have a problem. Your communications unit is not capable.
And without communications, the best-designed policy can fail. Your citizens and stakeholders may not understand a policy or new regulations. If they cannot work out how to engage, then uptake may be limited. And they are unlikely to become supporters or advocates.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone in facing this challenge.
Successful organisations know that design and empowered teams are integral to performance. But it’s rare for a government to apply this approach to communications operations. This is a serious flaw.
Governments need a new approach that recognises the critical role of government communication as a bridge between strategy and policy execution.
Successful organisations know that design and empowered teams are integral to performance.
But developing teams and a full organisational design process takes time. And sometimes you need to transform your impact quickly.
So, we asked our capacity building experts to suggest twelve ideas. These can be implemented within 100 days.
How to transform your communications team in 100 days
1. Simplify your strategy
Condense it down to simple answers to three questions: who are you communicating with? Why? What do you want them to do?or feel??Every person in the team, at all levels, should be able to communicate this when asked.
2. Revisit your core narrative
Tell your story in three paragraphs: where you are, what you’re doing about it, how will it look when you’ve finished. These are your key messages – and they need to be at the core of everything you say and do.?
3. Assess and train
Raise performance quickly, through intensive courses or bootcamps. You can use a series of tools and organisational methods to identify urgent gaps or needs.
4. Focus your leadership team
Build trust. Improve communication. And institute immediate management and delegation improvements. These simple changes can have an exponential impact on wider team performance.?It’s also about embracing innovation at all levels, starting from the top.
5. Focus on social media
This is the quickest direct route to your audiences, and these are channels where you can control your message. Use it. But to leverage it effectively, you will need to have skills, expertise, and the ability to create the right content.
6. Coach your spokespeople
One of the quickest interventions you can make is to train your spokespeople. Helping them to deliver your key messages effectively through the media, connecting with your target audience, is simple and has a high-ROI.?
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7. Build your press office
Media relations are critical, but high risk. If something goes wrong, it goes wrong very publicly. Robust, simple, and clear processes?can help you to manage risk and plan media engagements effectively.
8. Clarify roles & responsibilities
Ask the simple question of who does what in your team. This helps you to identify gaps and overlaps, working towards make the team more efficient and impactful.
9. Leverage AI
New tools are being created almost every day, that can enhance your productivity and impact without needing to grow your team. But to make the most of this you need to understand the platforms available. And make sure your current team have the skills to make the most of this exciting new field.?Encouraging innovation here will put you ahead of the curve.
10. Institute a risk management system
Develop a system where you identify every possible communication and reputational risk. Decide on whether responses should reactive or proactive. Prepare strong responses based on an agreed line to take, and appoint spokespeople. A proper risk management system, with top-level support, not only helps respond to risks. It also helps prevent a crisis from happening.
11. Poll or measure
Institute the quickest, most affordable, and most statistically reliable polling you can afford. You can’t communicate without knowing what your market feels and thinks. And only then can you see how they respond to your efforts.
12. Be flexible
The world is changing. The last few years have seen significant geopolitical and economic change. And 2024 will be no different. 8 of the 10 most populous nations, are all holding general elections. The best teams are those that can embrace change and learn from challenge.?
Consulum has a unique approach to building high performance comms units. We apply organisational design principles, global best practice, and real-world experience.
Communications is mission critical to your success in government. We can help you to begin your transformation in just 100 days.
Government is a special environment. Our proprietary three-step ACE (Assess, Create, Embed) methodology is unique. And tailored to your strategy, context, and needs. This means that when we work with you to reenergise your communications function, our solutions are specific to you. It's not a management-consultancy template.
Communications is mission critical to your success in government. We can help you to begin your transformation in just 100 days.
About the authors
David leads Consulum’s capacity-building practice. Passionate about helping governments communicate effectively to drive strategic success, he has almost two decades of experience leading strategic communications teams, as well as strategy and organisational design projects for a range of government organisations including Expo 2020 Dubai, VisitBritain, and ministries in Saudi Arabia.
Nick Clelland
Nick is Principal of Government Guild, who has worked around the world as a political strategist and senior government advisor, including as Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Auckland and Special Advisor to the Premier of the Western Cape in South Africa. He is also the author of ‘Spin – The Art of Managing the Media’ (Penguin 2018).
Ahmed is a government-relations and organisational-design specialist. He has experience across a range of UK government departments, including having led European bilateral relations at the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy. He was also Head of Business Engagement Strategy at the Department for International Trade, where he played a leading role in the development and delivery of the UK’s Trade Advisory Groups.
Calum is a capacity-building and organisational-design expert who has worked extensively with major private-sector organisations in the UK and Middle East. Prior to joining Consulum, he supported the delivery of the post-merger integration of Virgin Media O2, one of the largest mergers in Europe's telecommunications industry. He previously helped deliver business-transformation programmes for Sky and PwC, assessing operating landscapes to ensure strategic objectives were achieved.
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