So, how do I create an internal communications plan?

Following on from last week’s update - I wanted to share just a few insights into how to create an internal communications plan, when writing – I didn’t realise just how much there is to say on this, so I may split this blog over two weeks to make it a little easier to digest. Stick with it, it’ll be worth it!

This is about ALL activities…

To be clear, in this article I’m talking about an overall internal communications plan - not a strategy or a plan for one specific project… (again, that’ll be one for another blog!)

I often talk about the importance of an overall communications plan, for me it’s one of the most important documents that any team can own. Your plan should include all activities that are happening in your organisation so you can help build a clear view of what’s happening and when.

But why is a plan so important?

If you have visibility of every activity that will be happening in, you organisation you can then start to assess…

Where are the pinch points?

·??????? Rather unsurprisingly - when organisations start to do this exercise, they can see just how much activity is happening at any one time - which means that there may have to be a rethink on exactly what needs to happen, and when!

You can identify who your key communicators are…

·??????? When you start to identify key activities, you may see a pattern emerging of “key communicators” are. I can guarantee that there will be some teams who are all over their activity - this is great as you can make sure that these teams get the support they need. At the same time, it’s important to find those teams who perhaps aren’t as engaged with this too - don't underestimate this, it may be worth spending some time with these teams to help them understand how you can help.

But I’m starting to move off the key point here… which is all about the how…

One size doesn’t fit all:

There is no ‘hard and fast’ rule for how your internal communications plan should look, and ultimately, it’s got to be useful to you and your organisation. I know many people who use fancy online portals and programmes, but for me an excel spreadsheet can do the same thing as a start! As a minimum I’d recommend the following key ‘parts’ to your plan.

Set up:

Dates:

I know it sounds simple, but listing a date timeline from left to right across the top of your plan will help…

Break your activity up:

Rather than a big, long list of activity in a spreadsheet, it may be worth breaking the activities up into departments or themes (down the left-hand side of your sheet) … This will come in handy when your plan starts to get busy, and (for me) is good practice to keep things simple and easy to view.

Don’t forget your communication tools:

At the bottom of your plan, I’d include a list of all your communication tools so you can then decide the best way to communicate each activity out to the organisation.

A little helping hand…

Sometimes it’s easier to have a base to start with, so if you want a template for a communication plan, let me know – and I can send you one through not a problem!

Let’s get started:

While you want to get going as soon as possible, I’d suggest that you find out if there is an activity plan already in place in the organisation (this could save you loads of time). I’m always surprised by how many organisations don’t have a plan, but if there is a team that has all organisational activity already – steal with pride - this is going to help you no end!

But… sadly not all organisations are lucky enough to have an activity plan, so you’re going to need to start the work!

While this can be fun to do, it’s also hard work and may take some time to “squeeze” all key activity out of the teams in your organisation. My one bit of advice is to keep going at it, and don’t give up – it’ll be worth it!

On this, there may be another team who may be able to help you with this work, try not to work alone as this is definitely a case of more heads are better than one.

This activity is a great way to meet and greet colleagues and build relationships across your organisation. While you’re listening to their plans, take time to let them know what you’re doing and why – help them understand how they can help you communicate more effectively (and take any feedback they may have on board).

For this part, I’d suggest that you make lots of notes here – while you don’t want to include all the detail in your plan (you’ll just want a summary), you’ll need to keep it somewhere so you can refer back to in in time.

Get populating! - drop the activity into your plan:

As soon as you start to receive planned activity from teams, start to populate your plan. Resist the temptation to write too much detail into the plan – I’d suggest a top line note of what the key activity is along with the owner (remember you have a record of the notes that you’ve made for the detail). Make sure that you put the activity in the corresponding week – so you can see when the activity will be happening…

Repeat, until complete…

I say that, but this plan is NEVER going to be complete as you’ll be adding to it each and every week with new upcoming activity – this is a live document that you can use to help you and the organisation to share key information.

There’s more…

As I write this blog, I realise that there’s a lot of things that help build up a communications plan… and I’ve got more to say about it too (as I’m sure others will too) – with this in mind I’m going to continue delving into the Communications plan next week, focusing specifically on how to use the plan in communications… so, watch this space for more information!

Communication plans can seem daunting, but they needn’t be – if you would like any help and advice on this (or any other internal communications question) get in touch – I’d love to help.