Communications. Three words I used to fear. But after attending VMAGROUP's seminar, Moving on up: How to be more strategic in internal communications, led by Nicholas Wardle, Head of Employee Engagement and Communications at One Housing, I’m pleased to say that fear has now vanished. In fact, I’m left wondering why I was so fearful in the first place? I had let it become this Big Thing I needed to conquer.
“Be more strategic, Matt!” I’d say to myself. I’ve even listed it as one of my CPD goals this year.
What was the event?
Moving on up was a 90-minute short, sharp and focused session taking us through the steps of a strategic comms plan. There was no lecture, just some scene setting and a case study that each group had to work through. Immediately, theory became practice.
The discussion we had in my group was valuable. We worked through the case study and were tasked with developing a strategic internal comms plan. Each group could ask Nicholas two questions to help shape our strategy.
Other questions related to business aim, timescales, budgets, measurements, context and future plans.
One stand out question for me – when you’re talking to a senior manager – is this: what advice or guidance would you give me to make this a success? Straight away you’re demonstrating that you value their opinion. A simple yet effective question.
So, what did I learn that took the sting out of strategy?
1. Strategy first, tactics later
Launching straight into tactics is the exciting part. Yet, what good are tactics if you can’t demonstrate how they link to business strategy? If you have no measurements then how do you know whether you’ve succeeded?
Start with your aims and objectives, know the timescale and who’s involved. Understand the scope, who will benefit and what are the challenges. Most o
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